Posted on 08/16/2018 8:46:22 AM PDT by DFG
One thing you learn from studying baseball history is that people have always predicted the sport’s demise. Over and over, the game weathers every perceived crisis and continues to thrive. More than 70 million fans will attend major league games this season; another 40 million or so will go to minor league games. Countless more watch the sport on television and online.
And yet attendance is down, and more and more balls are being kept out of play. Some longtime observers consider the shifting landscape — hitters swinging for the fences, pitchers throwing everything with maximum effort, fielders standing in unusual spots — and wonder what has happened to their game.
“Keith and I were talking, and I said, ‘You know, our window is probably three years until we can’t work anymore,’ because the game is going to be so different,” said Ron Darling, the former Mets pitcher and broadcast partner of Keith Hernandez, the former Mets first baseman. “I mean, what was fair is foul, and what’s foul is fair.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So, adult T-ball?
It must be The Balls again
Sounds like Shakespeare. Typically-literate quote from the Yale-grad Darling. Those two were always a great broadcast team.
The hitters will have to adjust ... as they always have. Another reason why baseball is exciting (even a low-scoring/low-hit game).
How about changing the rules where a team can only use two pitchers in a game.
BTW, Tech has made calling balls and strikes a completely automated and more precise process. Umps need to go. They are not needed for that. Throw a couple more cameras on the sidelines, and they aren’t needed for ANYTHING.
What a crock. I can still remember as a kid watching Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson fan double-digit #s of hitters in games. Ryan and Clemens did the same in their era. Batters need to stop swinging for the fences during every at-bat.
Nothing another round of steroids won’t fix.
If you get rid of umpires, who is the manager going to yell at?
Agreed...Pete Rose never swung for the fences...he tried to get a hit and got the most ever!
The Global Warming Effect on the Balls makes them avoid Bats
Learn how to bunt!!! If hitters would drop a bunt down practically anywhere on the left side of the infield they would be standing on first bast. Otherwise, keep trying to pull the ball, the defense will put 7 guys on the right side. Enough bunt base hits, the defense will "shift" back.
I swear, if I was in the MLB & they constantly put a shift on me, I would spend the whole off season working on my bunting.
They can yell at their computers just like the rest of us.
The solution to the “problems” listed in the article - replace all the players with women. That will slow the pitching and decrease the home run count. In addition, it will make the libs and feminists happy.
No rule changes. The game will eventually adjust.
Up until a few years ago, batters hit more defensively with two strikes. Not so today. Today's game is so boring compared to what we were raised on. My dad took me to Giants games at Candlestick several times a year during the 60s. During high school, my allegiance switched to the A's, because I lived in the East Bay.
A game pitched by Catfish Hunter routinely lasted under two hours.
You mean, learning to manufacture runs instead of chasing personal glory?
One of the readers correctly pointed out that strikeouts are becoming more common even as strikeout records (for pitchers) aren't being threatened anymore. You don't see as many dominant pitchers these days because hitters are being handled easily even by mediocre pitchers.
Single-game strikeout records aren't being threatened because starters rarely go more than five or six innings. Single-season strikeout records aren't being threatened because pitchers don't throw 300+ innings in a season like they used to.
Back in '62 IIRC, Alvin Dark had a unique solution to give his bullpen a rest. Before the game, he told his starting pitcher he's going 9 that day. It worked so well, he repeated it the next day. lol
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