What Happened To Baseball?

Oh, to be young and idealistic again...

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Originally posted by Coach Waltrip:
Oh, to be young and idealistic again...

And with a very short history to remember.

I have seen video from the golden age in baseball and I was blown away from how great it was.

Personally, I'd just like to see players care more beyond their stats. I can't stand when I see players on terrible teams laughing it up with the opposing team on first base when they are getting their butts kicked. Make me feel like I'm getting ripped off.

But I know those days are long gone.

Stu

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"I can't stand when I see players on terrible teams laughing it up with the opposing team on first base when they are getting their butts kicked."

You mean like these guys?






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I think that there are many young players now, more and more teams are bringing up their guys at younger ages than ever before even the Redsox and Yankees. You got to remember that while some teams spend lots of $$ on veteran guys, many teams spend just as much on first picks in the draft.

However, for many teams, those old veteran guys do have something most youngsters don't, and that is experience and in ML ball that often times trumps youth with more talent. Certain teams cannot go through transitionary periods and let their youth grow up on the ML field, it costs them revenue in having unhappy fans.

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You mean like these guys?






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LOL!

I'm not sure where the original poster is coming from. The Red Sox have three expensive free agents, Laskey, Matsuzaka and Drew. Every other player came through the system, was obtained in a trade for prospects, was obtained off waivers or was a short term, low level free agent signing. The Red Sox minor league system is loaded with pitching along with a couple of key position players, Iglesis and Anderson. With a quality farm system a team always has options.

"""Prime examples of what teams should be like is the Rays""

A team should be pathetic for years to the point where they don't have a fan base and accumulate top draft choices? The Rays have only had one full quality season two years ago. After being pathetic forever they accumulated enough top draft choices to be adequate. Unfortunately for the 10,000 Rays fans there isn't an adequate fan base. The Rays will never have the revenue stream to keep all their players.

Don't blame money. Blame the Rays for chosing to be in Tampa or not having the ability to market the team well enough. I'm surprised one of the Florida teams hasn't looked into moving to Charlotte

I don't know about anyone else but trucking a first baseman is dirty baseball. There's no viable reason for it. It will earn the runner a fastball in the ear.

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I have seen video from the golden age in baseball and I was blown away from how great it was.

Ah, the illusions of video! Someone could make a video of today's baseball and make it seem just as wonderful. I believe it was Ty Cobb who said money is ruining baseball.

What was balanced about 1921 to 1964 when the Yankees won the American League twenty-nine times in forty-four years? Ah! The good 'ole days! The golden years of baseball! It's amazing how prose and poetry can create an image in the mind of those who don't do the research.

During those good old days teams like the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Browns, Boston Braves and Washington Senators went through decade after decade where they matched the futilitly of today's Pirates. In one season in the 1930's, the Phils drew 80,000 paying customers. Twice, Connie Mack in the Teens and then in in the late 1920's built mighty, unstoppable teams and then tore them apart and subjected his city to some of the worst teams ever allowed to call themselves Major League teams. I could name numerous things that were no so good about the good old days or are not so great now. We tend to look back and forget that every era had its problems. Some involving money, payroll inequities and other like things have always existed, there's just more zeroes in the figures now.

I knew the Phillies were bad for most of the first half of the 20th century but didn't realize how bad.

A quick check found that between 1917 and 1961 the Phils had 5 seasons over .500 and two right at .500. Forty-four years and 5 winning records. The Pirates got a long way too go!!

From 1936 to 1945 they lost over 100 games 7 times, that's pretty dam bad. No wonder they're the only franchise in sports with over 10,000 loses.

And the world wonders why Philly sports fan can get a little cranky sometimes!

fillsfan, in 1930 they hit .315 as a team and had one guy hit .386 with 40 HRS and 170 RBIs and another guy hit .383 and they still finished in last place. Of course the pitching staff did allow 1199 runs scored! Obviously they had no Halladay, Hamels or Oswalt.

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I knew the Phillies were bad for most of the first half of the 20th century but didn't realize how bad.

Aren't the Phillies the losingest team in MLB history? Didn't they lose their 10,000 game a few years ago? I remember a joke (not firsthand) about the wrong team (A's) leaving Philadelphia.

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Teams like the Yankees and Red Sox are only good because they can afford to sign these players for millions of dollars.

No it isn't. The reason why the Yankees and Red Sox are good is because they also have good farm systems and develop players. They also are storied franchises with long histories. Big reason why the Yankees have been in the playoffs almost every year over the last 16 years are from players who came thru the Yankee system like Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Moe Rivera, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Brett Gardner Bernie Williams, and Don Mattingly.

Even over the last couple of years, the Yankees have brought up players from the minors like Cervelli, Curtis, Miranda, Logan, Mitre, and Mosely.

For a team who can buy free agents, they got an awful lot of young players contributing to the cause.

Jeter, Posada, Rivera & Petitte have played together for 16 years straight minus Pettitte for a couple years. What other team has kept 4 players together for about 20 yrs including rising thru the minor league in the same system ?

When people say the Yankeees only win because of money, it's because they're Yankee haters and jealous their team don't do everything they can to put a winning product on the field.

The Yankee Tax is financing other teams so there's no excuse for team owners to hoard the money and dump salary. The Yankees will keep their top prospects and eventually give them a big payday or will either trade them off because they're valued by teams looking for young talent that are too cheap to pay established stars.

And yes, they can afford to sign the top free agents because the Yankees built their franchise into what it is today under the same system that all 31 major league teams play under. The Yankees just happen to do it better than everyone else.

The Yankees are the most prominent sports team on the planet who's valued at about $3 Billion.

You don't run a $3B team like a mom and pop store.

As for the Rays, they should be good. They lost 100 games for like 10 years straight so they got the #1 pick every year. If you can't win with a team full of #1 draft picks, then that's pretty lame. Also keep in mind when these #1 picks get their years in, the Rays will be dumping them like a bunch of rejects because they won't pay them all to stay.

So the Rays will enjoy a few years of winning baseball that took 10 years of playing cellar dweller and then start over again when the current players get their years in leading to free agency.

The Rays are very good right now but the jury's out on whether they will sustain success when it comes time to fork over the loot when their free agency year comes up.

If losing 100 games for 10 years or 15 yrs at a time for a couple of winning seasons that haven't even produced a world champion is the right way to do it, then let's see these stadiums pack 40000-50000 a night playing lousy baseball with a bunch of minor leaguers playing up for the league minimum..

So before claiming the Rays do it the right way, let's have them win a couple of world titles before they get that kind of credit.