Very frustrating...

[Knox The Hatter]

All this overspecialization in Baseball- a natural outcome of the more or less idiotic financial realities of the sport- has become somewhat ridiculous. You have a pampered sissy who, no matter how well he's doing, is looking to be removed after five innings, you have some guy who pitches the sixth, part of the seventh, and then you get to middle relief, and there are two or three guys there, and finally, at the bottom of the ninth, you bring in a closer, and the sad reality is that 99.9% of you out there DON'T have the 1998 Mariano Rivera to look forward to, and it seems like more often than not, your team's fighting to not COMPLETELY give up the seven run lead it had at the TOP of the ninth. If you're a fan of the Boston Red Schmux, you have Maalox moments every night, don't you?

Back in the old days, you had a starter, and the starter went as far as he could, and then if he got in trouble, a reliever would come in and put out the fire, so to speak. The tripe they give you about pampering arms and pitch counts is bullshit. Carl Hubbell once pitched like a nineteen inning game, and won, and he continued to win, until the train made Cooperstown.

Makes it all very hard to watch, if you're a real fan.

 

[Ray<3tiklishft]

Funny you bring this up. I've been acquiring old publications of my Detroit sports teams, particularly, the Tigers. I see some of the old names and schedules (I was at this game, that game, etc.......) And you're right about the new style of baseball. Micket Lolich would pitch forever, winning or losing. Denny McClain, Earl Wilson, Joe Coleman, Les Cain, and later Jack Morris. The game took less time to play, too.

Take me back to the old ball game!!

 

[Knox The Hatter]

Today, you have pitching coaches, batting coaches, bullpen coaches, dugout coaches, clubhouse coaches, concession stand coaches, first and third base coaches, the teenage girl with the shapely bazooms who goes out and chases foul balls has a coach, the umpires have coaches, there are voice coaches for the announcers, the GEICO gekko and the cave men have coaches.

Pretty soon, The Phillie Phanatic's gonna get assigned a coach, too.

They need coaches for every frickin' thing, in every goddamn sport. And then, people wonder why they're paying eight bucks a beer.

Back when it really mattered, there were three coaches at the major league level: first, third, pitching. In the minors, perhaps one. You didn't need more than that.

Whatever coach the Yankees hired to keep Joe Torre looking like he did the day he wound up playing for the Mets, just might be worth the money.

 

[Bugman]

All this overspecialization in Baseball- a natural outcome of the more or less idiotic financial realities of the sport- has become somewhat ridiculous. You have a pampered sissy who, no matter how well he's doing, is looking to be removed after five innings, you have some guy who pitches the sixth, part of the seventh, and then you get to middle relief, and there are two or three guys there, and finally, at the bottom of the ninth, you bring in a closer, and the sad reality is that 99.9% of you out there DON'T have the 1998 Mariano Rivera to look forward to, and it seems like more often than not, your team's fighting to not COMPLETELY give up the seven run lead it had at the TOP of the ninth. If you're a fan of the Boston Red Schmux, you have Maalox moments every night, don't you?

Back in the old days, you had a starter, and the starter went as far as he could, and then if he got in trouble, a reliever would come in and put out the fire, so to speak. The tripe they give you about pampering arms and pitch counts is bullshit. Carl Hubbell once pitched like a nineteen inning game, and won, and he continued to win, until the train made Cooperstown.

Makes it all very hard to watch, if you're a real fan.

Just some of the reasons i lost intrest in baseball years ago.Denny McLains record will never be broken because of the way the game has changed..

 

[Mitchell]

I still watch baseball, but the truth is these players, especially the pitchers, are overpamped babies. They get taken out of games after 100 pitches. A Quality" start is six innings and three earned runs allowed, which translates to a 4.50 ERA over the course of a season, if every pitcher made a "Quality start" each time out.
The real problem is two things. The need to score many more runs than a team had to in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s to win, and no endurance required for the starters. As recently as the 70s, Tom Seaver used to throw nearly 300 innings, and twenty complete games a year, win or lose. Now, the top starter on a staff, can start 32 to 35 times, and rarely get over 200 innings. This six inning crap is ridiculous. If a pitcher is really getting beat up on a certain day, then yes, take him out, but, let the starter go longer, and forget the 100 pitch thing. Let them throw 120 to 150 pitches. Also, back in the olden days, teams had four man rotations, and every starter started on three days rest, for four quality starters. Nowadays, fifth starters can win ten games with ERA;s of five or six runs a game. In the 1970s, Braves great Phil Niekro used to pitch between 300 and 350 innings a year, every fourth day. Granted, he threw the knuckler, which wasnt hard on the arm, but still.
The game is now built on offense and home runs, and teams have few great pitching staffs. It used to be that a team that hit 260 and 150 homers, led the league. Now, a team has to hit 290, with 250 homers, to lead the league.
Good Post. I doubt baseball will change any time soon. It will likely continue to be poor pitching staffs, with whining pitchers, who pitch every fifth day, and not more than 200 innings a year.

Mitch

 

[jaba]

The antics in pro baseball have driven me away from the pro game, and I now follow local high school, college and little league ball, but my beloved Dodger Tommy Lasorda recently celebrated his 80th birthday, and he had the birthday party crowd in stitches reciting hilarious tales of his 15 inning, 200 plus pitch nights which were often followed by similar outings just one or two days later, depending oftimes on the sobriety of the next pitcher due to pitch for the following game....

 

[Knox The Hatter]

I think one of the biggest problems is that no one has a sense of humor anymore. Tommy Lasorda does; he's able to laugh at himself. Very few people in Baseball seem capable of that anymore.