When I was a kid, that was the way real big league batters did it. What happened?
Sua
I’m not sure why most batters don’t anymore, but some batters still do, most noticeably Barry Bonds.
Choking up lets you be more of a contact hitter at the cost of power. Most players today would rather plow the ball and the long ball is encouraged.
Me, I’d love to see Honus Wagner/Ty Cobb’s split grip come back. 
Umm, BobT, can ya come in here? We need you.
A number of things.
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Players are much stronger today than they were in the past, even 20 years ago. Weight training is much more popular; ordinary players today have pipes like bodybuilders. I don’t know how the strongest man in baseball was in 1981 - Dave Kingman, maybe, or Mike Schmidt or Dave Winfield - but today every team has ten guys as strong as them. Everyone’s got massive biceps and lifts weights like a mad fool. If you’re strong enough to swing from the end of the bat, you may as well.
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Home runs are a more important part of baseball today, like it or not. It may not be pretty, but if you can draw walks and hit homers you’ll win more than you lose.
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Bats are lighter. When you think about it, why choke up on a bat when you could swing a lighter bat from the end?
I think also a lot of players now get their bats custom made. If you have the exact weight of bat you want, with the weight distributed just so, then there’s no need for choking up.
Wasn’t it Earl Weaver who said, “Just because you can only send one man at a time up to the plate doesn’t mean you can’t bring them back to in two or three at a time”?
That was supposed to say
Ignorant cricket-plying forgiener here
Please explain the meaning of “choke up” as used in the question. It is not obvious from the answers - at least, not to me :o
Gp
“Why don’t batters choke up anymore?”
—Maybe the teams provide emotional counseling for them now?
“Choking up” means grasping the bat a few inches above the handle. I believe the theory is that you get more bat control and more bat speed, at a cost of power.
Sua
It means to grip the bat higher up on the handle.
Grimp, choke up means to hold the baseball bat at a higher point than usual. Instead of the batter gripping both hands around the very end of the bat, a batter may “choke up” by holding the bat 4-6 inches higher.
I’m betting that there is an analogous term in cricket.
I think this is mostly it, as well as the increased emphasis on power hitting as opposed to “placement” and contact hitting.
Interestingly, if I’m remembering correctly, Hank Aaron gripped his bat backwards (in that his top hand on the bat was his left hand…usually the top hand is your throwing hand). As I understand it, this is a good way to break your wrists (or some such–there’s a definite disadvantage to this) on an inside pitch. But that’s how Aaron learned to hit.
Emotional counseling? You aren’t familiar with Albert Belle, are you?
In the mid 80s, there was a player, Kevin Rhomberg, who had a phobia/superstition whereby if someone touched him, Rhomberg had to “tag him back”. Baseball players, being the serious, mature adults they are, had compassion for this bizarre behavior.
Yeah, right. Someone told me that Rod Carew once touched Rhomberg at the end of an inning and ran into the other team’s dugout (where Rhomberg couldn’t go) and “psyched” Rhomberg out. That may be one reason why you’ve never heard of Kevin Rhomberg.