Posted by: george stanley (saint_george13@yahoo.com) on Tue Jan 15 15:04:03 2008

> > Hi THG
> >
> > Do you think that expansion has degraded the quality of play in all professional sports, or would you say it just unique to the game of baseball? I think most would agree that today’s basketball teams are far superior to teams in the 50s. The same could be said for football. But not baseball, I guess finding the quality of play you saw in the 40s and 50s are long gone. Maybe “Money Ball’s” method of drafting players is the cause.
> >
> > Jack Mankin
>
>
>
> Hi Jack. Actually specifically, I would say that enough pitchers' do not have a good enough command of today's strike zone. So basically hitting is evolving faster than pitching. Of course we have to consider more science is out there regarding hitting (video etc. and breaking down the rudiments of a good/great swing.) Granted todays strike zone is smaller than years past so it is more challenging for the pitcher's to work in that zone. Another problem is that many of today's pitchers have trouble getting respect from the umpires. And too often the umpire is more of a factor than he should be. Most of us have seen many games and when you see a Greg Maddux type pitcher pitch, he is getting calls that the avg pitcher does not get. And though he has I guess earned those pitches, he simply could not pitch in some situations if he was not getting those calls.
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> With regard to todays football and basketball (as well as baseball) teams the athletes are definitely better. But to a large extent rules changes have allowed so much freedom for individuals that there has been an explosion in scoring.
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> In football you can no longer disrupt a receivers route. This makes for wide open scoring all over the field. Also the best pool of athletes which used to be across the board are seen more in football and basketball. Baseball does not have enough of the Black athletes who are in basketball and football. Note that I am not saying Blacks are any better than other races. But I am saying that Blacks are being left of of baseballs talent pool. It might be their choice but perhaps not enough programs are put into play for them.
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> Expansion has diluted good defense in football as a running game is no longer premium. In basketball the game is too much about high flying dunks instead of team play (though the team that wins the championship plays as a team). Look at what happened to the Lakers once the Kobey/Shaq thing got out of hand.
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> Todays games are more exciting in each sport but the fundamentals in some phases are lacking. In the 40's and 50's baseball did not have the exposure to all the public as it has today. And the homerun was not highlighted to the degree it is today (except for the homerun derby contests (I forget the name of the show)). I definitely believe the allstar games of the past (70's early 80's) were better. But that is just my opinion.

hello th!

it is my observation that over the years the pitchers got so far ahead of the hitters that they had to make some serious changes to get the hitters back to where they weren't completely overmatched... they hacked 5" off the mound.. which was a very serious change...
then the umpires took over the game & are now calling the pitches according to who is pitching or who is in the box..as well as who angers them the most by showing the crowd their displeasure with a bad call.. the whole mentality whereby umpires punish hitters or pitchers for getting angry after being jobbed by a poor call.. that is the untilmate injustice being perpetrated on the players of today..didn't use to be so blatant..today's umpires are a vicious, petty minded vindictive bunch of beached whales.
the league needs to institute a laser system, with sensors imbedded on the edges of home plate, & a laser array overhead as well as in the dugout to read the letters & knees, as well as the edges of the plate, with sensor strips stitched on the uniforms so a laser can call the balls & strikes, & take the subjective calling of balls/strikes away from the umpires forever... the sooner the better! this creates such an unfair bias that it makes you wonder who the umpires are betting on.. (i know, there is only ONE referee in the whole world of professional sports referees & umpires who is a crook) the umpires need to start calling the balls & strikes according to the strike zone as described in the rulebook...

the next biggest change has been the non enforcement of the 20 second pitch rule.. i would like to see this rule go right to the top of the list of things that need to change in MLB.. pitchers should be realizing they have the ball in their hand, & they control the tempo of the game... they should be using this to their advantage by working faster than they do.. thus not allowing the hitters the extra time to figure out what the pitcher is trying to do to them..there should also be some restrictions on the hitters stepping out of the box on every pitch..the games are simply too long with too much nothing going on most of the time.

MLB has a program for inner city kids to play ball.. what a wonderful thing!! they are providing fields, equipment, uniforms, coaches... terrific!! the hope would be that more and more kids will jump in and stay in the program... wouldn't that be great?!? i have always maintained that the best players never played MLB.. they never got the chance!!

i would agree hitters are improving faster than the pitchers.. simply because there is more room for improvement.. considering the MLB BA is .260.. there is only one way to go from there... up!!
a lot more coaches (but not enough by any means) are realizing this is an exercise in mechanical physics.. it is my hope batting theory evolves in to the hi tech endeavor it should have become a long time ago..