Posted on 04/03/2015 7:25:56 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
It's much worse today than it was in the playoffs following 9/11 when I saw George & Barbara Bush enter the stadium ahead of us (and there were snipers positioned on the open roof).
ping
I think all that would work, but there would be a massive fall off in offense at least for a few seasons. And that’s in an aleady historically low scoring era.
How do you pick what players can be shifted against? Or do you mean a team would have only so many radical shifts per game?
Freegards
Yes!! I HATE HATE HATE “music” of any kind at a sports event. I remember it all starting in the 60s at Busch Stadium with a few innocent chords of “charge!” on an organ. It is completely unbearable now especially with the damn signs flashing Make Some NOISE! and the fake decimal meters. I have to put my fingers in my ears at the Shark Tank to keep my tinnitus from getting worse during the hockey games.
Close. 154.
MLB had the 7th best attendance ever in 2014, and local ratings are good enough that the TV rights are tremendously lucrative. 162 games is a lot of commercial revenue, and more valuable because live sports get counted as ‘dvr proof.’ The problem is national ratings, people don’t seem to care if their team isn’t playing. Probably a drawback of the long season. NFL slays in that department, but then you only have 16 games played once a week or so.
Freegards
“Maybe they should go back to 154 games for the regular season.”
I think so.
I don’t really remember Flood stealing much, (maybe a 100 or so lifetime?), but besides Brock and Wills, the 1960’s really big time stealers I remember are Aparicio and Bert Campaneris. Willie Davis for maybe a few years also. Probably a few others in there my old brain is forgetting.
If you look at games from the 60’s with Willie Mays and Clemente, Koufax and Gibson, the pitcher pitched, batter took or swung and missed and stayed in the batters box. The pitcher got the ball back and pitched.
They didn’t stall, walk around and waste time between pitches like they do now.
Dang, and it was so obvious. That’s what we needed all along — tigers.
And get rid of the god-foraken designated hitter. For the millions these pitchers get, they can learn how to hit.
Here is the most dramatic indication of how baseball has fallen from the national consciousness.
Can the average person name ten current MLB ballplayers from the top of their heads?
Let’s see.
- The average fastball these days is probably around 93mph. If they could increase that by 10% and throw just over 102mph, it would help a little.
- Batter only gets to step out of the box if he has something in his eye, has serious jock itch, or needs to put more illegal resin on the bat.
- Ground crew has a 45 second clock to do their grooming a couple times a game.
- Take me out to the ball game will only have one verse.
- Bullpen pitchers do not walk in from the bullpen; they are delivered in a Bugatti Veyron.
- Shorten the game to 8 innings.
- 2 strikes for a strikeout and 3 balls for a walk
There, that should screw up the game quite nicely.
I saw George back in ‘88 and after stomaching a 15-minute anti-Reagan rant at the beginning of the show, he was hilarious. Then again Jackie Mason did the same thing against Bill Clinton when I saw him ten years later.
“The real question is what this will mean to gay marriage.”
On August 5, 2014, the Chicago White Sox’ home game against the Texas Rangers was “LGBT Pride Night: Out at the Sox”. At least one fan started a boycott and a number of others unaware of the night’s theme were not happy at having to field questions from their children about the same-sex couples’ signs of affection.
Maybe they will have to RUN to/from the dugout like we did as kids...if you were caught “walking”...the coach assumed you were too tired to play and you got an uncomfortable bench for the rest of the game. There is an arrogance that has crept into the game...”I’m paid huge bucks, so I’ll have to show up today.” I actually read books during baseball. If you hear excitement, you look up and watch the replay about 5 times.
Until the Dodgers return to Brooklyn, no real transformation is possible.
I'm always fascinated by what some people see when watching an event. When I go to a baseball game, or watch it on TV, I see athletes competing. I see men focusing on a ball that is mostly unpredictable in its action and using their attention to track the ball. I see a group coalescing on the field as a team preventing another team from besting them in their skills to score runs and win a structured game.
I see batters trying to hit a moving round object with another round object in order to get the ball into play so they can score runs. I see, in the action of a double play, an almost balletic dance combining timing, speed, control, concentration and skill to stop the batting team from making any progress toward winning the game.
I see crowds of people watching the field hoping for their team to best the other team in their endeavors and cheering them on when they make diving catch or hit a home run.
To me, one of the greatest plays in baseball is an outfielder throwing out a runner at home plate. The amount of skill throwing a baseball as hard as you can accurately to home plate from 250 feet away trying to beat a runner so the catcher can tag him out is the one of the most tense, action filled five seconds in sports.
I see men working together at a sport that is second to none in the combination of hand-eye coordination, strength, endurance, concentration and fun.
All you see are guys "spitting and scratching all the time". How utterly sad for you.
Did they actually increase the time between innings or the number of warm up pitches that a sub pitcher gets to allow for more commercials? It doesn’t seem like it to me.
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