Caltrops - NFL2K3 - Re: short baseball article

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by OGF 07/22/2003, 3:01pm PDT

Look I have no problem with anyone liking todays game more then yesterdays. Baseball does have a slavish devotion to the past. Don't like that, I'm okay with that. It's your opinion. But to say todays players could go back and recreate there numbers with different bats, balls, and in larger stadiums? That's fucking stupid. This guy should shut the fuck up.

The game was more difficult in the so-called golden age of baseball. It was more difficult because of the conditions, equipment, and the quality of pitching. Just going on what you could change in todays game. Let's give them the old bats and balls. Make them play in the old outdoor stadiums, with the fences moved back. Look at the equipment they would have to use.

Bats: The bats were heavier with a smaller sweet spot. Harder to swing, harder to get bat speed. Can't turn on the ball as easily. Can't wait as long on the breaking stuff. Not to mention way more balls hit on barrel that doesn't hit the sweet spot. This dumbfuck just blows that off. Like none of that matters. What would the reduced sweet spot have done to these players averages, slugging percentage, etc...

Balls: Todays balls are wound tight, have low seems, and hard cores. Compare that to the old wound balls that had soft cores and raised seems. Not to mention that most were doctored or soaked to load up the weight of the ball. Look whats happen to home runs since they started to juice the ball. Doesn't anyone remeber the rabbit ball year. Guys who didn't hit more then 10-15 home runs a year suddenly hitting 30+. Players just got better? Fuck, I remember getting a gross of those balls and saying WTF? No seems, hard as a fucking rock. The things bounced off the infield like fucking superballs. It's common knowledge in the baseball community that MLB changed the ball to keep the hr's coming.

Stadiums- How many more home runs would a Ruth or Mantle have hit if they played in Yankee Stadium of today? How many would you subtract from todays players? Power Alley in Yankee Stadium used to be what 450? Most modern ballparks are 330 lines, 370 alleys, and 400 straight away. Compare that to the old outdoor parks where it was 350, 380,420. And the walls of old ball parks were 10 feet tall. Now there 7-8 feet. Think about all the home runs that would have been routine fly balls for todays guys. And vice versa. How many more home runs would someone like Mantle had? Or Ruth?

I won't even go into the whole steriods/speed issue. We won't talk about the sorry state of pitching over the last 10 years. Just count the bats, balls, and larger stadiums. That would cut todays players gaudy stats by a 1/3. At least a 1/3. If you really want to think the way the way baseball people do, think about alluminum and wood. So many players are great hitters in college. Then they get drafted and go to the minors. You put them with a wood bat. They turn into a completly different player. Now things are not so forgiving. Great hitters become good, good become average, most can't hit thier weight. You have to hit it on the sweet spot with wood. No so with forgiving metal. No more super quick hollow bat. Hit it wrong, break the bat, or dribble it out. Same thing would happen if they went back just to the old style bats. No more ash bats. Make todays players go heavy hard wood. Watch the numbers fall.

When I was in the minors we had a clubhouse guy. He was a old timer, very old school. Club house guy played in the fifties and hit 20 home runs one year. Used to tell lots of stories about the game. Always telling guys about todays bats and balls. How they made it easy. Talked about the shit people would do. Soaking balls to make them heavy. Moving home plate, or the fences. Guys wouldn't listen, most would laugh. Twenty home runs was nothing to brag about So one day they were razing him pretty hard about his 20 HR's, and skip heard. Made our guys hit batting practice with some of the older bats. Things were thick handled heavy hardwood. They weighed a fucking ton. Guys hit like shit. After words most aploigized to our clubhouse guy, cause they realized how fucking hard it was to hit with those things.