Renewed Appreciation of Baseball

[ASalvaro]

one big mistake teams make these days are changing their uniforms so often

[jon]

I've been enjoying watching the playoffs and it helps when both New York teams and Los Angeles are involved. The other team is the Cleveland......Guardians? What a lame name. But I've been rooting for the Yankees. There's no reason why I should, but I do. Maybe bc my 2nd cousin (by marriage, very important) is a big Yankees fan. Or their commitment to excellence. But I do. It's nice watching them do well bc they haven't won since 2009. I'm rooting for the Dodgers in the other LCS. But if the Mets win, they'd have a chance for their first title since 1986.

[jon]

All I gotta say after watching the first 2 games of the WS is that baseball is dead. It doesn’t resemble the game I grew up watching. I think the perfect analogy is it’s like those baseball video games where it just turns into a home run fest and nothing else goes on.

First off, the National League also having the designated hitter was just disgusting, and there’s so much less strategy now. This obsession with scoring and “excitement” has ended up targeting no one. There’s a reason it’s a dying sport.

What’s probably more ridiculous is outfielders don’t even go after balls that are borderline warning track balls they just let them hit the ground Bc they can’t be bothered. I’m not talking about them choosing to avoid going after a ball near the outfield walls to avoid serious injury, no, apparently now if it’s anywhere near the warning track they let it drop behind them. Unbelievable. Of course straight away center is under 400 feet in these parks now too. Back to the homers, when it’s home run or bust the inevitable outcome is everyone’s striking out a million more times than in the past. It’s not uncommon for “successful” hitters to strike out over 25% of their at bats. And when they’re in a slump like the massive choker Aaron Judge, well, he’s striking out almost every at bat. Just a terrible, terrible situation.

[jon]

I actually enjoyed the last few games of the WS. There were a lot of sacrifice flies and bunts and stuff. Maybe it’s Bc of the postseason. I know I mentioned earlier how I have no idea why I love the Yankees. But maybe it’s Bc if you love baseball the Yankees are baseball royalty. I might try to watch some regular season action in 2025.

But a huge problem having said all that is there’s way too many pitchers being used each game and it slows the game down. I think there were games in the playoffs where a team used 9 or 10 pitchers in one game. There’s got to be a rule change to somehow stop that.

[Voor]

I actually enjoyed the last few games of the WS. There were a lot of sacrifice flies and bunts and stuff. Maybe it’s Bc of the postseason. I know I mentioned earlier how I have no idea why I love the Yankees. But maybe it’s Bc if you love baseball the Yankees are baseball royalty. I might try to watch some regular season action in 2025.

But a huge problem having said all that is there’s way too many pitchers being used each game and it slows the game down. I think there were games in the playoffs where a team used 9 or 10 pitchers in one game. There’s got to be a rule change to somehow stop that.

Yeah, seeing pitchers go deep, with the possibility of pitching the whole game, was an exciting part of baseball that is kind of just gone. I personally thinks this hurts the pitchers’ legacies and name recognition.

The WS was great as always, so I’ll keep tuning in (to the playoffs—screw regular season baseball).

[jon]

The only thing I can think of to get rid of teams using so many pitchers per game is to fine teams for doing so. Something has to be done. When the majority of a manager’s skill is bringing in 10 pitchers for certain batters and situations then it just sucks. They talk about shortening the game but it’s terrible all the pitching changes.

I still wish the NL hadn’t gone to the DH. Sometimes I think how cool it must have been to be a baseball fan who attended games regularly in the early 1900’s before all sorts of changes were made.

Anyways, I also think interleague play has played itself out. I was guilty too of thinking how cool it would’ve been for the New York and Chicago teams to play each other. But it ended up not being fun.

[jon]

I hope the Yankees make the World Series again next year or close, Bc the whole saga of can Aaron Judge stop choking. Its one thing to all of a sudden not be able to hit, but to drop that routine fly ball in the 5th inning up 5 runs and for that to start the Dodgers rally, that’s of epic proportions.

So it’s very entertaining and the TV ratings were great, one thing I’ve noticed is that in baseball everyone is in essence forced to give 100% all the time. It’s so easy for selfish players in the basketball or football to not care and just not even try sometimes. But in baseball it’s so incredibly hard to be successful as a batter. And with pitchers a bad pitch could be disaster. But I also think baseball players care more in general too.

[jon]

The thing about not having the DH is that while not rocket science, some pitchers do a lot better without. Again, yes it’s easy to understand, but it hurt my favorite pitcher A.J. Burnett. I’d watch him with the Marlins early in his career and of course his problem was control issues. But when he was on he had the best curveball in the game. So naturally he left and signed a big deal with Toronto. He did decent there especially his 3rd year and then signed with the Yankees for even more money. The first year, 2009, he did good in the regular season and came up huge each round of the playoffs with his biggest moment being game 2 of the WS. But in 2010 and 2011 he struggled and got traded to Pittsburgh in the NL. So he did well there. And I think a guy like him who finished barely above .500 for his career, if he’d pitched in the NL in a pitchers park his whole career he would’ve had a much better record and maybe even made the HOF.

Edit: The new Yankee Stadium he pitched those 3 years not only was it I think 314 both foul lines but even as it got closer to right center it wasn’t that far. Watching game 2 Matsui hit a home run to right field not even that close to the line that measured at a little over 320. Just a joke the dimensions, and with the DH.

[jon]

Watching all these old games, baseball is so much more complex than other sports. I think an argument can be made that each at bat is a game between the pitcher and the batter. The online league I’m getting destroyed in is honestly a heck of a lot of fun. I still follow football and basketball but the strategy behind it is actually pretty boring. All these old baseball games available to watch is pretty cool.

[jon]

I have to admit that MLB is starting to get my attention more now. How about Shohei Ohtani. If he’s fully recovered he’ll probably be a starting pitcher and position player for the Dodgers and play every game. I didn’t even realize that he was excelling at doing that his first few years in the MLB. The Yankees are good too and the Mets.

I’ll take that compared to the NBA it’s becoming a big problem the over reliance on 3’s and it sucks. People are finally starting to get really mad at that.