Play ball! (2023)

I'm excited. Tomorrow's Opening Day.

This will be the 48th Opening Day that I have experienced. Like most Opening Days, it will be unlike any other.

 

It's a little easier to pick out the differences this year compared with previous Opening Days. MLB is tinkering again. They sure like to do that.

 

I'll go through each of the changes with a not-so quick thumbs up or thumbs down. You've read about these plenty elsewhere but I got to weigh in!

 

1. Pitch clock: Love it. The length of games for the past two decades or more and the defense of the outright dawdling of players on the field has turned me off and I can't believe anyone is saying "but that's the way the game is played/love it or leave it." They either weren't around or don't remember when games took under 3 hours to play every damn day. I feel like I'm alone on this sometimes. It took the legendary baseball writer Thomas Boswell to come out of retirement to write a column, on what baseball used to be and what it can be now with a pitch clock, for me to find someone who spoke sense. "Yes! Finally, someone who remembers," I said. His best anecdote: Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, Bill Mazeroski's Home Run Game, was a back-and-forth 10-9 game with 10 runs scored in the final two innings and nine pitchers used. Total game time: 2 hours, 36 minutes. I am looking forward to games lasting reasonable times now. And they better not expand the length between innings for commercials to compensate. 👍

2. Larger bases and limited pick-off moves: I approve. Anything that promotes stolen bases is fine with me. I grew up when Lou Brock, Dave Lopes and Joe Morgan were doing their thing on the bases. Also, Omar Moreno, Cesar Cedeno and Willie Wilson. Then Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, Vince Coleman and Lonnie Smith. I can name so many others, Mickey Rivers, Ron LeFlore, Frank Taveras, Bump Wills, Miguel Dilone, Willie Randolph, Gene Richards. In 1980, if you did not steal at least 50 bases, you didn't finish in the top 10 in MLB that year. Games were exciting because of the stolen base. 👍

3. Banning the shift: I'm not a fan of outright bans. Shifts have been around in baseball for 100 years. However, I do want to see runs scored that involve singles and doubles again, so eliminating extreme shifts is fine with me.👍

4. Continuing with adding the runner on second in extra innings: Garbage. I know this appears to contradict me being in favor of shorter games, but games should run to their natural conclusion, that's an inherent aspect of baseball that is at the core of its charm. Fourteen-inning games don't come around that much, that's why baseball fans get excited over them. MLB had added this rule during the pandemic and now they're taking advantage of its establishment to continue to implement it against the best wishes of the fans, because its teams don't know how to manage pitching staffs and players, who don't know what a traditional doubleheader is anymore, aren't conditioned to playing extended games. I will continue to root for this rule to backfire spectacularly. 👎

 

5. The new balanced schedule: Why? I was a little taken aback by this when I reviewed the Dodgers' schedule a couple days ago. I knew it was coming but I wasn't quite aware that the Dodgers, and every other team, would play EVERYBODY this year. So, now I will somehow have to get fired up for the Dodgers' games against the Royals and the Mariners and the White Sox and the Rays and the Rangers. That's a lot of ho-hum games there guys. The Dodgers play the Tigers Sept. 19-21. That's the middle of a pennant race! I wasn't a fan of the Dodgers playing the Giants 24 times, but a schedule with more games spread out against NL teams would be more interesting to me.👎

 

OK, that's enough. Obviously baseball isn't like it was during the first 15-20 years I followed it. It's still baseball. There are still traditions and there is still rooting for your team to win the World Series. So there is still this post:

 

The last time the ASTROS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

 

The last time the BRAVES won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the DODGERS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the NATIONALS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the RED SOX won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the CUBS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the ROYALS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the GIANTS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the CARDINALS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the YANKEES won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the PHILLIES won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

 

The last time the WHITE SOX won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the MARLINS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the ANGELS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

 

 The last time the DIAMONDBACKS won the World Series, cards looked liked this:

 

 

The last time the BLUE JAYS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the TWINS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the REDS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the ATHLETICS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the METS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the TIGERS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the ORIOLES won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the PIRATES won the World Series, cards looked like this:

The last time the GUARDIANS won the World Series, cards looked like this:

 

The last time the BREWERS, MARINERS, PADRES, RANGERS, RAYS, ROCKIES won the World Series, cards looked like this:

Happy Opening Day, everyone. (And I mean everyone).

Get ready for some weirdness.