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It's called America's Game. It's called the National Pastime. It's played by the Boys of Summer. It's a game of stories, a game of nicknames, a game of strategy, and a game of cat and mouse, and a game steeped in tradition. At least it used to be. Nowadays, it's become a game of, and for, Mathematicians, Accountants, Statisticians, Gadget Battery Chargers, and multiple new changes, some (many) which affect me like fingernails scratching a chalkboard.
I realize all sports have changed over the years. Training and equipment have changed enormously in all sports. Many players take a few weeks off at the end of their seasons, before getting back to training for next season by bulking up or losing weight, in all sports. In baseball, pitchers hope extra work will help them to be able to make changes to their velocity, drop angle, spin, movement, and location. They also start training quickly after the end of the season to work on this new pitch, or tweak that pitch that didn't quite work as well as they hoped in the previous season. The same goes for hitters, looking to make slight adjustments in their swing, not to hit for a better average, but to hit more home runs. Players also train more to gain or lose weight and reduce injury, as well.
Baseball's look changes many times, sometimes yearly, sometimes every couple years, sometimes more. What used to be a league of home and away uniforms, has become a fashion montage as the season progresses, with all the special uniforms designed and used throughout the course of a baseball season. There are uniforms that display the team's colors, ones that are used when teams play at home, some worn on the road, some honoring mothers, some honoring fathers, some honoring veterans, some supporting devastating medical conditions awareness, some worn with a certain connection to the cities where the respective teams play, and some having connections with ethnicity. All of those are great, as they do bring awareness of all these situations and people, but they also add to inventories and sales in Team Shops around the league, in which a high percentage of those sales eventually find their way into owners, then players, pockets, as well.
I've never been a fan of The Designated Hitter. I was less of a fan when for so many years, it was used in one league and not the other. I think it took away a lot of strategy from the teams, as far as bunting, maybe slap bunting, double substitutions, and the excitement of seeing pitchers surprise fans with an occasional home run, or key hit in a tense situation.
Speaking of bunting, how is it that a huge majority of players, making as much money as they make can't learn something as easy to do as bunting a ball to move a runner, get a hit, or execute a play like a suicide squeeze play? Also, why aren't we seeing more hit and run plays being used to manufacture more scoring opportunities, and more excitement? And what's up with the Ghost Runner on Second Base in extra innings? (Some of these new changes of the game are just more follies from Baseball Commissioner "Manfred" Mann.)
Baseball used to pride itself in being the only sport that didn't use a clock. Now it has a Pitch Clock, a Hitter's lock, a supposed clock for time between innings, mound visits, play challenges, and now pitch challenges too. I say supposed because many times in those last four scenarios, the times are not consistent. (Guess how I feel about this one.) All this has been implemented to speed up the game, (to which I keep asking, why?) which is ironic when there are delays a number of times when the new communication devices, which most players are wearing to know the pitch being thrown, are dysfunctional and there are stoppages while more devices are run out to the player whose device in on the fritz. Truthfully, was baseball that bad a game without all these new-fangled ridiculous technology toys being used?
What's with all the in-game interviews of players, managers, and/or coaches too? How would anyone like it if their surgeon was stopped in the middle of an operation to be interviewed by a reporter, or how many would like it if a car mechanic (at whatever the hourly rate for which certain repairs cost) stopped working on their car to be a part of an interview?
I'm not a fan of Interleague Play. I like the purity of seeing two teams in the World Series that have not played each other until reaching the Fall Classic. Interleague has also created situations, when weather creates super long rain delays if two teams from different leagues play each other at the end of a series, and the game needs to be delayed for long periods because it's the last time the two teams face each other that season, or creates Doubleheader situations causing the fans to either have to skip work, exchange their tickets for the rainout game which will be made up as part of the DH, get tickets for another game, or just plain miss the game. Trust me, I've sat through some of those delays, at times three hours in length or more, just because MLB needs to get those games played.
Moving on, why is MLB now partnering with streaming networks to air games that ordinary fans, many who can't afford to take their family to live games, now have to pay the streaming channel to watch including Friday games (Apple TV), Saturday (Fox Sports), Sunday (Peacock TV) and special games and events that fans need to pay for Netflix services (All Star Home Run Derby, The Field of Dreams Game)? Many fans already pay for the MLB and MLB-TV channels, but games on those channels are blacked out in areas, so some teams have established channels like Guardians TV, and others in Arizona, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Colorado, LA (Angels), Milwaukee, Minnesota, San Diego, Seattle, and others including KC, Miami, Washington, Tampa Bay, and Detroit, many of those which have to be subscribed to, to be able to override the blackouts of MLB TV for which they also are paying. (My asking why at the beginning of this last paragraph is actually a rhetorical question, as we all know where all this subscription money is going. Answer is in some very deep pockets attached to some very baggy pants worn by some very wealthy families and corporations that don't seem to know how much money in those pockets is, or ever will be, enough.)
I know I can cancel my season ticket package, my subscriptions to MLB TV, and Guardians TV, and my subscription to Sirius XM Radio, and just listen to games as we did with Dad, on our home AM Radio listening to AM 1340 (WKSN) because that station airs the Guardians, though there are other team followers aren't as lucky to have access to radio coverage in their areas.
I can also just stop following baseball altogether, but as most of you know, that can't be an option for me. I am a baseball fan, (short for baseball fanatic). If you looked that up in a sports dictionary, you might see my picture. If you've ever been to my home, seen my ride, or seen me in public when probably a good 75 percent (probably more) of my attire is baseball related, you know that giving up baseball cannot be an option for me.
So, even with the peeves and all, the greed and all, the changing of the game just because some can, the long delays, the overpaying to insure I can at least watch most (but not all) games on television, I can't, and won't, stop being around that small white sphere adorned with those 108 double stitches, that is pitched, hit, and thrown around that 360 ft. diamond-shaped infield and expansive outfield.
I Love baseball! It has given me a special bond with my son, Jon. It lets me escape the real world for a while and be a kid, a coach, an umpire, and a fan, all in the same game, wherever, and whenever, I hear the umpire shout out, "Play!"