Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelican
Yes, and one stunning thing for me is that in the early "dead ball" years, they would use one baseball for the whole game. They weren't made as well as now, and they would get soft and lumpy, dirty and ripped. Obviously easy to get lots of movement, even without the then-legal spitball. It literally was a "dead" ball by the end of the game.
And yes, the farther back you go, the more pronounced the differences are. I don't know how anyone can play random debut, for that reason. It really becomes an apples and oranges comparison. It's barely the same game.
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Heck, present day baseball is barely the same game as it was in the 1970s and 1980s IMO.
It is interesting that the BAs in the dead ball era is the same as the BAs in the 1960s or the past few years.
Main difference now it is all HRs, KOs, and bullpen usage. (And DH, extra inning rule, shot clock, intentional walks, playoffs, interleague play, bigger bases, bases being moved some to improve the running game, Robo umps soon, etc.). Did I say it’s barely the same game as the 1970s-1985??? It’s more like a new game.
Yes random is 90+% fictional. In my random I use 1984 as my stat/modifier year since it seems like a good balanced stat year from 1901-present. I play with injuries off, players miss seasons and retire as in real life on. That way the "stars" from the various years become stars in my league although I get a surprise every now and then. If someone leads my league in a category and I am not familiar with them then I try to find out more about them. That way the player becomes a person and not just a stat.
One example. Pete Dowling was a very good young pitcher in dead ball era. He was an alcoholic so during the off season the team gave him a contract that he signed that stipulated he couldn't drink during the season. That spring he realized he couldn't go without drinking so he quit, went to California and played for a semi pro team. While there he is credited with saving 3 men from drowning when their fishing boat turned over. A few months later he was drunk and showed up at the train station just after the team departed to go to a neighboring town for a game. While drunk he decides to walk the train tracks to the neighboring town. He died when a train hits him while he was walking. These stories make the game come alive for me.
If I just played dead ball era or modern era the game would be pretty boring for me. Obviously I was a big baseball fan especially from 1970-1985 or so. For me, that is when baseball was baseball at its best.