since the all-star game dilemma, the ephedra thing and everything else is baseball the same as it was in the ruth, mantle, and dimaggio era?

yes back then they played the game it was supposed to be played no red bull or energy bars just straight up baseball

It hasn't gone bad, just peoples priorities are shot. It's because the long ball makes the loot now-a-days. So people will risk their health just for some extra loot.

i agree iggy but there are other things that have plagued baseball the past few years: a near-strike situation, steroid rumors, the yankess buying all the good players and the red sox not winning

I don't think it has gone bad, but it problly has turned a couple people away from the game.

Baseball needs a Commissioner with balls, like in the NFL. They need to clean up its image and Baseball fans will come back, guaranteed!!!

:hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop:

Originally posted by titan102390
yes back then they played the game it was supposed to be played no red bull or energy bars just straight up baseball

And they drank and smoked like fish. They were a tougher breed thats for sure. They would have made David Wells look like a lightweight!!!

The basic rudiments of baseball are fine, not changing. The image of players (i.e., Wells (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/10/sports/baseball/10WELL.html) can temporarily tarnish the pr of the game but I don't think has much effect in the long run. There's always going to be controversial stuff come out of sports. I'm not bothered by "the state of baseball." It just gives fans who are on the fence about whether they like the sport to jump off that fence and pursue other things in life like following Pitt basketball games (ha-ha, Iggy).

Originally posted by titan102390
since the all-star game dilemma, the ephedra thing and everything else is baseball the same as it was in the ruth, mantle, and dimaggio era?

Baseball still has its loyalists and always will unless they do something really stupid!!

Unless the someone tries to bend the rules of the game and gets away with it, anything off the field really shouldn't effect the fundamentals of the game which a lot of people love.

It used to be that a regular ML player had to have a real job to work at during the off season to make ends meet. Isn't it wonderful that they don't need to take a job away from us fans anymore?
Players used to play because they liked the game and getting paid to play was a nice bonus. Now, I can't even afford to go to a game with my family to watch yearly salaried millionaires argue daily with the umpires because a ball was called a strike.
Business has been very, very good for baseball.

Originally posted by nyyanks
Baseball needs a Commissioner with balls, like in the NFL. They need to clean up its image and Baseball fans will come back, guaranteed!!!

:hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop: :hop:

I totally agree. Bud has to be the worst commissioner out of the 4. This guy just makes a bad decision again and again. He really needs to go.

In a way, baseball hasn't just gone bad recently, it has been bad in one way or another since the beginning. Black Sox scandal, Babe Ruth being a womanizer and a drinker, Ty Cobb being racist, Mantle, Ford and a lot of Yankees from that era partying all night long. The cocaine era of the late 70's early 80's. It's always been there. There are always going to be bumps in the road for professional sports.

The game of baseball, as it is now, SUCKS.

When you have the Yankees with a team salary of $150-175M and you have the Expos paying $20-35M, that's no contest.

Basketball, in my opinion has got it PERFECT.

There is a salary cap; any dollar over that if penalized each dollar.

That way, the big markets and big owners (Mark Cuban) can pay $100M for entire salary, and be penalized for every dollar over the cap.

And don't even get me started on Pete Rose. He's been lying to us for the past 10-20 years....now, if he admits to gambling, which we all know he did via the 3000-page Dowd report, he gets into the Hall of Fame?

[QUOTE]
[B]Baseball needs a Commissioner with balls, like in the NFL. They need to clean up its image and Baseball fans will come back, guaranteed!!!

Tommy Lasorda for Commish!!!

Baseball isn't what it once was. There were no free agents or steroids back then. It's all about money now, not what the fans think or want.

i would watch alot more baseball if everyone didnt know who was gonna be in the playoffs and who was gonna suck before every season because of the huge difference in payroll. i will admit though, last season with the angels and the giants was a breath of fresh air. i actually watched a few games. now they have to do something about 8 hour long world series games (exaggeration...but doesnt it feel like 8 hours sometimes?). if they kept them at a cool 3 hours, alot more people would tune into the whole entire game.

i also hate to say it...but hockey is turning into baseball. maybe commisioner gary bettmann will actually do something good at the end of the next collective bargaining agreement (july 2004), unlike baseball did. baseball had a chance to fix itself, but bud selig did nothing and showed no balls.

two words to the question "...has baseball gone bad...."

BUD SELIG

lolololol

a tie game for the All Star game?
at his own field in Milwaukee

hahahaha

I have a feeling one day McGwire is going to be the commish.

I'd like to see more wild card teams in play...that will grab more attention from the fans.

esp. in august and september, rather than a team being eliminated b/c there's only 1 wild card playoff position

Originally posted by leftyshan
[QUOTE]
[B]Baseball needs a Commissioner with balls, like in the NFL. They need to clean up its image and Baseball fans will come back, guaranteed!!!

Tommy Lasorda for Commish!!!
lasorda would be good for the good, what was that show he used to host for the kids, I loved that show and it taught me so much about the game and I loved when they had the San Diego chicken on there.

being a Dodgers/Angels fan, I would love to see Tommy get the commish job.

Hell, a monkey from the San Diego zoo could do a better job than Selig

its all how people perceive it. with todays money and such, people out there have a shoter fuse when it comes to professional sports. those are the ones who usually are the fairwhether fans and cant follow a team unless they are winning. sports has become more of a circus with few people rooting hardcore for a team for a long period of time. i guess the increased player movement and shifting of leagues and payrolls might do that, but if you look at the game in itself, its just as good as back then.

EXACTLY!! I can't stand fairweather fans....ERRRR! Even though Pujols is my favorite player and I'm an avid Pujols collector, The Tribe is still my team.