I Wish

[gonefishin]

James, here is my favorite Browns item that I own. It is an original George Burke postcard and hand written letter back to a young collector that wanted his autograph. Read the letter, it' pretty cool. He said this was the only photo item he had left, but graciously sent it to the kid. Pretty cool stuff.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by gonefishin

James, here is my favorite Browns item that I own. It is an original George Burke postcard and hand written letter back to a young collector that wanted his autograph. Read the letter, it' pretty cool. He said this was the only photo item he had left, but graciously sent it to the kid. Pretty cool stuff.

THAT is incredibly cool, sir. Debs Garms was one of my dad's favorite ballplayers. I can see why.

[Touch'EmAll]

I wish the Angels, my home team growing up, would have never traded Nolan Ryan.

[Eric72]

I wish:

• Mickey Mantle played on two good legs for an entire career
• Major League Baseball had integrated long before 1947
• Addie Joss, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Clemente, and many others had not died so young
• Harry Frazee had never sold Babe Ruth
• Baseball had never gone on strike in 1994
• The writers or Veteran's/Era/Whatchamacallit Committee voted in Bonds and Clemens
• The card companies never started cutting up vintage jerseys
• A .300 hitter with 40 stolen bases was considered at least as valuable as a .220 hitter with 40 homers
• Modern fans realized that wins mattered as a pitching stat back when hurlers didn't bail after XX pitches
• Modern fans realized pitchers matter
  
  I could go on and on and on; however, decided to stop after the first ten things crossed my mind. It's time to go look through one of my binder sets.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I wish:

• Mickey Mantle played on two good legs for an entire career
• Major League Baseball had integrated long before 1947
• Addie Joss, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Clemente, and many others had not died so young
• Harry Frazee had never sold Babe Ruth
• Baseball had never gone on strike in 1994
• The writers or Veteran's/Era/Whatchamacallit Committee voted in Bonds and Clemens
• The card companies never started cutting up vintage jerseys
• A .300 hitter with 40 stolen bases was considered at least as valuable as a .220 hitter with 40 homers
• Modern fans realized that wins mattered as a pitching stat back when hurlers didn't bail after XX pitches
• Modern fans realized pitchers matter
  
  I could go on and on and on; however, decided to stop after the first ten things crossed my mind. It's time to go look through one of my binder sets.

I wish baseball never outlawed PEDs, so guys like Trout and Judge could be hitting 100 home runs a year, and Kershaw and Verlander could keep pitching until they are 60.

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[Hankphenom]

I wish my 1960 Senators team, which was clearly improving at a rapid pace, could have held on just two more years in D.C. because then they never would have left. The town would have gone nuts over their 2nd place finish in the now 10-team American League in 1962 (as the Twins), and the brand-new D.C. Stadium would have been packed for every game. The idea of moving would have seemed ludicrous. Instead, I got an expansion team in 1961 that finished dead last for another three years of my youth to go with the cellar dwellers of my formative fan years of 1957-59 and soured me on the game for a long time. 34 years without a big league team in the Nation's Capital--what a disgrace! It still hurts to think about it.

[Bigdaddy]

I wish:

• Doc Gooden could have laid off the white powder,
• Josh Hamilton could outrun his deamons,
• Bowie Kuhn wouldn't have voided Vida Blue going to the Reds,
• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,
• That we could have skipped the era of the astroturf, all purpose stadiums,
• Steve Dalkowski and Smokey Joe Wood hadn't hurt their arms,
• The Reds win a post-season series before I pass,
• Hitters could swallow their pride and learn to hit against the shift.

[egri]

I wish Howie Fox had called the police, instead of trying to evict the drunks on his own, and the statheads running the game now would quit trying to make it as much fun as an IRS audit.

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

I wish:

• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,

The kicker is in between the wars, he had the chance to resign his commission and separate from the Reserves entirely; instead he re-upped, which left him open to being recalled for Korea.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

[*]The Reds win a post-season series before I pass

Amen.

I wish Billings, MT had renovated the old wooden stadium, Cobb Field, and helped maintain its glory and splendor, the creaking floors, the thunderous roar beneath the grandstand while buying snacks, and preserved the imagination of kids running wild and a booster club drunk and riotous by the 6th inning. Instead they built Dehler park, which reminds me of the Little League WS stadium.

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[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

I wish:

• Doc Gooden could have laid off the white powder,
• Josh Hamilton could outrun his deamons,
• Bowie Kuhn wouldn't have voided Vida Blue going to the Reds,
• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,
• That we could have skipped the era of the astroturf, all purpose stadiums,
• Steve Dalkowski and Smokey Joe Wood hadn't hurt their arms,
• The Reds win a post-season series before I pass,
• Hitters could swallow their pride and learn to hit against the shift.

I strongly echo the sentiment in bold, though it seems like a mere pipe-dream at this point (and I'm not getting any younger).

To add a couple of my own...

* I wish the Reds never traded Tony Perez, as they probably had a 3rd consecutive championship in them.
* I wish Cincinnati was a big market city.

[Kzoo]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I wish:

• Baseball had never gone on strike in 1994.

The Expos could have been WS champs. That team was stacked......And Tony Gwynn might have hit .400?

[Yoda]

Had he pitched for the Yankees instead of the Browns, I would wager that Ned Garver would be in the Hall.

[55koufax]

Let us close our eyes
Outside their lives go on much faster
Oh, we won't give in
We'll keep living in the past
Oh, we won't give in
Let's go living in the past
Oh no, no we won't give in
Let's go living in the past

the close of Jethro Tull's great song....

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I wish:

• A .300 hitter with 40 stolen bases was considered at least as valuable as a .220 hitter with 40 homers
  [
  s.

how many doubles homer and steals for the .300 hitter and better yet slugging and how many times did the .220 hitter strikeout? Context!..

[Leon]

I wish there wouldn't have been a MLB strike in 1994 which ended the season, around 50 games shy.
.

[SyrNy1960]

I wish Barry Bonds didn’t break the All-Time HR Record!

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Leon

I wish there wouldn't have been a MLB strike in 1994 which ended the season, around 50 games shy.
.

And that's my dividing line with baseball. I basically like everything before then. I could even stomach the AL DH and what I thought was over-expansion. Everything since has been a spiral down to the smoking dog pile it is now.

[Bobbycee]

Originally Posted by Touch'EmAll

I wish the Angels, my home team growing up, would have never traded Nolan Ryan.

Ha!!! Imagine being a Mets fan. They would have won another World Series at least if Nolan wasn't dealt for a washed up 3B.

[Orioles1954]

I wish baseball had a salary cap and floor. I wish Peter Angelos sold my beloved Orioles.