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Originally Posted by One Post Wonder
Another problem is that we've had a lot of great analysts come along and dissect the game, and determine the optimal way to play. And the optimal way to play baseball, by the current rules, is boring. A batter trying to draw a walk is good strategy, but boring to watch. Bringing in a reliever to pitch to one guy is boring to watch. Conservative (at least by historical standards) baserunning is good strategy but boring to watch.
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This X1000. The game has been absolutely ruined by nerds. They crunch numbers over and over ad nauseam, they break down every stat to the micro-decimal, and they invent stats that are impossible to understand.
But the nerds are absolutely incapable of factoring one major element into their reasoning. And that is....
the HUMAN element. That was the one thing that made baseball great: HUMAN BEINGS. They have ignored the fact that baseball players are living breathing (and in some cases, despicable) people, and have consequently sucked all the greatness and all the magic out of the game. Baseball use to be magic. Now, it's insufferable.
Managers are now puppets. (read: Aaron Boone/Alex Cora). The nerds upstairs run the show. Hey nerds! Thanks for making baseball suck.
Another thing that murders baseball: Pace of play; the games have become interminably long. And in baseball's golden age, it was never like that.
I did my own research with a clock. Average time between pitches in a game 30-35 years ago: 8-10 second. Average time now: 15-20. And those are games when David Price ISN'T pitching. Average time for commercial breaks 30-35 yrs ago 2:00 to 2:30. Average time now: a little over 3 minutes.
In the end, It's really hard to follow a sport that keeps punching itself in the face. If baseball ended. I could care less. If OOTP ended, I'd be bummed.
BTW, People didn't get hit in the face with foul balls 30-35 years ago because they didn't have smart phones.
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...and they put Bud Selig, the poster boy for all of the above, in the Hall of Fame. Bloody hell.
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I always wished the ghost of A. Bartlet Giamatti would come back to strangle Bud Selig to death. A. Bartlet Giamatti was the last REAL baseball commissioner. The beginning of the end of baseball was when Bud Selig took control.