A couple nights ago I was watching a replay of the 1st game at Camden Yards in 1992 (Cleveland vs. Baltimore). I'm not someone who is nostalgic about the "good 'ol days" of baseball, or anything like that. But I did notice some major differences in the game from what is now 16 years ago.
I saw maybe 2-3 players wearing a single gold chain. Nowadays, you are likely to see some individuals wearing that many necklaces. Of course, there were no magnetic necklaces, or shell necklaces, or anything else. Oh, I also didn't see a single earring.
All pants legs were somewhere between the knee and about two inces above the ankle. The pants were also worn at the appropriate size. They certainly weren't tight, but nothing close to baggy either. I think I may have seen a few pairs of solid color socks, but most wore stirrups.
It was a very low scoring game (2-0 final I believe). The players didn't seem to be thinking homerun at all. In fact, I think I saw only a very few extra base hits. The O's were able to score by bunching together a couple of hits to score their first run, then squeezing home the second run.
I didn't see any players jogging out routine grounders. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I didn't see it happen. I did notice several guys really busting it through the bag on routine plays.
And one thing was glaringly obvious....almost no body armor. I saw a few players wearing the guards over their foot or shin, but no elbow protectors or anything similar. These days, some guys go to the plate looking like knights.
These are just a few of my quick observations, and they certainly shouldn't be taken as complaints about today's game. I just thought it was interesting to see how things have changed, and I wanted to bring up a few of the more obvious changes.
It sure was nice to see an overflow crowd at Camden Yards. It was weird hearing them discuss whether Kenny Lofton would be able to handle major league pitching, or whether Sandy Alomar Jr. could recover from his sophomore slump, or the fact that Charles Nagy was a rookie the previosu season. Of course, it was nice to see Cal Sr., Cal Jr., and Billy Ripken on the field together.
I also found it interesting to watch Rick Sutcliffe pitch. I wouldn't mind seeing the guys who love to talk pitching discuss that motion. There was nothing really weird about his motion until he broke his hands, at which point he really hooked his pitching wrist in a more extreme manner than I've ever seen (I think Zito does the same thing to a lesser extent).
Again, no complaints about today's game meant by this post....I just thought this might get some fun conversation going.
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