THE BIG CHANGEUP!

I have been following baseball for over 68-years. In those years I have seen how things changed. The simplicity of what once was a beautiful game, one executed in poetic standards and ballerina motions has taken on a new twist.

Years ago, cheating meant watching the catcher’s signs if you stood on second base, or throwing a baseball with some saliva or petroleum jelly. Maybe you inched off the first base a little more than you should before a pick-off throw was invited.

Stats about a pitcher or the arm of some outfielder or infielder’s range were recorded in your head or even on a notebook, this was not cheating, it was common sense.

Today, the whole world of baseball has changed. Some nerd, knowing nothing about the nuances of baseball and its play, but everything about the averages of probability, has introduced a thing called ‘analytics’.

The once simple scoreboard that overlooked the outfield was changed manually by someone to place or replace digits to keep the fan in the stands abreast of the progress of the game. Today, Jumbo electronic messages changed in a Mila-second are flashed across the whole stadium as fans are kept up-to-date about the current game across the country and all games coast-to-coast and in between.

There is a thing called the ‘Designated Hitter” that has once again changed the symmetry of baseball, the perfect balance of fielder/hitter and the values thereof. Even dress has made inroads into the simplicity of the game. Teams wore stirrups and everyone was uniform to his own team, now they wear their pants down under their heels, look sloppy and unprofessional.

Ballparks once were asymmetrical, went the way of symmetry like cookie-cutters laid them out, realized how bad it was and went back to the asymmetrical look, that reflected the neighborhood they stood in, not the vast parking lot they now exist in.

Recently the Houston Astros and later the Boston Red Sox were implicated in cheating scandals. Cheating was always part of baseball as we know, not only did they load the baseball, but the bats were sometimes loaded with lead or cork or some substance hidden in the barrel of the bat. It was cheating, as we knew it and it was accepted by the powers that be as they tried to curtail it. Records were not expunged or erased and games were not stricken from the record books, baseball was asymmetric and beautiful.