The end of AMERICAN baseball happened when they flooded the rosters with third worlders who are not deeply rooted in the culture and institution of American baseball. You can’t change the demographics and preserve what was. The operable word being ‘was!
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.
Sad. It was very cool that each league had its own history and traditions. I can remember radio sportscasters in the ‘70s and ‘80s talking about the American League as “the junior circuit.” You’d also hear fans say things like, “I’m a National League guy. I prefer that brand of baseball.” With it all homogenized, the league distinctions are utterly meaningless.
There’s no point in having Leagues anymore, just have regional conferences.
I recall stories of the great rivalry between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. Rivals in the same city, or region being in the same division, could create such big rivalries again.
Imagine if the New York Yankees and New York Mets were in the same division, playing each other many times each season.
Ditto Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles, L.A. Angels and L.A. Dodgers, S.F Giants and Oakland A’s, if the A’s stay in Oakland long term.
You are so right. The DH never should have been introduced. We’re the fans ever consulted? It’s like Joe Biden and the southern border. Just do it-right?
The hard-core fans don’t count. It’s all about expansion. They’ll be happy to go that route until people stop attending. The NFL still makes big money despite the wokeness so we’re all gonna accept it. Until we don’t.
The NFL competition committee meets every year. They have to. The game needs constant adjustments. Baseball if perfect but for some reason they can’t leave it alone. Could be capitalism. Sell you the rope to hang yourself.
It’s not baseball anymore. It’s beisbol. And for most Legacy Americans it’s dead.
Eh. It’s always been kind of silly that baseball is organized into “different” leagues with slightly different rules. Especially once interleague play became part of the regular season. Nobody else does that. Ending it is no big deal.
I think that is why the Japanese love baseball. They have the right mindset. It is also why they make good cars and cameras.
Baseball ended when they expanded the playoffs. The 162 season meant something because only a couple or a few made it in. Then came the Wildcard and now the new expansion.
Why a 162 Game season? There is no reason.
Pink games, BLM baners on foul poles, woke management and players, flag-kneeling, woman announcers, dumb rule changes.
Buh-bye and go die.
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.
Hi.
Make the DH play in the field at least two innings.
We will see pitchers hit again.
Or bunt...
5.56mm
The last baseball game I went to about half the people left when the football game came on.
Lost it’s luster a couple decades ago. I still like hearing it on radio in back ground on a summer day.
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.
Until the Dodgers come home, nothing will ever be right.
I hate this changing of rules but it’s been going on for a long, long time. Regarding the DH, here’s a compromise I could live with. Take the pitcher out of the batting line-up, no DH. An eight man line-up works just fine for both leagues then stop screwing with this beautiful game, PLEASE.