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Amazin69 · 11-04-2025, 07:09 PM

Yeah, the "it's not a swing until you 'break your wrists'" rule was in effect back when I was in diapers. I still feel weird when I see somebody clearly stop their swing and have the strike called because their bodily torque makes them breach some invisible plane across the plate.

Don't feel so badly for Sandy and his fellow 1960s moundsmen, though. They got to pitch from mounds that were built up to 15" (in theory) or even higher (in practice). And they got to intimidate batters by firing fastballs at the batters' skulls with impunity, as the men in the press box laughed at the batters diving for their lives, as when Bob Gibson sent Tommie Agee sprawling in Spring Training 1968 and Roger Angell reported the reporters calling out "Welcome to the National League, Tommie!" at Agee, recently arrived from the White Sox.

(The A.L. at this point was considered a bunch of wimps and sissies, in part because they'd barely integrated, whereas 9/10 NL teams had already graduated a future black Hall of Famer out of their systems [The Mets were the exception, and they could have had Dick Allen and/or Reggie Jackson, but made poor decisions] and those players had had to deal with racially-driven aggression on the diamond.

And since the AL umpires wore the inflatable "balloon" chest protector and couldn't bend over to call the low strike, the pitchers had to work higher in the zone and threw more curves and change-ups, rather than fastballs.)

So with aggression viewed as a symptom of masculinity, mediocre pitchers such as Don Drysdale succeeded far beyond their talent and scoring fell to miniscule levels, and attendance died off during this "second deadball era" from 1963 (when the strike zone was inflated to "top of the shoulders to the bottom of the knees") through 1968, "The Year of the Pitcher". (Or as Angell skewered it, "The Year of the Infield Pop-Up".)

Honestly, few pitchers ever had it as good as Koufax. Should I mention that Dodger Stadium was pretty much death for Home Runs until they moved home plate 20' out towards centerfield in the late 1970s? Bill James once looked at the difference between Koufax's home stats from 1955-1961 (pre-Dodger Stadium) and afterwards; it was pretty stark.

Calling checked swings checked swings doesn't bother me at all. JMO.

11-04-2025, 07:09 PM	#36
Amazin69 Banned Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Palmetto Pride! Posts: 4,218 Infractions: 0/4 (4)	Yeah, the "it's not a swing until you 'break your wrists'" rule was in effect back when I was in diapers. I still feel weird when I see somebody clearly stop their swing and have the strike called because their bodily torque makes them breach some invisible plane across the plate. Don't feel so badly for Sandy and his fellow 1960s moundsmen, though. They got to pitch from mounds that were built up to 15" (in theory) or even higher (in practice). And they got to intimidate batters by firing fastballs at the batters' skulls with impunity, as the men in the press box laughed at the batters diving for their lives, as when Bob Gibson sent Tommie Agee sprawling in Spring Training 1968 and Roger Angell reported the reporters calling out "Welcome to the National League, Tommie!" at Agee, recently arrived from the White Sox. (The A.L. at this point was considered a bunch of wimps and sissies, in part because they'd barely integrated, whereas 9/10 NL teams had already graduated a future black Hall of Famer out of their systems [The Mets were the exception, and they could have had Dick Allen and/or Reggie Jackson, but made poor decisions] and those players had had to deal with racially-driven aggression on the diamond. And since the AL umpires wore the inflatable "balloon" chest protector and couldn't bend over to call the low strike, the pitchers had to work higher in the zone and threw more curves and change-ups, rather than fastballs.) So with aggression viewed as a symptom of masculinity, mediocre pitchers such as Don Drysdale succeeded far beyond their talent and scoring fell to miniscule levels, and attendance died off during this "second deadball era" from 1963 (when the strike zone was inflated to "top of the shoulders to the bottom of the knees") through 1968, "The Year of the Pitcher". (Or as Angell skewered it, "The Year of the Infield Pop-Up".) Honestly, few pitchers ever had it as good as Koufax. Should I mention that Dodger Stadium was pretty much death for Home Runs until they moved home plate 20' out towards centerfield in the late 1970s? Bill James once looked at the difference between Koufax's home stats from 1955-1961 (pre-Dodger Stadium) and afterwards; it was pretty stark. Calling checked swings checked swings doesn't bother me at all. JMO.