Quote:
Originally Posted by jingram058
Yes, everything changes. I am not that far gone. Yet. But there was a time in my youth when the ballplayers lived in the same neighborhoods as the fans. Even just a couple of years ago I bought bleacher seats at both Petco Park in San Diego and Yankee Stadium in New York for something like $15. I enjoyed both. But that's it. I can't and won't watch on TV. My wife does, and I go hide in my man cave bedroom. It's just obscene to me what ballplayers make. I don't care what the owners make; they either have the wherewithal to put a team on field, like the Dodgers Steinbrenner-like approach, or they don't, like the Pirates, who haven't won anything in decades. One wonders how teams like that survive. But I just can't rationalize watching multi-millionaires prance around in cricket pants, going through the motions of what was once a fantastic national pastime. And of course, with all the money comes the worry over getting a hangnail and having to miss the season. Read about Lou Gehrig and what he put up with before ALS finally stopped him. Sure, pitchers throw 100+ mph. Big effing deal. Even now I could time my swing to that. But if it breaks at that speed, well... But throwing that fast inevitably leads to breakdown, sooner rather than later. But like Leon, I have washed my hands of all the idiotic rule changes that had to be put into place.
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When the players lived in your neighborhood they were being screwed by the owners under the reserve clause. I assume you’d rather go back to the days when Al Kaline had to work for a car dealership in the off season?
How old are you, anyway? Did you stop watching in 1979 when Nolar Ryan got a million bucks per year for four years? Were you watching in 1966 when Sandy Koufax got $125,000 - equivalent to over a million dollars today.
Were you watching in 1941 when Hank Greenberg got 55,000 - also over a million bucks in today’s money?
I’m generally interested in when baseball was such a fantastic pastime compared to today? Take any era in baseball history and your exact complaints could be cut and paste into articles written back then - you just have to adjust for inflation.
Right now I can get two Tiger tickets for $12 each on stub hub. That’s pretty much the same price I would have paid in 1984, adjusted for inflation, for my $4 bleacher seats at Tiger Stadium. By comparison, it cost me $100 for a Red Wing ticket this Winter - same evil owner too.
Baseball today is just as good as it ever was. If you liked the game in 1970 I don't get why you wouldn't like it today.