PinOakEO Loc: NA

Players either KKK or hit HR. All Star game had 25K's & 10 HR's!

The hit & run games are disappearing! No more hitting to opposite field!

Attendance is down. To many lows in win catagory!

Most players today are 6ft or taller!

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

I was thinking that same thing just the other day. You hardly ever see a hit and run any more. Hitting for power has become more important than hitting for average. Launch angle and exit velocity are all the rage.

PinOakEO Loc: NA

BTW: 21 countries were represented in AS game.

FrankR Loc: NYC

I think a lot of what we see in the game today can be blamed on sabremetrics. Yeah, I understand the shift works and it makes sense. Go back a few years and see what it did to Mark Texiera, took at least 50 points off his average. The stats guys have convinced management that strike outs don’t matter, bunting and sacrifices to advance the base runner are a waste and a few other things too. All this talk now about launch angle and exit velocity is horse manure as far as I’m concerned and the only place they matter is NASA. Because of all the hype about those two “stats” we see all these little guys swinging up, trying to hit everything out and most of them have warning track power at best. I’m convinced that the only kind of ball most of the sabermetrics guys ever played was fantasy.

rdemarco52 Loc: Wantagh, NY

I hate all the pitching changes. Pitchers used to be expected to complete games. They pitched in a four man rotation on three days rest, and there were not nearly as many injuries as today.

Richie G Loc: Blackwood,New Jersey

Years ago you had a lot of 20 game winners.I remember Warren Span and Bob Feller pitching a Sunday doubleheader in one day.These pitchers can,t even go six innings.

pendennis

You can thank Tony La Russa for the changes in pitching. Pitchers are routinely pulled after x number of pitches, regardless their performance at the time. Pitch counting is another "stat" which adds nothing to the game. Most pitchers know when they start to lose their stuff. We don't need a pitch counter to help him.

You can also thank modern fitness training and bulking up of players. There are many more "soft tissue" injuries, i.e. tendons, than ever. The body is designed for the tendons to support only so much muscle mass. Tendons don't grow in response to "muscling up". Miguel Cabrera, of the Tigers, is out for the season with a ruptured tendon. He's always been bulked up to be a power hitter, and he's constantly hurt with tendon and other connective tissue injuries. There are lots of natural talents who could play, but don't have a chance against the bulked up hitters. Peewee Reese, Phil Rizzuto, et al, couldn't even get out of "C" ball today. Most players don't have any reserve against over-strain; they're too close to the edge.

There's also the strike zone. Most of the time pitchers don't get a strike call on anything below the waist, let alone around the knees. And they no longer "own" the plate. Plenty of batters get away with crowding the plate, and if the pitchers go inside to keep them away, they're accused of throwing at the hitter. Remember how Don Drysdale pitched? He'd be fined $100K for his pitching today.

Rich Maher Loc: Sonoma County, CA

Also, the games are way too long. MLB really needs fixing. Go Red Sox.

le boecere

I'll opine that much of what we're seeing as "baseball" today, is because of the dumbed-down, mal-educated market that MLB is hoping to attract to their TV broadcasts. Most post-moderns have a "football" mindset, and football is primarily "throw the ball, catch the ball, score a touchdown". The equivalent of "touchdown" in baseball is the home run ~ modern baseball game attendees can grasp the Home Run, and that's what's sold to them. The finer points of the game allude the masses.
They're "bored" by the complexities of mid-20th century National League baseball.

pilgrim1951 Loc: New Jersey

Baseball never was for those with short attention spans. That said, it has gotten too long and they may lose future audiences if they don't speed it up. One of the beauties of baseball was that it was the only major sport not ruled by a clock, but now that may be it's downfall.

le boecere

How long did MLB games last, in your day?

P.S.: I recently was at a small town semi-pro game with my 14-year-old granddaughter (who's started playing softball). She told me that "baseball is really a chess-game on a field". In June, I attended a MLB game with my baseball savvy eldest son; he made the same remark.

wapiti Loc: round rock, texas

DJ Mills Loc: Idaho

I agree. If you don't know what is really going on, it can be pretty boring to watch. However, if you know the game(s) within the game, it's fantastic. ⚾️

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

I was thinking about that also.... according to bleacherreport.com, almost 1/3 of all "current" MLB pitchers have had Tommy John surgery. According to Bleacher Report, out of the 360 pitchers that started the season, 124 have had the surgery. Before 1974, if you had a torn UCL, it ended your career, but I don't really remember hearing all that much about that injury. Since 2013, TJ surgery has really sky rocketed, and they are attributing it to two factors, the increased velocities that pitchers are throwing at, and that a lot of kids today are specializing in one sport that they excel at. So, depending on where they live, they can play that sport year round which adds a lot more wear and tear and stress to a pitchers arm at a younger age.

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

As far as the shift goes, if you have 3 infielders on the right side of 2nd base and the 3rd baseman is where the shortstop normally is or even shading more to second base, just put one down the 3rd base line every time you come to bat, and sooner or later they won't shift anymore. If Mark Teixeira did that even half the time he faced the shift, his average would not have dropped so much. The only time he didn't hit one to one of the 3 fielders on the right side was if he hit a home run or a double into the right center gap. Other than that, every grounder or line drive he hit went right to one of the fielders on the right side.

This year, I've watch Brett Gardner, Didi Gregorius, and rookie Miguel Andujar do just that when teams shift on them and get easy hits without even a throw to first base because by the time someone got the ball they were already at first base. Take what they give you... a hit is a hit, and its better than being an almost automatic out every time you come to the plate.