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Commentary: Is this the end of the National League as we know it?
The Los Angeles Times ^ | April 2, 2022 | BILL SHAIKIN

Posted on 04/02/2022 9:14:08 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Joe Maddon selected an adjective usually applied to a gallon of milk. Then again, for all the romance that surrounds the sport, baseball is a consumer product too.

“Once you eradicate National League rules, then everything becomes homogenized,” the Angels manager said.

With the adoption of the designated hitter in both leagues this year, and with the expansion of interleague play next year, Major League Baseball is giving their consumers what the league believes they want.

The National League dates to 1876, the oldest surviving professional sports league in the world, according to MLB historian John Thorn. The American League dates to 1901.

The time could soon come to retire the leagues. They have outlived their usefulness.

For almost a century, the two leagues had a distinguished and at times bitter rivalry. Never did an NL team play an AL team, aside from the World Series.

Each league president determined his own discipline. Each president’s autograph was stamped upon the baseballs used in his league. The umpires in each league wore different equipment.

For generations, fans and players anxiously awaited the All-Star game, the result of which would be trumpeted as the determination of the superior league. Stars played all nine innings, for the glory of their league.

That’s all gone now. Interleague play turns 25 years old this season.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: americanleague; billshaikin; breadandcircuses; designatedhitter; interleagueplay; joemaddon; johnthorn; losangelestimes; majorleaguebaseball; mlb; nationalleague; needsarealproblem; worldseries
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To: MinorityRepublican

Pink games, BLM baners on foul poles, woke management and players, flag-kneeling, woman announcers, dumb rule changes.

Buh-bye and go die.


21 posted on 04/02/2022 9:35:06 AM PDT by AAABEST ( NY/DC/LA media/political/military industrial complex DELENDA EST)
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To: MinorityRepublican

I’ve noted that too, in attending games, that many fans, especially younger, don’t seem to know what’s going on.

Among my nice memories of attending games when I was younger, was talking baseball with fellow fans at the game. Nowadays, the people sitting next to you often can’t talk about the game because they don’t know baseball.

Nowadays, these people at the game are taking selfies and sometimes not even watching the game. I think some of these people look at going to the game as some social event, and aren’t really baseball fans.


22 posted on 04/02/2022 9:38:41 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: AAABEST
Pink games, BLM baners on foul poles, woke management and players, flag-kneeling, woman announcers, dumb rule changes.

Good way of summing it up. Destroyed the magic of the National Pastime.

23 posted on 04/02/2022 9:39:02 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: Dilbert San Diego
I think some of these people look at going to the game as some social event, and aren’t really baseball fans.

That's why stadiums are upgrading to provide more amenities to pander to them. And that is more profitable.

A die hard fan is not going to spend as much money. Maybe he'll buy cracker jack for the whole game.

24 posted on 04/02/2022 9:40:47 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: FlipWilson

“Why a 162 Game season? There is no reason.”

My thoughts, too. The season is WAY too long — 7 months — April-October. Why can’t they just play each team twice and call it a season? Also — the games are too slow and too long! JMHO


25 posted on 04/02/2022 9:44:27 AM PDT by Polyxene (Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

I have written elsewhere that MLB is trying to NFL itself and part of this is uniformity, not just in rules but in style of play. When the new schedules begin next year, all teams will play each other every year, meaning 29 other opponents will be on the schedule. So while intradivision games make up the largest chunk of games, they are not more than 50% of the overall schedule.

In the NFL, a team plays others in their own division six times but that means 11 other games are outside the division. Adding on more wild card teams will practically trivialize winning the division entirely.

What I hate is how the DH rule dumbs down the game. No need to learn about moving over a runner or “manufacturing” a run. Now, everyone swings for the fences. It’s become like “Home Run Derby” where everything that’s not a home run is an out. I’ve dubbed it “Whack-a-Mole Baseball”. No nuance. No strategy.


26 posted on 04/02/2022 9:44:32 AM PDT by OrangeHoof ("Rust" may be the first movie where the blooper reel gets more viewings than the actual film.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Hi.

Make the DH play in the field at least two innings.

We will see pitchers hit again.

Or bunt...

5.56mm


27 posted on 04/02/2022 9:52:44 AM PDT by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho need to go.)
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To: qam1

Leagues will stick around because of playoffs. Likely another team will be added in each league, with each league having four 4-team divisions. And likely a reduced number of regular season games.

Regional conferences could work too, along the lines of the 2020 season. Less travel and greater regional rivalries.


28 posted on 04/02/2022 10:04:08 AM PDT by jjotto ( Blessed are You LORD, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.)
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To: AAABEST

Soon they’ll ban the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” because that implies driving.


29 posted on 04/02/2022 10:04:31 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: MinorityRepublican; Gamecock; SaveFerris; PROCON; mylife; Rebelbase; Army Air Corps; KC_Lion
For almost a century, the two leagues had a distinguished and at times bitter rivalry. Never did an NL team play an AL team, aside from the World Series.


30 posted on 04/02/2022 10:10:04 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: qam1
There’s no point in having Leagues anymore, just have regional conferences.

It's just terminology - a difference without a distinction. Call them whatever.

31 posted on 04/02/2022 10:14:16 AM PDT by CommerceComet ("You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case, the government forgets the first." Rush Limbaugh )
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To: MinorityRepublican

The last baseball game I went to about half the people left when the football game came on.


32 posted on 04/02/2022 10:16:06 AM PDT by CodeToad (Arm up! They Have!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Lost it’s luster a couple decades ago. I still like hearing it on radio in back ground on a summer day.


33 posted on 04/02/2022 10:19:56 AM PDT by Karliner (Heb 4:12 Rom 8:28 Rev 3, "...This is the end of the beginning." Churchill)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
It ended for me when professional sports decided that they were no longer an escape from the cares of everyday life, but a platform for shoving a political agenda down the throats of their fans.

Wokeism is destroying everything it touches, including all levels of sports. Stop rubbing our faces in the stupid woke politics of the day.

Baseball also went on the wrong path when it decided to try and appeal to the hyperactive youth of today. One of the main attractions of baseball is the relaxing, leisurely pace which is perfect for summer. It will never be sped up enough to satisfy the adrenaline-charged youths of today but it can be modified enough to alienate the existing fanbase. There is nothing wrong with traditions and not constantly changing things.

34 posted on 04/02/2022 10:24:46 AM PDT by CommerceComet ("You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case, the government forgets the first." Rush Limbaugh )
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To: MinorityRepublican

Baseball may not be dead yet but it’s on life support. The designated hitter took strategy out of the game by eliminating managerial decisions (pinch hitting for the pitcher if a team is losing, sacrificing to move a runner up, etc). Don’t get me started on “pitch counts”. Why and when has this become a managerial metric/decision point? Use of this piece of information causes even fewer managerial decisions. (It really got ridiculous when pitchers began to be pulled from a game in the middle of a no-hitter.) When the pitcher hits the “magic number”, out he comes. There is no feel or instinct for the game anymore. The great managers of the past (e.g, McCarthy, Stengel, Weaver, Herzog, et al) were great BECAUSE they had that feel. There is nobody today, NOBODY, who compares with managers like these.
Further to the above point, is there anyone who can consistently put the bat on the ball? Most of them swing for the fences or strike out. IT’S BORING!!! Somebody who hits 25 home runs but strikes out twice in every five plate appearances is considered an “all-star”. In past decades, he would be in AAA in all likelihood.
No DH, closer (a BS moniker if there ever was one), or pitcher who doesn’t pitch many complete games should be considered for the Hall of Fame. Each is an EXTREMELY PART-TIME PLAYER.
As for ticket and food prices... At Citi Field, a $5 foot long sub costs $14.
The amount of innings someone plays is inversely proportional to the money he’s paid.
I could go on but what’s the point.


35 posted on 04/02/2022 10:27:58 AM PDT by Smber (The smallest minority is the individual. Get the government off my back.)
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To: Tell It Right
Soon they’ll ban the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” because that implies driving.

Maybe it could be changed to "Load Us Up for the Ballgame" and the video screen could show pictures of the sheeple getting on various forms of public transit, of course, with giant smiles like the public transit experience is one of life's great joys. Would seem to be another way to inject a modern day idol into baseball.

36 posted on 04/02/2022 10:36:30 AM PDT by CommerceComet ("You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case, the government forgets the first." Rush Limbaugh )
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To: MinorityRepublican

Until the Dodgers come home, nothing will ever be right.


37 posted on 04/02/2022 10:39:36 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Who saves the nation breaks no law)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
I recall stories of the great rivalry between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers.

I am the product of a mixed marriage - Dad Giants, Mom Dodgers.

The first time I walked up the ramp holding my Dad's hand and saw how green the grass was, it was 1956. The Giants played the Cubs who were wearing their road gray flannels. Whitey Lockman hit two home runs.

There was no serious "investigative" media in those days, the move to California was not widely known. I will never forget the day my Dad told me that there would be no next year for the Giants.

He took me a couple of times on the train to Philadelphia to see the "San Francisco" Giants play the Phillies at night, but the walk from the train to Connie Mack Stadium at night was scary even back then, and the last time we did it the game was rain delayed and finally called at 10:30, we got home soaked to the skin at 3:00 AM and Mom put a stop to that method of following our team.

When you hear someone refer to the "New York FOOTBALL Giants", remember a time when the distinction was necessary.

38 posted on 04/02/2022 10:50:10 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Who saves the nation breaks no law)
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To: TTFlyer

Well the biggest star now in baseball is Japanese, in Shohei Ohtani.


39 posted on 04/02/2022 10:54:43 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: discostu

The biggest casualty is the All-Star Game.


40 posted on 04/02/2022 10:55:38 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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