An Open Letter to Baseball; a general rant

[cincibuck]

Sitting on the floor next to Grandad, listening to Waite Hoyt call the game from Crosley Field -- I grew up loving baseball. I can tell you about Eddie Roush, Johnny Van Der Meer's double no-hitter, Schnooze Lombardi, and rattle off the names of the Red's teams of several decades, McMillan, Temple, Kluzewski, Post, Bell -- Burgess and Seminac behind the plate-- or Robinson, Johnson, Cardenas, Blasingame, Freeze and Edwards -- or Bench, Morgan, Rose, Perez, Concepcion -- I could walk around my Dayton neighborhood on summer nights and hear the game coming from radios in what seemed like every home -- At Greenmont Elementary we would bribe the teacher, "We promise to get our math/English/geography work done if you'll let us listen to the World Series."

I loved the game, but you lost me. A true fan and you lost me.

I'm not sure exactly how it began, maybe the shift to Riverfront, Astro turf, doing away with double headers, -- certainly the day I heard the news that the Reds could not trade for Vida Blue. All those years of the Yankees trading with the KC Athletics to get needed late season help neatly ignored. No, for the good of baseball Charlie Finley could not trade Blue to the Reds. Or taking a home run away from George Brett over pine tar -- pine tar! Not a corked bat, or a spitball, or razor cuts on the ball. No, pine tar too far up the bat, pine tar that had been there all year, uncalled until a ball went deep against the Yankees.

Maybe it was the strike torn year you cleverly eliminated the Reds, the team with the best record in baseball, from the playoffs because they didn't win the first or second half of the NL season.

Maybe it was the strikes themselves, or the way the haves refuse to share with the have nots.

And the move to night. So we have playoff games and Series games that don't start until 9 on a weekday night. I have a job, remember? That's how I get the money to buy tickets.

And now the season is stretched damn near into November -- It's the summer game -- come on, you sold us on that for years -- the warm weather, shorts and T-shirts game. Hell, you're scared to go up against football with what should be your best teams in your most important games. You've created situations that can allow a league's fourth best team to eliminate its best in a short, five game series. You refuse to cancel games for pouring rain or freezing cold because TV says you have to play now.

Matters certainly weren't helped when gimmicks were created, half the teams playing with the DH, half without. Inter-league play. Home advantage determined by a mid-season exhibition game (!!), pitching staffs with more situation players than football teams.

Then there's inconsistent strike zones, phantom plays at second, a refusal to use replay when football and basketball (!) see its potential. Corked bats, juiced balls, juiced players. Who's going to set the Steve Howe record for second chances? You can shoot yourself up on steroids or cocaine and still be eligible for the Hall of Fame, but bet on a game after your playing days are through and they put you on the forbidden list.

The Reds haven't helped. They held the public up for a new stadium. They rushed the job so that the new ball park is the only one in all of MLB where home plate faces into the sun.

And so I've just slipped away. I couldn't name more than four Reds' players from the last ten years. I haven't seen a full World Series game sine 1991. I haven't watched so much as an inning of any major league baseball game since 1997.

I'm not alone. Your TV ratings suck and you're losing ground to football and soccer. When are you, the game I grew up with, going to wake up?

[BB73]

Good commentary on baseball. My feelings are similar on most counts.

For accuracy's sake, however, if you want a Yankee playoff game screw-job, you can substitute in Jeffrey Maier's catch that created a Yankee HR on a ball that would have been caught; since George Brett's pine tar game was in July.

[LitlBuck]

Originally Posted by cincibuck

Sitting on the floor next to Grandad, listening
I'm not alone. Your TV ratings suck and you're losing ground to football and soccer. When are you, the game I grew up with, going to wake up?

Your post is so on target there is no need for me to try and amplify on it except for the fact that I would replace the Reds with the Indians.

[Bucklion]

Love the post...I'll add something maybe...I'll give 4 names...George Brett, Robin Yount, Kirby Puckett, Tony Gwynn. All 4 were stalwarts in the lineup for small market teams. All 4 played in the World Series. And the probability of any of those guys doing either one of those things...playing their entire career in a small market and playing in a WS there...is zero if their careers started today. If you start a career with the Pirates or Brewers, it's so you might end up playing in the WS in NY or LA or Boston someday. Sad, but true.

[BB73]

Originally Posted by Bucklion

Love the post...I'll add something maybe...I'll give 4 names...George Brett, Robin Yount, Kirby Puckett, Tony Gwynn. All 4 were stalwarts in the lineup for small market teams. All 4 played in the World Series. And the probability of any of those guys doing either one of those things...playing their entire career in a small market and playing in a WS there...is zero if their careers started today. If you start a career with the Pirates or Brewers, it's so you might end up playing in the WS in NY or LA or Boston someday. Sad, but true.

Why the majority of the owners don't enact a salary cap is just baffling to me.

And having 6 teams in one division and four in another is just frickin' insane. As I've posted before, the odds of making the playoffs from a 6-team division in a 16-team league are 24.36% (1/6 + 1/13), while the odds of making the playoffs from a 4-team 14-team league are 34.09% (1/4 +1/11).

[FCollinsBuckeye]

Originally Posted by Bucklion

And the probability of any of those guys doing either one of those things...playing their entire career in a small market and playing in a WS there...is zero if their careers started today.

Au Contraire...

I'm pleased to report that baseball fandom is alive and well in the mile high city. We're pretty excited about the Rockies lately and the future continues to look bright.

[jlb1705]

Originally Posted by Bucklion

Love the post...I'll add something maybe...I'll give 4 names...George Brett, Robin Yount, Kirby Puckett, Tony Gwynn. All 4 were stalwarts in the lineup for small market teams. All 4 played in the World Series. And the probability of any of those guys doing either one of those things...playing their entire career in a small market and playing in a WS there...is zero if their careers started today. If you start a career with the Pirates or Brewers, it's so you might end up playing in the WS in NY or LA or Boston someday. Sad, but true.

Barry Larkin.

[Bucky Katt]

Originally Posted by cincibuck

I haven't seen a full World Series game sine 1991.

Hope it was the 10-inning complete game gem from Jack Morris. That was a treat.

[Bucklion]

Originally Posted by FCollinsBuckeye

Au Contraire...

I'm pleased to report that baseball fandom is alive and well in the mile high city. We're pretty excited about the Rockies lately and the future continues to look bright.

Todd Helton? I don't know if he belongs in the group with those 4 (another argument for another thread), but point taken, at least to an extent. He started his career right after the strike, so I don't know if it's as likely that a player like Helton would stick around his entire career in Colorado if it started closer to today (Matt Holliday).

[brodybuck21]

Originally Posted by cincibuck

Sitting on the floor next to Grandad, listening to Waite Hoyt call the game from Crosley Field -- I grew up loving baseball. I can tell you about Eddie Roush, Johnny Van Der Meer's double no-hitter, Schnooze Lombardi, and rattle off the names of the Red's teams of several decades, McMillan, Temple, Kluzewski, Post, Bell -- Burgess and Seminac behind the plate-- or Robinson, Johnson, Cardenas, Blasingame, Freeze and Edwards -- or Bench, Morgan, Rose, Perez, Concepcion -- I could walk around my Dayton neighborhood on summer nights and hear the game coming from radios in what seemed like every home -- At Greenmont Elementary we would bribe the teacher, "We promise to get our math/English/geography work done if you'll let us listen to the World Series."

I loved the game, but you lost me. A true fan and you lost me.

I'm not sure exactly how it began, maybe the shift to Riverfront, Astro turf, doing away with double headers, -- certainly the day I heard the news that the Reds could not trade for Vida Blue. All those years of the Yankees trading with the KC Athletics to get needed late season help neatly ignored. No, for the good of baseball Charlie Finley could not trade Blue to the Reds. Or taking a home run away from George Brett over pine tar -- pine tar! Not a corked bat, or a spitball, or razor cuts on the ball. No, pine tar too far up the bat, pine tar that had been there all year, uncalled until a ball went deep against the Yankees.

Maybe it was the strike torn year you cleverly eliminated the Reds, the team with the best record in baseball, from the playoffs because they didn't win the first or second half of the NL season.

Maybe it was the strikes themselves, or the way the haves refuse to share with the have nots.

And the move to night. So we have playoff games and Series games that don't start until 9 on a weekday night. I have a job, remember? That's how I get the money to buy tickets.

And now the season is stretched damn near into November -- It's the summer game -- come on, you sold us on that for years -- the warm weather, shorts and T-shirts game. Hell, you're scared to go up against football with what should be your best teams in your most important games. You've created situations that can allow a league's fourth best team to eliminate its best in a short, five game series. You refuse to cancel games for pouring rain or freezing cold because TV says you have to play now.

Matters certainly weren't helped when gimmicks were created, half the teams playing with the DH, half without. Inter-league play. Home advantage determined by a mid-season exhibition game (!!), pitching staffs with more situation players than football teams.

Then there's inconsistent strike zones, phantom plays at second, a refusal to use replay when football and basketball (!) see its potential. Corked bats, juiced balls, juiced players. Who's going to set the Steve Howe record for second chances? You can shoot yourself up on steroids or cocaine and still be eligible for the Hall of Fame, but bet on a game after your playing days are through and they put you on the forbidden list.

The Reds haven't helped. They held the public up for a new stadium. They rushed the job so that the new ball park is the only one in all of MLB where home plate faces into the sun.

And so I've just slipped away. I couldn't name more than four Reds' players from the last ten years. I haven't seen a full World Series game sine 1991. I haven't watched so much as an inning of any major league baseball game since 1997.

I'm not alone. Your TV ratings suck and you're losing ground to football and soccer. When are you, the game I grew up with, going to wake up?

GPA

[buckeyesin07]

Two words: Salary Cap. Most teams are out of the playoffs year after year before the all-star break.

[Bucklion]

Originally Posted by buckeyesin07

Two words: Salary Cap. Most teams are out of the playoffs year after year before the all-star break.

Welcome to the NFL, circa 2010.

[buckeyesin07]

Originally Posted by Bucklion

Welcome to the NFL, circa 2010.

You think? That'll be a shame--one of the best things about the NFL is that little guys like Green Bay have as much of a shot at a Super Bowl as large market teams like the Giants.

[Bucklion]

Originally Posted by buckeyesin07

You think? That'll be a shame--one of the best things about the NFL is that little guys like Green Bay have as much of a shot at a Super Bowl as large market teams like the Giants.

Yep...owners like Jerry Jones are pushing for it hard, and there are no guys with guts and integrity like Wellington Mara and Dan Rooney around to stop them this time. If you watch any of the NFL pregame shows, they consistently hint at it.

[brodybuck21]

lord they are going to kill my interest in anything outside of fantasy sports before too long