How has Baseballl changed in the last 50 years?

The Game Room
21

One thing that’s hard to imagine now were the informal, anti-fraternization rules. If players got too chummy with players on the opposite squad, they could get fined in clubhouse kangaroo courts. Rivalries were a bit more bitter and brawls were more common and severe. The other team was THE ENEMY. Now? These multi-millionaire coddled weenies get together on the basepaths exchanging stock portfolio tips and playing grabass.*

*That last sentence was written by an imaginary, cranky old baseball ‘purist.’

22

They used to be supposedly random and were laughably cursory. It was when the opposing manager knew a pitcher was scuffing/scraping/vaselinig the ball that they’d do a solid check and often nail the pitcher. I wonder if the umpire’ ask - like a cop would during a search - do you have any sharp materials in your pants pockets?

ETA: I remember hearing that in the 50’s and before, they’d use the same ball for much of the game. Last time I watched, it was like a foul tip meant a new ball (the former game ball would often be inspected by players or manager in the dugouts)

23

Yeah those sorts of things used to come from some paid computer nerds at SportsComp or somesuch.

With the tech today, I’d not be surprised if a computer advises the manager the first baseman should back up a bit and, yeah, next pitch should be a slider.

ETA (and not about stats) but not to make 3 posts in a row, what Hernandez was doing charging the plate on likely bunts was inherently dangerous esp. if the batter was lefty regular player and swung at the pitch, That would at least be frowned upon and the next pitch (when it was allowed) would be aimed for that batters ear.

24

It never happened in the 1986 NLCS, either. Hernandez misremembered something. Dykstra twice pinch hit against a left handed pitcher - Bob Knepper - but didn’t homer against him.

25

I always liked The Onion’s version of that guy:

26

The number of balls per game changed greatly in the 1920s when Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was struck and killed by a pitched ball. After that, they started using more clean balls and also outlawed the spitball.

According to a little bit of research I just did (I’ve actually been meaning to look this up), players recall “dozens” of clean balls available in the 50s.

The Wikipedia article on baseballs says teams are required to provide 156 balls per game, but there’s no cite. Most sources do say that 100-120 balls will be used per game.

And yeah, they do get new balls A LOT. Any time they want one. There doesn’t seem to be a rule about it. If a pitcher wants a new ball, if an umpire wants a new ball, if a catcher wants a new ball, there will be a new ball.

So, new clean balls have been a thing for over 100 years but it does seem like every year it gets more and more frequent.

27

Anyway, as to what’s changed in the last fifty years, the main thing is that MLB makes way way way way more money. And that affects the single biggest change in MLB:

FREE AGENCY. As it happens, 50 years ago was the first year of free agency.

In 1975, the average attendance for an MLB game was 15,403 per game, which was the fourth highest average in MLB history and the three slightly higher ones were all 1972-1974. It would never be that low again or even close - it jumped 10 percent in 1976 and shot up from there. This year so far the average is 27,500 and it will be higher at season’s end. The doubling of per game attendance (which is across 30 teams, not 24 as existed in 1975) is despite the fact that inflation adjusted ticket prices are higher (though not by a ludicrous amount.)

Furthermore, teams today make WAY more money from advertising, marketing deals, merchandising (one of the most obvious visual differences between a 1975 MLB crowd and a 2025 crowd is how many people are wearing MLB caps, jerseys, etc.) cable deals, and the like. MLB teams do a good job trying to hide their actual revenue, but they’re making boatloads of it, and that’s why the players get paid more than ever. Their becoming free agents is the main reason, but note free agents are getting more than they did ten years ago, 20 years ago, and so on.

Everything about MLB revenue and spending is up. It’s not just that the players are making more; everything is. The quality of stadiums today that the teams play is is absurdly, ludicrously superior to what exists now; no stadium in 1975 matched the quality, comfort, cleanliness, or overall professionalism of places like PNC Park or whatever San Diego calls their ballpark now. Even the stadiums that have lasted since then like Wrigley or Dodger Stadium have been substantially improved. Multi-use stadiums have been almost entirely phased out in favor of baseball-specific facilities. Why? They can afford to. Actually, now that Toronto has converted their stadium to baseball-specific and the A’s have left Oakland, I don’t think anyone plays in a multipurpose stadium anymore.

Teams put FAR more emphasis on training, medicine, and the science of sport. They put more emphasis on international scouting (helping with another big change - more players from different countries. Japanese and Korean players were not in MLB in 1975.). And yes, they more more emphasis on analysis. This is all a natural outgrowth of the fact that there is way more at stake.

28

I would say that a third “l”, as seen in the thread title, is a significant change.

29

I just watched the relevant section of the ESPN doc. It was the 9th inning of game 6 of the NLCS against Houston at the Astrodome. Dykstra pinch hit against Knepper and hit a triple.

30

They have ads on the uniforms now. I find that a bit off-putting.

Wondering how long it’ll be before the uniforms ARE ads, like in soccer.

31

There was a conversation in another baseball thread here recently, in which someone was arguing that Nolan Ryan was clearly not one of the top players on his teams in the 1980s, because he was only making about a million dollars a year.

What that person was not taking into account was just how much lower baseball salaries were 40 years ago. In 1980, when Ryan signed a million-dollar-per-year contract with the Astros as a free agent, that made him the highest-paid player in baseball, at a time when the minimum salary in MLB was $30,000 a year (which would be roughly $119,000 in 2025 dollars). Making $1 million (or a bit more) per year put Ryan at or near the top of MLB salaries throughout the 1980s.

This season, the minimum salary is $760,000, the average salary is just over $5 million, and over half of players (55%) are making at least $1 million.

32

Yeah, it would be weird to say he wasn’t great because he made a million dollars, I don’t recall that one coming up.

Salaries are rising because ballplayers are worth more, and they’re worth more because the sport makes more. Quite a lot more. All the big sports do, in fact - it isn’t just baseball.

33

Oh rats! In my defense, Firefox was extremely lagging my keyboard but error on the OP.

I did once see a game played in Old Bethpage village, dunno what to call it but one of those places set in the 1860’s. I watched a game called “Base Ball” which they noted was how it was supposedly spelled. No gloves, underhanded pitching. First strike was a freebie - you’d be warned you only had three more.

(pedantic correction): In the 1920’s the spitball was banned yet “grandfathered” out. 17 pitchers used it - I dunno exclusively or any kind of pitch - but the famous Burleigh Grimes was allowed to use it till 1934. Dunno if they’d face their back to the hitter or put the ball in the glove and spit (and could they use vaseline or if it existed KY gell?).

34

Exactly so.

Growing up in Green Bay in the 1970s, I was, of course, a Packers fan. At that time, most players – even the starters – had side jobs that they worked in the off-season (a lot of them sold insurance or cars), in large part because they simply didn’t make a whole lot of money playing football. In 1978, for example, the average NFL salary was just under $62,000, and the minimum was $20,000. Training camp and preseason games (and teams played six preseason games through 1977) were important for getting players back into playing shape, after 6+ months away from the sport.

Today, where the minimum rookie salary in the NFL is almost $800,000, and the average salary is over $3 million, players can afford to spend their off-seasons training, rather than selling cars.

35

I can see how Hernandez conflated the at-bats by Dykstra. In both instances, he was pinch-hitting for the pitcher (Aguilera in both cases) and Dykstra was solid against lefties over his career (.750 OPS) and probably Johnson’s best option regardless of handedness on days Dykstra didn’t start.

In game 3, Dykstra struck out against Knepper but came up again in the ninth and hit a walk-off, two-run homer against righty Dave Smith.

In game 6, Dykstra pinch hit in the ninth and hit a triple off Knepper.

Hernandez saying ‘it wouldn’t happen today’ is silly and misleading. Pinch hitting for a pitcher was routine and batting a lefty position player agains a lefty pitcher was almost always a far better option.

36

Yeah, but Davey Johnson’s 8086 IBM PC wasn’t the only thing telling him that if the pitcher tonight is a lefty, Mookie Wilson is starting and Dykstra otherwise. Platooning was routine, esp. for crowded outfields like the late 80’s Mets.

ETA: Wasm’t Dykstra at least adequate at 2nd base … (eta again - sorry! - nah, strike that. As a lefty he’d not be on 2nd…)

37

“Living museum.”

38

Those are not informal. It is enshrined in Rule 4.06

Players in uniform shall not address or mingle with spectators, nor sit in the stands before, during, or after a game. No manager, coach or player shall address any spectator before or during a game. Players of opposing teams shall not fraternize at any time while in uniform.

39

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line.
In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I’ll be safe at home!

  • George Carlin

I know he did that routine a lot yet somehow I was reminded of it when I recalled - thanks to instant replay and manager challenges - the neighborhood play is now enforced on double-plays. I can’t think of the football equivalent/difference anyway.

40

Interesting. Was it ever enforced by MLB? Obviously, going into the stands during a game would be a no-no even today, but otherwise it seems like something that if it ever happened, it was a long time ago.