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Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

Frayed Knot Mar 31 2022 01:32 PM

No, I don't mean physically. I'm fine there. I'm talking about being in baseball shape. Between my disgust at the unwatchable pace of 2021's post-season games and the uncertain nature of the 2022 season that we all knew was hanging over our heads heading into this winter, it's like MLB got shoved to the back recesses of my brain where all the trivial stuff hangs out before it slowly leaks away for good. For instance, I had to remind myself on several occasions this past winter that we had signed Max Scherzer to a FA contract. I mean, I didn't miss it when it happened but then I'd intermittently forget it and so would need to have brief conversations with myself before settling on the fact that, yes, it was something that actually happened, not just a pre-lockout rumor. Marte was the same way but even more so. Only when I heard his named mentioned when ST started did I have an ‘Oh yeah, him!' moment. The perhaps too generic Spanish name of Miguel Castro wouldn't have rung a bell with me even a week ago and it was only after seeing that tall, wiry frame during a ST game last week did I recall who he was. And if I'm having this much trouble with NYM players I'm not going to have a clue to knowing who or where thine enemies are. As that font of all wisdom Rick Blaine might have put it: it's like last season seemed so long ago to me that I could no longer remember it, while the existence of this season was so tenuous that I wasn't about to make plans so far in advance. It wasn't just that I was mad that the two sides were locked in their protracted (and often inactive) battle over stuff it's that I found myself becoming indifferent to it all, a condition which MLB should view as even worse than mad. In the end I don't know if I ultimately would have followed through on my threat I made here (shortly before they finally settled) to boycott the season when it looked as though a chunk of the schedule was in danger of being canceled. But I was very serious about it when I said so. So with just a week to go before OD and all of two partial ST games on TV under my belt, I feel like I need to re-take Baseball 101 or something lest I risk being behind the rest of the children all semester. I'm sure the onset of games for real-sies will help to kick start things. But, man, I've never felt so out of touch.

Benjamin Grimm Mar 31 2022 02:03 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

I kind of felt the same way recently when I saw Luis Guillorme's name and thought, "Wow! I had totally forgotten him." And yeah, I'm having trouble retaining the notion that Starling Marte is a Met. (I wonder if his whole family is named after birds? Does he have a sister named "Flamingo" and a brother named "Ostrich"?) I lapsed into indifference after the 1994 strike, and I never fully got back to where I was before. I watched the 1995 World Series and it was the first one where I realized I didn't care at all what happened. That remains the last time I watched a post-season series that didn't involve the Mets. (The one exception was the last game of the 2004 ALCS, because I wanted to watch the Yankees complete their collapse.)

A Boy Named Seo Mar 31 2022 02:56 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

I bet there are lots more who feel like you guys. MLB has tried so hard to reel in new fans by changing rules to make games 8 minutes shorter, and they've succeeded in alienating a bunch of core fans along the way. But I'm sure there are scores of 12-year old kids who threw their playstations away and flocked to baseball after they put in the automatic intentional walk rule. :/

Gwreck Mar 31 2022 03:17 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

The deplorable conduct exhibited in connection with the lockout was bad, but even with that dark period over, we're still left with: -The abomination that is the designated hitter. -The idiotic “ghost runner” rule that privileges weaker teams, and “solves” only a very minor “problem.” -Expanded playoffs, further cheapening the regular season. All is not well. These are not ok changes, and baseball will be forever scarred until they are rescinded. I do expect I can still enjoy the game, but it'll never be quite as good as it was.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 31 2022 03:39 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

=Gwreck post_id=88009 time=1648761449 user_id=56] -The abomination that is the designated hitter. -The idiotic “ghost runner” rule that privileges weaker teams, and “solves” only a very minor “problem.” -Expanded playoffs, further cheapening the regular season. All is not well. These are not ok changes, and baseball will be forever scarred until they are rescinded. I do expect I can still enjoy the game, but it'll never be quite as good as it was.

Also, they'll be re-positioning second base so that it's a little closer to first (and third) base. More base stealing. Easier to go from first to third.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 31 2022 04:45 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=88011 time=1648762787 user_id=68] Also, they'll be re-positioning second base so that it's a little closer to first (and third) base. More base stealing. Easier to go from first to third.

Youse probably think I'm joking.

whippoorwill Mar 31 2022 05:00 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

At last I don't feel alone

Edgy MD Mar 31 2022 05:28 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=88012 time=1648766741 user_id=68] =batmagadanleadoff post_id=88011 time=1648762787 user_id=68] Also, they'll be re-positioning second base so that it's a little closer to first (and third) base. More base stealing. Easier to go from first to third.

Youse probably think I'm joking.


I have my doubts about this working.



More importantly, how often does a sports league respond to the increases in human performance by universally changing the field of play to make things easier to achieve?



They moved the goalposts back in football. They widened the key in basketball, and then they did it again. Isn't this more typical? They saw players working higher and higher in baskeball and nobody suggested they lower the rim.



There are exceptions, like the leagues futzing with the three-point line, but that was a new rule. Or professional women's basketball dialing back the diameter of the ball, which I mostly disagreed with. But the reason that people aren't stealing is not because the bases are too far away. And you can make a base bigger and it makes it closer to the catcher too, so good luck.



The reason that people aren't stealing is that they are — by the suggestion of data and now just by culture — trying to win the game by outslugging other teams. In another era, a few teams might zag in another direction, but teams are more than ever a part of a singular whole these days and so few people are trying to to go in a different direction from the zietgeist.

kcmets Mar 31 2022 05:42 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

I thought Seth Lugo was on another team, so can't go by me.

Frayed Knot Apr 04 2022 11:23 AM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

So sometime around mid-morning today it suddenly occurred to me, 'Holy shit, OD is in three days!!' Like I said, I need the equivalent of baseball boot camp.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 04 2022 12:02 PM Re: Coming into this season in the worst shape of my life

Thunderstorms predicted for Thursday in DC, so you may have a little extra time.