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The Spectacle Blog
I usually enjoy Lisa Fabrizio's baseball columns but this morning I think she dropped the ball by writing one of those "baseball isn't as good as it used to be" pieces:
This year, like most, has had its moments; particularly with Derek Jeter's pursuit of the 3,000 hit milestone, which has occasioned the usual folly of comparing today's stars with the game's immortals. This business gets sillier and sillier every year, even as the overall quality of play gets worse and worse. Now I like Derek Jeter as much as the next person and his achievements are indeed worthy of praise, but the qualities most people admire in him -- humility, hustle, and all-around "baseball sense" -- could probably be found in the majority of players who suited up 40 or more years ago.
It is often said of Jeter that he does everything well; they way it should be done. And that's the point: he stands out because most of his contemporaries just don't match up. He is a throwback; a clean-cut, well-mannered young fellow, as opposed to the bearded braggadocios that populate most Major League clubhouses these days. But that is the state of baseball today.
If today's players spent as much time practicing the fundamentals of the game as they do preening before mirrors and mugging before cameras, the fans might be treated to a steady diet of fine Major League Baseball. As it is, a short series of well-played ballgames is as rare as a player hitting for the cycle.
So to sum up:
a) Baseball players don't have the humility, hustle and baseball instincts they had prior to 1971;
b) Bearded baseball players can't be well-mannered;
c) Baseball players care more about being on camera than about practicing fundamentals.
How does Fabrizio know any of this to be true? Does she hang around in MLB clubhouses? If the quality of Major League Baseball is as poor as she suggests then she would not heed it any attention whatsoever. Yet by her own admission, at the conclusion of her piece, she can't get enough baseball.
The fact of the matter is that people have always complained about the state of baseball and always will. She laments that players aren't as clean-cut as they were forty years ago. Yet I seem to recall that forty years ago, ballplayers began wearing their hair long with matching sideburns. Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley paid his players to grow facial hair. Rollie Fingers still looks stylish with his handlebar mustache.
Fabrizio also laments that no one has approached hitting .400. Well, Rod Carew did hit .388 with the Twins in 1977 and three years later Kansas City Royals legend George Brett batted .390. When the 1994 players' strike hit, perennial NL batting champion Tony Gwynn was hitting .394. Who knows what could have been? Yet forty years ago, people were complaining about a lack of offense. After Denny McLain won 31 games, Bob Gibson posted an ERA of 1.12 and Carl Yastrzemski led the American League with a .301 batting average in 1968, MLB lowered the mound and umpires began lowering the strike zone. By 1973, the AL introduced the designated hitter offending many purists and good hitting pitchers.
A generation later, homeruns and league ERAs had ballooned (and so had many players.) But now the homeruns have diminished and so have the ERAs. Indeed, ERAs have declined in both leagues every year since 2006. In fact, both leagues have a chance to post their first sub-4.00 ERA since 1992.
Yes, baseball players make bad plays and commit errors both physical and mental. But errors are part of the game. Always have been, always will be. Honus Wagner is considered amongst the greatest shortstops who ever played the game. Yet it wasn't uncommon for The Flying Dutchman to commit 50 errors a season. In 1905, Wagner committed 60 errors for the Pittsburgh Pirates. When the Pirates won their first World Series in 1909, Wagner recorded 49 errors. And yet he tied Babe Ruth for the second most votes (only Ty Cobb received more) for the Baseball Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1936.
As for Jose Reyes, Fabrizio might think his defense his atrocious in comparison to Jeter. Yet their career fielding percentages are nearly identical (.976 for Jeter, .974 for Reyes.) And at this stage of Jeter's career, he simply cannot get to the baseball the way Reyes can. The way Reyes plays shortstop might not be Fabrizio's cup of tea but perhaps she should bear in mind that while Jeter cut his teeth in the schoolyards and the playgrounds of suburban Michigan, Reyes learned his craft barehanded on the streets of Santo Domingo. Eventually he made a glove constructed out of a milk carton.
Like Fabrizio, I can't get enough baseball. But unlike Fabrizio, I think the game is as great as it has ever been. To quote Carly Simon, "These are the good old days."
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More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/07/20/lisa-fabrizio-gets-an-e-6
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Occam's Tool| 7.20.11 @ 11:54AM
Check out Field of Screams. Remember Ben Chapman. And shaddup already. Baseball players have included fine gentlemen (Ryne Sandberg) and Obnoxious bastards (Ty Cobb) since the beiginning of the game. It is played by humans.
Casey Abell| 7.20.11 @ 12:04PM
Yawn. More good old days stuff. They wrote stories like what's-her-face's back in 1900.
I will say this. Sooner or later baseball will get tired of so-so attendance and lower TV ratings and put some more offense back in the game. But that has nothing to do with beards on players, and everything to do with cutting back on the Glavine strike.
JP| 7.20.11 @ 3:22PM
Aaron,
Fiveteen years ago, I was like you -I coudn't get enough of the game. And while I agree in part with Lisa, I would be the first to admit that today's players are much better athletes, they're in much better shape, and in some respects better coached. But that being said, I believe the game is worse off -especially since the reign of Bud Selig.
One last thing, I believe MLB lowered the pitcher's mound in 1970 or 71. That did away with the edge pitchers had during the 1960s. I'm mainly a fan of the old NL, where pitching was stressed over hitting. And while I wasn't a Cardinal fan, I loved the way they played the game under Whitey Herzog. Nowadays every team plays as if Earl Weaver is thier manager (never waste an out; play for the big inning). The game is very one dimensional these days.
Aaron Goldstein| 7.20.11 @ 3:40PM
The mound was lowered five inches in 1969.
astorian| 7.20.11 @ 3:50PM
Baseball HAD to lower the mound in 1969, because baseball had become unbearably dull in 1968. Pitchers were SO dominant that Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with an average of just .301!
A pitchers' duel CAN be exciting, but not 162 pitchers' duels in a row!
Now, let me add (as a Yankees fan who likes Derek Jeter)... Derek Jeter is a great guy and a future Hall of Famer, but he is NOT a verygood defensive shortstop and never has been. Even Yankee fans know his Gold Gloves are a joke. Jeter is NOT the best defensivce shortstop in the A.L. He isn't even the SECOND best defensive shortstop on the Yankees' roster!
Pssst- there's a REASON the phrase "past a diving Jeter" inspires knowing chuckles among Red Sox fans.
astorian| 7.20.11 @ 3:50PM
Baseball HAD to lower the mound in 1969, because baseball had become unbearably dull in 1968. Pitchers were SO dominant that Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with an average of just .301!
A pitchers' duel CAN be exciting, but not 162 pitchers' duels in a row!
Now, let me add (as a Yankees fan who likes Derek Jeter)... Derek Jeter is a great guy and a future Hall of Famer, but he is NOT a verygood defensive shortstop and never has been. Even Yankee fans know his Gold Gloves are a joke. Jeter is NOT the best defensivce shortstop in the A.L. He isn't even the SECOND best defensive shortstop on the Yankees' roster!
Pssst- there's a REASON the phrase "past a diving Jeter" inspires knowing chuckles among Red Sox fans.
Clint| 7.20.11 @ 4:24PM
You'd think anyone named Lisa would get an E-2.
Just sayin'.
JohnD| 7.20.11 @ 6:46PM
What is killing baseball is not the game itself, it is the grotesque inequities in payroll between the so-called small-market teams and the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, etc. MLB seems to think all any body cares about is the next Yankees-Red Sox series, and fans in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Kansas City can all go to hell (or to NASCAR).
Enduring 14 straight losing season for my beloved Baltimore Orioles is just ridiculuous. The essence of sport is a level playing field. Watching a $200+ million Yankee team play an $80 million payroll Oriole team is akin to watching a 200 lb boxer fight a 2 year old infant. Until MLB does something about that they can expect falling attendance everywhere except the two favored cities of Boston and NY.
By the way, I also deeply resent the fact that as a Maryland taxpayer I paid to build a beautiful ballpark in Baltimore for the exclusive enjoyment and comfort of rude, obnoxious (and often violent) New York and Boston fans.
Aaron Goldstein| 7.20.11 @ 9:28PM
If you think there's inequity in baseball now then consider the post-WWII state of MLB. Between 1947 and 1964, the Yankees appeared in 15 World Series (winning 10 of them.) In fact, the Bronx Bombers won five consecutive Fall Classics between 1949 and 1953. During this period, only two AL teams other the Yankees ever played in a World Series (the Cleveland Indians in 1948 and 1954 and the Chicago White Sox in 1959.) MLB's competitive balance is far better now than it was back then.
astorian| 7.20.11 @ 10:29PM
No, competitive balance isn't better. It just LOOKS better because we have so many more teams making it to the post-season.
In the Fifties, the best team won the pennant and everybody else went home. Today, the 4th best team in the league has as good a shot at winning it all as anyone. A wild card team that barely finished above .500 doesn't DESERVE to be in the playoffs... but once they're there, they can go all the way, which makes competitive balance look better than it really is.
Are the Pirates really a great team? No, but they don't have to be. They play in a division of weak "small market" teams, which means they COULD get into the playoffs. Once there, there's no reason they couldn't steal a series from a MUCH better team like the Phillies. The Pirates would have no chance of winning a strong division (like the AL East or NL East), but could sneak into the playoffs... at which point, the Phillies muc h better record means nothing.
That's because, in baseball, there is no such thing as an upset. Bad teams not only CAN take a short series from great teams, they regularly do. The Yanks and Red Sox DO dominate and usually make it to the playoffs- it just so happens that they don't always make it to the World Series.
Casey Abell| 7.21.11 @ 10:44AM
"The Yanks and Red Sox DO dominate and usually make it to the playoffs- it just so happens that they don't always make it to the World Series."
Is that why neither of those teams won their division in two of the last three years? Anyway, what's the problem? If different teams win the World Series every year, you should be happy.
LindaF| 7.20.11 @ 7:01PM
I did love the old days, and the old players, but, you're right, these kids today ARE good.
Rich Rostrom| 7.20.11 @ 9:18PM
Speaking as someone who has Jose Reyes as his starting shortstop on his APBA team, I have to agree that Reyes is a mediocre fielder. He doesn't make a huge number of errors, but he doesn't get to a lot of balls. His career Range Factor is only 4.18. Jeter's is 4.11.
By comparison, Omar Vizquel's is 4.69, Ozzie Guillen 4.70, Alex Rodriguez (as a SS) 4.62,
Barry Larkin 4.62, Edgar Renteria 4.33.
Among the really great fielders, Ozzie Smith's is 5.22, Don Kessinger 5.07, Cal Ripken 4.73, Alan Trammell 4.71. Honus Wagner may have committed 40 errors a season, but his Range Factor was 5.63!
He made 4,576 putouts and 6,041 assists in 17 seasons. Jeter has also played 17 seasons, and made 3,413 putouts and 5,887 assists.
Jeter (and Reyes) are just not very good fielders.
Jason John| 7.21.11 @ 2:00AM
There are poor Americans but they have much more opportunity to improve their situation than people in other parts of the world.
http://revitoldermasispsoriasiscream.com/
Nick| 7.21.11 @ 2:01AM
I can't believe anybody still gets jazzed for baseball since 1) they robbed us of a World Series for the first time in history, in '94, and, 2) we all know these so-called great "athletes" are all juicing.
Who thinks Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds belong in the same league as Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, and Roger Maris?
Casey Abell| 7.21.11 @ 10:46AM
Baseball has pretty much cleaned up steroids. This is like complaining about the Black Sox scandal. It's an excuse for disliking baseball, not a serious criticism of the game right now.