Oh, how times have changed....

[FrankWakefield]

That brings to mind the comments of Enos Slaughter, grumbling about how heavy the sweat soaked wool uniforms were in the summer, how he'd hit about .295 and drive in about 90 runs (I may be misquoting his numbers) and he's whining about how he's having to hustle every spring in Florida because some rookie was trying to take his job.

Truthfully, at this moment I don't recall the first name of that Trout fellow who plays in the AL on that team with Albert Pujols. I hear he's good, I believe that... Albert was good, I saw him in St. Louis. Koufax, Gibson, Seaver, Drysdale, Veale, Bunning, Maloney, Spahn, Ford, Marichal... they were good. Mays, Musial, Cepeda, Clemente, McCovey, Mantle, Banks, Santo, Williams, Bench, Berra, Kaline, Yaz, Rose, Willie Davis, Aaron, E Mathews, F Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Flood, Biggio... they were good. And Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine, Tudor, Hershiser, Valenzuela, R Johnson, they were good in their day. In the moment, I've not called enough names... Tony Perez, B Robinson, Carew... and more.

I'm a fan of that 50s, 60s, and 70's baseball. In no way at all do I begrudge the money Alex Rodriguez made on those contracts-- that 2001 contract for 22 million. To pay that from ticket sales (not the team's only source of revenue) assuming 81 home games with 40,000 average attendance... that would be 3,240,000 tickets sold. That's an extra $6.79 out of each ticket to pay for ARod. (And it isn't his fault he got that money and started the salary increases, blame that on the owners, they did it to themselves.) After taking $6.79 out of each ticket to pay for that great short stop, there wasn't much money left over to pay the rest of the players. Ticket prices go up, hot dogs cost more, beer goes to $9 & $10 & $11.... ball games become expensive. Owners passed the cost of it all on to us, the fans.

So, I'm not a fan of baseball. Not of this modern 21st century $11 a beer baseball... I'm a fan of what I saw as a kid, and while in high school and college. I could drive to Cincy or St Louis, buy a ticket, food and beverage, and have spent maybe $20 on gas, ticket and eats. I think many of the folks think that way on this site. And I'm a fan of 19th and 20th century baseball, and the old cardboard that goes with that.

As for ARod, good for him that he got that money. I wish he'd gotten to play most of 2014, instead of having to miss that.

I'm still a Cardinal fan, even in the 21st century. But not like I was in the 60s and 70s.

As for this 21st century baseball, it's just less interesting to me. $11 a beer!!!! Where's that Miller High Life beer guy who would reclaim beer from places? I need him.