8 Comments
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Bill Southern's avatar

Maybe it makes me an old fart, but I miss the old days, without all the data and video analytics, when players would just play the game.

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Paul Jackson's avatar

As someone who is constantly internally fighting that label, I try to take the approach, "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

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Gordon (The Athlete Archives)'s avatar

MLB needs another Ted Turner or Bill Veeck!

Who will be the next owner with the cajones to carry the torch of creativity, ingenuity and sometimes outright insanity?

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Paul Jackson's avatar

They need to be self-made, rich but on the low-end, creating some urgency to try stuff. Insider or outsider doesn't seem to be a factor. Early 40s, with the "that doesn't seem so hard" confidence that people have when they succeed at life well before anyone expects them to. Keep your eyes peeled...

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martin.english@gmail.com's avatar

My issue with the K-Zone graphic is that it is a two dimensional rectangle, rather than a 3 dimensional box.

In other words, is the strike zone being measured 2 inches, 4 inches or 6 inches in front of the batter's centreline ?

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Paul Jackson's avatar

And today we have the technology to actually see the ball's path through that box, or lack thereof...and it still has no bearing on the games. Progress marches on.

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Jeff's avatar

I got the opportunity to work on the Sony Jumbotron screens as a service engineer from 1988 thru 1998. I had always thought they would be used more for replays but it didn’t happen; only at the Meadowlands in NJ for horse racing & I think at Giants games too. I also thought how replays would slow the game which was not what MLB wanted.

Although I love technology I’d rather see them stop framing the ball. How can deceiving the umpires be legal?

Return the bases to their original size while we’re at it too.

But I do give Turner credit for trying new things. If you don’t try you’ll never know.

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Paul Jackson's avatar

Now that we actually use replay to fix things, having giant screens to show fans the plays makes perfect sense. Back then, not so much.

The 1970s had three owners who came into baseball from outside and did things that then were called weird and disruptive and today are called revolutionary. Charlie Finley, George Steinbrenner, and Ted Turner. I really wonder what baseball looks like today if the old-school "family" owners had done a better job keeping them out. "If you don't try you'll never know" nicely sums up the creative energy all three of these men brought to what was then a very uncreative sport.

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