MLB

[Choporoz]

You know, I was almost, sort of, kind of showing a little bit of interest in baseball........for the first time since 94.

 

My memory sux.....but MLBs is worse.

 

I was a huge fan for decades and quit in 94.  Never really went back, though recent years Brewers' successes started to pique my interest.....actually watched a couple games .... nope...I'm not going back

[Mike L]

Me neither 

They lost me in ‘94 also, I really don’t care what they do. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Jigfishn10]

I'm assuming because of the current lockout?

[DaubsNU1]

Got in to baseball when our family got cable in the 80's. As a middle-school kid, lots of free time on my hands...there were basically three teams I could watch every day:

 

• NY Mets:  these were the great teams of Doc Gooden, Straw, etc. I hated the Yankees, and the Mets were not far behind.  Nope
• Cubs: They were very good, with Ryne Sandberg and Harry Caray. All my friends love the Cubs...there were THE team at the time. Pass.
• Atlanta Braves: They were bottom-dwellers in the NL West for years, but had the great Dale Murphy. 

So I started following the Braves, even named my first yellow lab, Murphy. Followed closely until my kids were born...then I had too much other stuff going on to pay attention.

 

Nice to see the Braves bring home a World Series last fall...although I have to admit I probably watched less than 5 innings of the entire series. Again, too much other things going on. 

 

I do catch youtube highlights at work. 

[J._Bricker]

For me it’s pretty disappointing regarding spring training and the start of regular season. And the usual culprit driving the current situation….$

[Jigfishn10]

12 minutes ago, J._Bricker said:

For me it’s pretty disappointing regarding spring training and the start of regular season. And the usual culprit driving the current situation….$

Agree. Considering that the lockout happened on December 2nd and he owners and players knew it was coming since last season and neither side was proactive enough to be ready on December 3rd. They waited until after the Superbowl to do anything.

[throttleplate]

As a Baltimoe Oriole fan it would be best that the season never starts.

[detroit1]

Nothing like millionares bitchin' with billionares. Baseball can't afford to alienate what few fans they have left. Who cares? the NFL draft (lions superbowl) is coming soon.

[gim]

4 hours ago, throttleplate said:

As a Baltimoe Oriole fan it would be best that the season never starts.

My Grandpa always said "you can't lose if you don't play" when the Minnesota Twins had a long string of poor seasons.

[Bird]

I was such an avid baseball fan that I listened to WLW Cincinnati Reds broadcast every game and flew to Cincinnati several times a year to watch the Reds play at Riverfront stadium.

 

Watching Jonny Bench, George Foster, Barry Larkin, Dion Sanders was epic.

Now I'm just a casual fan, looking at scores on sports apps.

 

Never will I devote so much time and effort to a sport that's seen better days.....nadda.

[throttleplate]

21 minutes ago, gimruis said:

My Grandpa always said "you can't lose if you don't play" when the Minnesota Twins had a long string of poor seasons.

If not for the yankees the twins may have been in a couple more world series.

[Bird]

Ahhh Kirby Puckett, a fan favorite.

[volzfan59]

Not a mlb fan at all. I do enjoy college and minor league baseball. 

[Koz]

Rob Manfred is the worst thing to happen to baseball. The MLB and MLBPA should have been having informal talks months ago instead of waiting until the last minute.

 

I saw that Bryce Harper had a photoshopped image of himself in a Yomiyuri Giants uniform. It turns out that if the lockout continues the MLBPA will let players play on foreign teams. That might be fun, especially if the Nippon league temporarily removes or modifies its gaijin policy.

[islandbass]

12 hours ago, throttleplate said:

As a Baltimoe Oriole fan it would be best that the season never starts.

Sorry, bud. That’s a Mariner line, lol. 
 

Baseball will always have a place in my heart. I played it as a kid and was actually pretty good, especially at hitting. 
 

The Dodgers were my team back in the day with Ron Cey and Steve Garvey.

 

Living in the Pac NW, I have a love/hate with relationship with the Mariners. They ALWAYS fizzle out, run out of steam, even in their 2 best chances. They look good on paper and stink in reality. 
 

I love them because they’re my “home” team (I did feel weird switching loyalty from an NL to an AL team, lol) but I just hate how they never amount to anything and for a few years, I’d get suckered by the hype. Not anymore. I have a better chance of catching a steelhead in the Green River than the Mariners have of getting to the World Series. 

 

[N Florida Mike]

 I love the game itself, having played from 8 years old on my first team through college. Then 17 more years of city/ church league softball.

I am a lifelong braves fan. I’d listen to the games at night on A.M radio. Aaron, Cepeda, Carty all were big hitters, but their pitching stunk, so they were usually 4-5th in NL west. I could imitate batters in every starting lineup in the NL west , and a few in the east, esp. the pirates.

But It didnt have to be the braves playing for me to watch. I would watch “game of the week” with my dad ( if we werent fishing). 

I had baseball games set up on every side of my house. If it rained , I had a garage game I could play. Or I played baseball board games by myself. I had baseball books, like the Bronc Burnett series.  I traded cards with friends fervently. I loved the game.

And most of all , I enjoyed team baseball, esp. hitting. My first year I was like “ Smalls” on sandlot. My second year I was most improved player, and carried through until I was mvp on my college team one year.

I was still into baseball well into the 90s, regardless of ‘94. The Braves were at their pinnacle. After that, I lost interest in mlb, but still loved the game. What the mlb did to Atlanta about the all star game about finished me and MLB .  I was so glad Atlanta then won the world series, but I didn’t watch a lot of it.

Now I love catching some college games ( Go Gators)  Money and politics hasnt corrupted it ( yet ).

 

The game of baseball is a distinctly American game. The crack of the bat, the sound of ball hitting glove, seeing the dirt fog out of a glove when the ball is caught, the national anthem, the umpire hollering “play ball”, “take me out to the ball game”, cheap hot dogs, popcorn and coke, fireworks after a game in the summer, watching the Sandlot scene when “ America “ is sung by Ray Charles. All this and more is what I love about baseball.

[Koz]

31 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

 I had baseball games set up on every side of my house. If it rained , I had a garage game I could play. Or I played baseball board games by myself. I had baseball books, like the Bronc Burnett series.  I traded cards with friends fervently. I loved the game.

I made up a baseball game using three dice. Then I used a paper and ruler to make my own scoresheets for the games and seasons. I had stacks of them and even calculated player batting and pitching stats.

 

I had the Bronc Burnett books as well. For the geek side of me I had the Tom Swift books as well.

 

I was lucky enough to play baseball through college. I was never a stud player, but I was decent and I could throw strikes and get ground balls. But I got lit up, too.

 

I was out of baseball for a lot of years until my son was born. Then I coached rec, All Stars, and travel ball. My son has a gift when it comes to playing baseball, but between the lost COVID years and being a butthead teenager he lost interest. Too bad, because at 16 he throws in the upper 80's with good secondary stuff and he can hot the ball out of the park. He had scouts and recruiters following him at 13, but for now he has walked away from the game. I don't get it. Most people would kill for that kind of talent.

 

[A-Jay]

Been a Red Sox Fan my whole life.

And it was pretty hard to do early on, and you probably know why.

Either way, it just not Summer without baseball.

I had to stop being concerned about 'the business' of the game a long time ago.

I just want to watch the games.

Hope they can figure it all out.

A-Jay

 

[Jigfishn10]

I personally love the game, college, minors, pro. Don't really care about the business side and really tune it out, especially when you hear that a 23 y/o player turns down a $350mil contract offer.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/juan-soto-reportedly-rejected-nationals-350-million-extension-before-mlb-lockout-heres-why-hes-worth-more/

The business side is getting out of hand and really, it's taking away from the kids. These games - at least at Fenway Park - are set up so that the average family of 4 can't go see a game without giving up their 401K plan. It's a shame, because they lost the younger audience and player numbers from little league on up is way down. One year, my town was contemplating on not having a baseball LL season and we used to be a baseball town. 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Jigfishn10
SHould have said "not having a baseball season"

[islandbass]

15 hours ago, Koz said:

I made up a baseball game using three dice. Then I used a paper and ruler to make my own scoresheets for the games and seasons. I had stacks of them and even calculated player batting and pitching stats.

 

I had the Bronc Burnett books as well. For the geek side of me I had the Tom Swift books as well.

 

I was lucky enough to play baseball through college. I was never a stud player, but I was decent and I could throw strikes and get ground balls. But I got lit up, too.

 

I was out of baseball for a lot of years until my son was born. Then I coached rec, All Stars, and travel ball. My son has a gift when it comes to playing baseball, but between the lost COVID years and being a butthead teenager he lost interest. Too bad, because at 16 he throws in the upper 80's with good secondary stuff and he can hot the ball out of the park. He had scouts and recruiters following him at 13, but for now he has walked away from the game. I don't get it. Most people would kill for that kind of talent.

 

I hear you. My son was a natural. Only two seasons he played and one was in the major little league (the age that goes to the LLWS). He was an unknown on his team and his teammates had years on him. Thanks to my batting skills (lol) I got him up to speed. He started 9th on the batting list but the coach noticed his ability to hit and was moved him to the first spot. He was batting 450 or higher. Only one year in the majors? These kids today throw harder and faster than they did in my day and many play in select teams and he crushing it against this. 
 

He is more of an Ichiro hitter as he didn’t yet figure out incorporating the power of the hips consistently, but if you hit a single, double or walk every time you're at bat, that’s production a coach will notice and utilize. 
 

He too walked away from the game in pursuit of other interests and I had to respect that. Baseball is perhaps the only sport where batters are paid millions to “fail” lol. A 0.30 or your math test is an F. If you can hit a baseball 3 times in 10 at bats, they’ll pay you millions for such a failure, lol. Please, this is said lightheartedly. 

[N Florida Mike]

I also taught my middle son to play baseball, older son was more into football. Middle son would have been a great DH . He often either hit a home run or struck out. He was never a very fast runner and his arm wasnt great. But man, he hit some tape measure shots for his age until he quit at 15.

[Bird]

9 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

I personally love the game, college, minors, pro. Don't really care about the business side and really tune it out, especially when you hear that a 23 y/o player turns down a $350mil contract offer.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/juan-soto-reportedly-rejected-nationals-350-million-extension-before-mlb-lockout-heres-why-hes-worth-more/

The business side is getting out of hand and really, it's taking away from the kids. These games - at least at Fenway Park - are set up so that the average family of 4 can't go see a game without giving up their 401K plan. It's a shame, because they lost the younger audience and player numbers from little league on up is way down. One year, my town was contemplating on not having a baseball LL season and we used to be a baseball town. 

You are correct, a lifetime 300 hitter likely makes the hall and has a high hit count......think Rod Carew, Toney Gwynn but they missed more than they hit. Lol

 

[jbsoonerfan]

11 hours ago, Koz said:

I made up a baseball game using three dice. Then I used a paper and ruler to make my own scoresheets for the games and seasons. I had stacks of them and even calculated player batting and pitching stats.

 

I had the Bronc Burnett books as well. For the geek side of me I had the Tom Swift books as well.

 

I was lucky enough to play baseball through college. I was never a stud player, but I was decent and I could throw strikes and get ground balls. But I got lit up, too.

 

I was out of baseball for a lot of years until my son was born. Then I coached rec, All Stars, and travel ball. My son has a gift when it comes to playing baseball, but between the lost COVID years and being a butthead teenager he lost interest. Too bad, because at 16 he throws in the upper 80's with good secondary stuff and he can hot the ball out of the park. He had scouts and recruiters following him at 13, but for now he has walked away from the game. I don't get it. Most people would kill for that kind of talent.

 

Hate to hear that. I was just thinking about him the other day as I was reading one of your posts. Sports aren't everything, I bet he will excel at whatever he chooses to do in life.

[Bankbeater]

I will watch a game if there is a good one on TV, but I've never been one to follow specific teams and players.

[islandbass]

3 hours ago, Bird said:

You are correct, a lifetime 300 hitter likely makes the hall and has a high hit count......think Rod Carew, Toney Gwynn but they missed more than they hit. Lol

 

Indeed. It may surprise some, but many of the  big sluggers also struck out often. The home runs are remembered and the strikeouts forgotten. ?