[z28jd]

The worse modern baseball gets, the more I like diving into history. I barely watched baseball over the last few months of the 2023 season, and I have little interest in it going forward. It's amazing how many fans think the quality of play even in the 1920s was awful, yet they are okay with watching 1,500 guys being used per season now when the popularity of baseball in the U.S. is continually dwindling.

So many people don't realize just how good you had to be to get into the majors back then when everyone played baseball. Every small town had teams and cities had their own leagues. People just played a ton of baseball. You look at the old newspapers from big towns and they had 20-30 boxscores on the weekends. Obviously that wasn't everyone playing either.

I loved baseball growing up, but it was tough to ever get games going, so a lot of times I would spend hours playing catch with a tennis ball and a brick wall. Or just hit baseballs in a huge open field where my grandparents lived, collect them at the other end of the field, then hit them the other way. People now just don't play it often like they used to do.

These players now are training in an academy and barely playing real games. I had a job watching minor league ball for the last 14 years and did a lot of it before then, which is what landed me the job. These players in Low-A today are all toolsy player. The actual games though are garbage compared to just 5-10 years ago at the same level. Almost no one can play the game right, yet this is supposed to be the future of the MLB?

For those who don't know, MLB made minor league roster size cuts two years ago. They got rid of leagues, which are now non-affiliated summer collegiate leagues if they survived. They are cutting minor league roster spaces even more for next season. They are keeping the guys who have tools, throw hard/swing hard, while skilled low upside players are no longer there. In theory that makes sense, but these raw tools players used to get better due to the competition. Now they are just playing against other guys who are tools players. I don't think MLB anticipated this, but they have caused a real issue, which brings me back to the old days.

If you wanted to play baseball back during these Old Judge/T206 times, you just went outside and played. If you were great, you could play in one of these local leagues against people who played all of the time too. A lot of people were just good at baseball, and if you were really good, you could play minor league ball, and if you were great you could fight for one of the few MLB jobs available.

When you think about those odds back in the day to make it, then you factor in the conditions during the time. As good as you think any current player is right now, they aren't lasting a full season in 1920, and those zero chances of lasting go even lower (yes lower than zero, go with me here) the longer back you go in history. There are zero MLB players right now willing to get in the box against Amos Rusie, without a batting helmet, padding, batting gloves. Then need to go out and play without a glove in the field? We got an overnight eight-hour train ride and an exhibition game to play tomorrow, before more travel? They couldn't wave a white flag hard enough to end that simulation.

That's why I like the older players. They were gladly doing what no one now could do with no guarantee that they keep their jobs. Their stories are all great.

I just researched Harry Wolfe, who played 12 big league games in 1917. His pro career started in a low level of the minors with an Opening Day performance during the 1911 season that was so bad that he was released that same day at 22 years old. He then didn't play minor league ball until the following season.

That's a great story of perseverance. You can't find too many MLB stories that start with someone being released after one game in the low minors. Especially not someone who was college graduate age already. That's what you find with older players and what makes collecting their cards so interesting