Originally Posted by too_on_too_out
Well, to be honest, I have caught some highlight reels on youtube, from mlb and nhl. I noticed one prevailing theme: everyone seems stronger, faster, bigger and duller. NHL season games are what all-star games were. Lots of crisp passing, play-making, shooting and precisely zero hitting and little imagination. Iow, the game seems perfected, and is dead as a result. Go back 30-40 years, to the scrambling, shoot the puck in, hard hitting, scrappy play of much smaller, less conditioned players and notice how many more times something unexpected would just happen. And that in an era when, due to rapid expansion, many of the players were actually minor leaguers filling rosters of expansion teams. The athletes weren't as good generally, but they did things that were way more interesting.
Next, Mlb. First, there was the batting helmet. Can't go to the plate without that. Next, came all the elbow, forearm, shinguard pads. Hmmm.... looks like some folks are nervous up there. Now - that face guard. And it's not comparable to goalies wearing masks. In hockey, the introduction of the slap shot and later the curved blade created something new: rising 90mph+ pucks at head level. In baseball, nothing's changed in that regard since the end of the deadball era. And you may say 'relievers' but the nature of pitching to the plate hasn't changed, no one is in more danger of getting dinged by a pitch now than they were 100 years ago.
But the batting helmet faceguard is just odd even in respect to injury. Was there a serious increase of facial injuries while batting that required an equipment update ?
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