Baseball, Then and Now
Growing up as a young baseball fan in the '70s and '80s, baseball strategy seemed completely different from the one employed by in today's game. Back then, baseball's primary strategy was about getting runners on base and using team speed to score runs, while mashing balls out of the ballpark was a lucky surprise rather than an expected outcome. Back then, teams employed a “Get 'em on, Get 'em over, and Get 'em in” strategy, and welcomed the occasional three-run dinger to keep their team in a game. And along with those days of teams manufacturing runs by moving runners 90 feet at a time, polyester pullover jerseys, pillbox hats, and pitchers named “Catfish” or “Gator”, with cheeks full of chewing tobacco, were colorful parts of the game.
Pitchers pitched deep into games back then, it seems, and the game was played on shiny, synthetic carpets, stretched over concrete pads, in they-all-look-the-same cookie-cutter stadiums, the architectural trend of the era. The fans were seated in plastic seats far away from the players and the game's action. Games rarely ran past two and a half hours. And “The Friendly Confines” of Wrigley Field in Chicago was still a neighborhood ballpark, its manicured grass stretching out with townhouse rooftops looming out past the wooden outfield bleachers. It was all a far cry from today’s games that routinely last over three hours, are played in front of corporate fans seated in expensive suites and dugout-level seats, crammed into billion-dollar stadiums named for banks and tech companies rather than for the local team.
As a kid, the backs of baseball cards and the tiny box scores from the local newspaper's sports page were the only ways to get stats on your favorite players from your favorite team. At-bats, hits, and innings pitched were the stats of the day; WAR, OPS, launch angle, and the defensive shift were unheard-of terms. You would wait all week to watch game highlights on “This Week in Baseball” on Saturday morning and then catch the Game of the Week on Saturday afternoon, to spot a glimpse of the next phenom you might have only heard about when talking about the game with your friends. There was no ESPN’s SportsCenter or MLB Network. Today you can watch any game, at any time, every day of the season, or check out all the highlights on YouTube. Cable package deals give you unprecedented access to every detail about your team or any star-powered player.
Hitters today have face-guards, elbow-pads, shin guards, and they think about launch angle while their walk-up music echoes from the stadium sound system. Pitchers throw the ball through a make-believe box that determines what the strike zone looks like, and if you don’t agree with an umpire’s call on any given pitch, you can review it to see if they were right. Players have social media accounts that give you a look inside their life on a daily basis. Heck, they might even do a Tic-Toc video with your kid and millions of people will share it.
I don’t remember ever seeing Mike Schmidt or Willie Stargell wearing much more than a batting helmet and a batting glove at the plate. The PA announcer just announced a player's name and number. That was it. I sometimes wonder what tunes the diamond heroes of my youth would have for walk up music if there was such a thing back then. Imagine the batting averages guys like George Brett and Rod Carew would have if they could wear an elbow pad and stand right on top of home plate in the batter’s box.
Pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, and Don Sutton would have racked up even more outrageous strikeout numbers if their catchers framed pitches and stole strikes the way they do today. Back then, those great hurlers didn't need a strike zone overlay and ten angles to determine if their pitches were strikes; they threw heat over the plate until a player was lucky enough to connect and then they might mix in some "chin music" to keep things honest.And if you wanted to know anything about that favorite player of yours, you were definitely a member of his fan club; you waited anxiously for a couple months, hoping to get a fan club certificate and 8x10 glossy in a manilla envelope from the USPS. And maybe, just maybe, a free ticket voucher to get into a game and see your hero in person.
Today, it seems even guys who play only the Sunday day game on getaway day can make a million bucks, if they grind long enough. A player willing to put his face and name next to a product in a print ad or a TV commercial supplements his income to the tune of millions of additional dollars. Years ago, “utility”players on your favorite team in the '70s and '80s probably had an off-season job just to supplement their income and make do until spring training started up again and a Major League paycheck was landing in an account. And none of the players back then played the game year-round: they used spring training to get into shape and stretch out their limbs, and when the long season was over, they went home to farms and factory jobs, not to work with trainers and strength coaches in their private home gyms.
Many of the players from those long-ago eras wouldn’t even be scouted or signed today, never given a chance of being a late-late-round pick who works his way through the minor leagues to land a chance at The Show. Today’s game is just so radically different. Analytics runs the game, and mathematical algorithms dictate tendencies that managers use to strategize every move and every situation. Managers get ridiculed and chastised by writers and fans for playing “old school” hunches, and not relying absolutely on what the numbers say. Personally, give me a manager who wears his uniform in the dugout, smokes in the tunnel between innings, drinks black coffee, and loves to trust his baseball instincts with a game on the line. Sadly, those days are now gone, replaced by specialists at every position, home run power hitters hit in the leadoff spot, players who aren’t allowed to bunt a man over or can’t execute in a hit and run situation, and star pitchers routinely having an ERA hovering around 4. I guess that’s all expected in today’s game; sadly, it’s not an easy thing to adjust to for an old-timer like me, who watched a game I loved being played so very differently all those years ago.
Article contributed by Jason Beck, Top Fan Rivalry podcast guest and contributor.