Everything you mentioned is so true- smart phones have given human beings the attention span of a squirrel 🐿️. A day at the ballpark used to be a day at the ballpark. Not some activity to post on Facebook for likes. It’s a billion dollar business and like casinos, the faster you can extract the customer money, the more profitable it becomes. No sending cash down the aisle for a hot dog. Trusting total strangers and yet often making a new friend in the process. It’ll be interesting to see how much change will be tolerated by the fans that love baseball because it’s baseball.
Go to a game and take a scorebook. Work the book and within 2 innings you will have at least 2 or 3 other attendees ask you what you’re doing. It’s so strange. I would listen to Vin Scully on the radio at night and do the book at home!
I recommend watching some Japanese baseball - no pitch clocks, no three-batter rules, no zombie runners. There aren't even that many pitching changes because starters tend to throw deeper into the game.
I love everything you mentioned about the game, but I refuse to mourn it and instead try to mine the game as it is now played.
the one-out specialist is gone, but we get to see if our team can capitalize on the two less-than-ideal match ups that we're now guaranteed. similarly, the pitch clock introduces an element of "can your offense string together difficult ABs and really rattle this guy, or do you get jumpy and follow a 10 pitch war with a first swing line-out."
do you challenge an early, obvious missed call? how many times in the regular season does a team need to be caught without a challenge in the 8th before guys get shy about early challenges?
teams are learning that when the data-reliant monsters come to town you need a second set of tendencies to swap in. as long as the game is played there's a game within a game.
I actually like the pitch clock, it adds another element to pitching besides "can I just rear back and throw as hard as I can." The game will always evolve. For better or worse baseball and all sports are always changing as new rules, new strategies, and new technology changes things. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. I don't love the ghost runner, don't know anyone who does.
Speaking of baseball changing for the worse, I went to the Tigers/Rangers game at Globe Life Field on Saturday. It sucks, it's the worst ballpark I've been to. There was no reason (other than the Texas summer) to replace the old Rangers ballpark. I'd rather see a game at the Oakland Coliseum any day of the week. Globe Life has no personality, I usually call it the ugly love child of Cowboys Stadium and a metal shed from Home Depot. At least every time I've gone the sight lines are awful. The Tigers broadcasters even commented there were parts of the field they couldn't see. You can't see the field from the concourse, there aren't enough TVs on said concourse, and the concessions are lackluster at best. Plus you're just stuck in suburbia and you have to drive since Arlington is/was the largest city in America without public transit. I thought about getting a ticket for Sunday's game to see Skubal pitch. Saturday night at Globe Life made me realize I'd be better off sitting home and listening to the game.
Enjoy your writing, even if I disagree. Guess I don't see the game in such dark terms. Part of it is age -- at 68, I think it's another generation's turn to improve it or ruin it. I Like the DH but not the ghost rule, and haven't cared about All-Star games in years. Would love the food to be decent, the parking safe and not expensive and cheap prices for bad seats. And the betting stuff is just revolting.
'It’s a thing beating the Yankees, even if the Yankees pitched in with some of the worst fielding since little league. Aaron Judge hits home runs at will. In fact, all but a few of the Yankees runs came off the long ball. Judge must see a floating water melon coming in from the pitcher. What’s not to hit. Intentional walks or Russian roulette. The Toronto Blue Jays on the other hand have become a team, fundamentally......the gang platooning positions like over prepared broadway understudies.' https://trkingston.substack.com/p/blowd-up-real-good
Everything you mentioned is so true- smart phones have given human beings the attention span of a squirrel 🐿️. A day at the ballpark used to be a day at the ballpark. Not some activity to post on Facebook for likes. It’s a billion dollar business and like casinos, the faster you can extract the customer money, the more profitable it becomes. No sending cash down the aisle for a hot dog. Trusting total strangers and yet often making a new friend in the process. It’ll be interesting to see how much change will be tolerated by the fans that love baseball because it’s baseball.
Go to a game and take a scorebook. Work the book and within 2 innings you will have at least 2 or 3 other attendees ask you what you’re doing. It’s so strange. I would listen to Vin Scully on the radio at night and do the book at home!
I love that you do that!
Please don’t bring back the shift. Imagine the stats hitters like David Ortiz would have if they played in the post-shift era.
I kinda like that there is no shift, but I was frustrated that teams wouldn’t lay down a bunt to beat the shift.
I recommend watching some Japanese baseball - no pitch clocks, no three-batter rules, no zombie runners. There aren't even that many pitching changes because starters tend to throw deeper into the game.
I love everything you mentioned about the game, but I refuse to mourn it and instead try to mine the game as it is now played.
the one-out specialist is gone, but we get to see if our team can capitalize on the two less-than-ideal match ups that we're now guaranteed. similarly, the pitch clock introduces an element of "can your offense string together difficult ABs and really rattle this guy, or do you get jumpy and follow a 10 pitch war with a first swing line-out."
do you challenge an early, obvious missed call? how many times in the regular season does a team need to be caught without a challenge in the 8th before guys get shy about early challenges?
teams are learning that when the data-reliant monsters come to town you need a second set of tendencies to swap in. as long as the game is played there's a game within a game.
I actually like the pitch clock, it adds another element to pitching besides "can I just rear back and throw as hard as I can." The game will always evolve. For better or worse baseball and all sports are always changing as new rules, new strategies, and new technology changes things. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. I don't love the ghost runner, don't know anyone who does.
Speaking of baseball changing for the worse, I went to the Tigers/Rangers game at Globe Life Field on Saturday. It sucks, it's the worst ballpark I've been to. There was no reason (other than the Texas summer) to replace the old Rangers ballpark. I'd rather see a game at the Oakland Coliseum any day of the week. Globe Life has no personality, I usually call it the ugly love child of Cowboys Stadium and a metal shed from Home Depot. At least every time I've gone the sight lines are awful. The Tigers broadcasters even commented there were parts of the field they couldn't see. You can't see the field from the concourse, there aren't enough TVs on said concourse, and the concessions are lackluster at best. Plus you're just stuck in suburbia and you have to drive since Arlington is/was the largest city in America without public transit. I thought about getting a ticket for Sunday's game to see Skubal pitch. Saturday night at Globe Life made me realize I'd be better off sitting home and listening to the game.
Enjoy your writing, even if I disagree. Guess I don't see the game in such dark terms. Part of it is age -- at 68, I think it's another generation's turn to improve it or ruin it. I Like the DH but not the ghost rule, and haven't cared about All-Star games in years. Would love the food to be decent, the parking safe and not expensive and cheap prices for bad seats. And the betting stuff is just revolting.
I remember rolling my eyes when they made the strike zone box a permanent fixture on tv. I’ll be the judge on whether that pitch was a strike or not.
Manfred is ruining baseball.
'It’s a thing beating the Yankees, even if the Yankees pitched in with some of the worst fielding since little league. Aaron Judge hits home runs at will. In fact, all but a few of the Yankees runs came off the long ball. Judge must see a floating water melon coming in from the pitcher. What’s not to hit. Intentional walks or Russian roulette. The Toronto Blue Jays on the other hand have become a team, fundamentally......the gang platooning positions like over prepared broadway understudies.' https://trkingston.substack.com/p/blowd-up-real-good