Maybe I’m just showing my age and past viewing of baseball....but there is a dramatic change to the whole game.
In the 1970s...you had a powerhouse team or two that would charge up to the final month of the season and put on a big show with a four-star and three-star pitching duo, a grand bullpen guy, some guy who hit 40 home-runs, two guys hitting near .320, a center-field who’d steal seventy bases, and some aging outfield who’d knock in 120 RBI’s. Year after year, you saw teams like this and both teams (National and American) were built the same way. Sometimes, you even got a team to show up with four pitchers who’d carry fifteen wins each, and a catcher who’d hit forty home-runs.
Today? The Oakland A’s marginal economic plan team is generally being used. You have teams of odd character. The Giants have one guy who knocked 89 RBI’s (team leader for that category). Two guys figure for stolen bases but between them....they got only 29 SB’s. After their 18-game winner, it drops dramatically down to 12 wins for Lincecum.
The Royals? They have one guy who hit 19 HR’s...beyond that it’s all marginal talk. RBI’s? A bunch of guys who hit between forty and seventy RBIs....nothing beyond that. They had a couple of guys who ran a good bit. And they have one five-star reliever.
Exciting or the kind of teams you’d compare against the 1973 Reds or the 1971 Pirates? No, neither the Giants or Royals match up against them. So, both of these teams have earned the right to be there....but frankly....they just don’t have anything much to say over their stat’s or players. Either team carrying a guy who might be worthy of HoF? No.
Very much agree.
The teams playing today would have placed 3rd-ish.
I also think as a nation we are too cool to play the game. Don’t know if it was true for you but for me I lived and breathed baseball for several years until my lack of talent forced me to admit there was no future in it for me...Still I loved the game.
I do not see the same enthusiasm in boys today...I don’t think the little/community leagues are drawing as they once did. I don’t think parents push it much.
In a generation, MLB may not even exist in its same form.
Baseball severely lacks Star Power.