Baseball has changed:
No more small ball
4 to 5 inning starters
Rapid relievers who are worn out after facing 3 batters
Batters cannot strike out too much if they have a good launch angle.
"You ain't got a thing, if you ain't got that ding(er)"
Give every team a free double in the 10th inning and beyond, because 8 to 9 cannons in the bull pen is not enough to go 12, 13 or 14 innings.
A long reliever is now a pitcher who faces batters in 2 consecutive innings. Wowser.
I can't wait until the ERA leader in a league is the
only pitcher to complete 162 innings and when that happens you know that he will have had Tommy John surgery, a prerequisite for a career lasting more than 3 years.
Put all this together and what would you expect:
It might take a few years, but Aaron's HR record would fall.
All pitchers giving up more hits than their strikeout totals would be in the minors.
93% of all runs would be the direct result of a dinger.
Radio will once again become the predominant way to follow your team, instead of watching 30 strikeout victims walk back to the dugout in a four hour game.
More records will be added to the list of impossible to break.
Sam Crawford's 309 triples, etc
With the ascent of the strike out in the game, the record one might think would be most at jeopardy would be Nolan Ryan's career strikeout record. League SO/G over the last 100 years have steadily for the most part increased from 3 to 9. There are 154 pitchers, predominantly active pitchers, who have had a season with over 10 Ks per 9 innings. There are two active pitchers with career K totals at or near 3000, Verlander and Scherzer and they are 38 and 36 years of age. I don't see anyone approaching Nolan at 5714 strikeouts. Do you?
I find it ironic that in the age of the strike out and home run that Nolan's record may well be one of the most difficult to break.