At a time when true baseball fans are cranky, Tevi Troy scatters sunbeams in “Welcome to Baseball’s Golden Age”. The decline in his favorite sport’s popularity relative to its rivals doesn’t faze him, for he looks at the horizon rather than the immediate vicinity.
Other sports have taken up much of the national attention that baseball used to dominate. The NFL is far more popular than MLB now, and my 15-year-old prefers the NBA. Mike Trout, the best player on the planet these days, is much less of a national celebrity than Tom Brady or LeBron James. . . .
As the recognition discrepancy suggests, baseball faces some problems. That said, on this opening day, I think reports of its slow demise are hugely exaggerated. In fact, in many ways, the game we see today is faster, better, and more exciting than ever before, even as it retains links to the past that will always give it more resonance than its competitors.
He credits the higher quality of play to three factors: physical conditioning, analytics and the steady influx of players from around the world.
Today’s players don’t show up at spring training having put on 30 pounds while selling insurance in the offseason, needing the summer to sweat out the winter’s beer. They presumably have lots of fun on their own time, but on the field they’re some of the most well-trained and ruthlessly focused professionals in the world. . . .
Another huge improvement is the rise of analytics, which is now used in nearly every sport but began in baseball. By employing statistics geeks and data analysts to figure out how teams can improve lineup construction, pitching, shifts, and offensive strategy (and drop questionably effective tactics like bunting and base stealing), the analytics revolution has broadened baseball from the preserve of jocks into a beautiful marriage between jocks, nerds, and weirdos. . . .
Analytics has also reduced the importance of money in baseball. If the net worth of owners used to determine who could buy championships, analytics has created a more level playing field. Despite the fact that teams like the Red Sox, the New York franchises, and the Dodgers routinely outspend their rivals (often by orders of magnitude), no team this century has won consecutive World Series. Because the average player is so much better, and brains now matter at least as much as brawn, there’s far more balance among the teams. No longer do we face a decade like the 1950s, when only one manager not named Casey Stengel won a pennant in the American League. . . .
Another sign of MLB’s strength is its international presence and appeal. Baseball has long been played in Japan, Cuba, and Korea, of course, and MLB has had big fan bases abroad for decades. But now, generations of those foreign fans have grown up to become some of the best players in the world, and the world still sends its best to America.
It’s very likely true that the great nines of a century, or even half a century, ago would look like minor leaguers if they took the field against even the lowliest of today’s MLB teams, but Mr. Troy’s optimism about the future of baseball rests less on the quality of play than on the quality of memories. “No sport can match baseball when it comes to stories, in part because of its long history, but also because the sheer number of games provides a stage for more characters, plot lines, twists, and shocks than any other American sport can muster.” One reason why the stories retain their interest is baseball’s extraordinary continuity.
The combination of changes to the game with a persistent reverence for its history is why baseball will long be with us. And it will continue to look much the same as it always has. Watch a professional football game from the 1950s, and it’s played between the tackles – not in the air. Watch an NBA game from the 1960s, and nobody dunks or shoots beyond the free throw line – today it’s only around the basket or beyond the three-point line.
But the iconic moments in baseball – Willie Mays’ over the shoulder catch, Bobby Thompson’s Shot Heard Round the World, Bill Mazeroski’s World Series-winning home run, Ruth’s called shot – all happen at roughly the same frame rate you still see today. When the fans of 2122 look back at the games from 2022, and at the ones from 1922, I believe they’ll see a single continuum, and have no problem relating to any of it. It’s in the nature of the sport itself.
Incidentally, Mr. Troy recounts a few baseball stories along the way. My favorite among his tidbits is an incident from 1950. Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto received a warning that he would suffer death or grievous bodily harm if he showed up in Boston for a series against the Red Sox. Yankee manager Casey Stengel suggested (maybe as a joke, maybe not) exchanging uniform numbers with Billy Martin, a notorious tough guy. Rizzuto refused, saying he would be less in danger if the Boston fans thought he was himself than if the Boston players thought he was Billy.
America would be a better land, no doubt, if baseball were still the premier the National Pastime, but de gustibus non disputandum est. Mr. Troy exhorts us to look back to baseball’s memorable past and forward to a bountiful future that will generate yet more memories. Play Ball!