</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by Malleus Dei:
<strong>Damn, Moyer, you nailed it.
"I'm only 25, but I would've loved 60's baseball. Being able to go to a game after work and knowing that I'd be home before 10pm would be great."
And it was great. Afternoon Dodger and Padre and Giant games were the high sports points of the sixties and seventies for me. I still go to at least 50 games a year now, counting college, minor and major league games, and there's no comparison.
"All other things aside, there was an enthusiasm for the game that isn't there anymore - among owners, players, or fans."
There was also a love of the game that isn't there any more. The pre-free-agent game was a LOT more about baseball rather than money than today's game is. I remember when Drysdale and Koufax threatened not to play for a year if they didn't get huge raises; my father was absolutely livid over it and called them ungrateful wretches who were ruining the game for the sake of their pocketbooks. People were publicly outraged by what they did. Today? Some middle infielder who is statistically pathetic gets 4 million a year instead of the $40,000 he is actually worth and no one even blinks.
"Malleus has a good point that people seem to be ignoring. Baseball was the National Pasttime."
And they called it that and everyone knew it was true because in those days it WAS the National Pastime - it was THE sport of the U.S. and we all knew it. Football and basketball were lesser sports; as a boy, my grandfather taught me that football and basketball fans were made up of peasants and the uneducated.
Well almost everyone who likes baseball also likes football and basketball. How would your grandfather explain Duke student/basketball fans. Would they be 'peasants' or 'uneducated'.
"I think if it weren't for the strike of 94, baseball would still be the #1 sport in the USA."
Almost certainly so. Player greed and incredibly stupid owners combined to ruin baseball.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well, if you asked someone just a little bit older than you, they would tell you Giant/Dodger games were great. Of course the games they would be talking about would have been played at the Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field. So would someone with more 'experience' than you be able to say you are wrong because of their 'experience'.
Anyone who wants to join me in the upper deck at Yankee Stadium this week will see that there are plenty of fans with 'passion' and 'enthusiasm'. You also don't have to look very hard for players with the same qualities.
A middle infielder in the major leagues would be one the 120 (30 x 4) best at their jobs in the world. I work in a department at a Fortune 500 company that has about 120 employees. I can tell you even the biggest idiots, who I would put in the lower half of the population make well more than $40,000. I mean this statement is so stupid it defies explanation.
Well almost everyone who likes baseball also likes football and basketball. How would your grandfather explain Duke student/basketball fans. Would they be 'peasants' or 'uneducated'?
Baseball was well on it's way to second class status behind the NFL long before 1994. It's no secret why. Everyone gambles on it.
<small>[ 05-13-2002, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: Jim Lynch ]</small>
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