Sad Day for Baseball

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...impose-rule-eliminating-home-plate-collisions

Goodell has ruined football and Bettman has done the same to hockey. Baseball has now just been weakened too.

Its sad nowadays to see the state of professional sports. While I never played elite level baseball, I was a catcher from the time I was 6 up until 20. I cherished a play at the plate. To be able to pop back up after being run over holding the ball up in my glove high above my head. Its one of the best accomplishments a positional player can make in baseball. Noone was forced to play the Catcher position. Usually you would find 2 brave souls on a team who WANTED to do it.

With all contact sports, there is an ASSUMED risk when you take the field/ice. Everyone accepts this risk. I know there are many people out there, myself included, that say if you are willing to pay me millions of dollars to go play the sports I love, I will put my body on the line.

There's a reason football, baseball & hockey are popular. There's a reason boxing was popular. There's a reason why UFC has become so popular. There is such a respect for those who do put their body on the line in the name of sport and entertainment.

Now, I don't have kids, so I'm not sure if my opinion would change if I did. But can someone explain to me the other side? Our sports are becoming watered down and I don't like it. I had gained a new appreciation for baseball over the past few years as the NFL and NHL changed so many rules. Baseball was the pure sport. So few rule changes in over 150 years.

What's next? The line that extends out form homeplate like in softball? Not being able to break up a double play? Not being allowed to wear metal cleats? Pitching machines?

:darkness:

 

From what I am reading, No. It can only be a tag play at the plate now, similar to a play at 3rd base. The catcher must offer the runner a clear path to the plate

 

Has everything to do with that. Owners don't want their star players on the DL, baseball players contracts, unlike football players is all guaranteed. Everything is about money.

 

You are 100% correct sir. It was legal and allowed when I played when I was younger. I started coaching baseball about 6 years ago and it was outlawed then. Not sure when it was changed. But yes I agree, it probably shouldn't be allowed amongst the youth. But as I said, I tihnk its a shame to take it out of MLB.

 

I will agree with you, that the early 90s was the best time period for hockey. Hockey, like football is a contact sport. It comes with the territory. Anyone who ever played hockey growing up, what was the #1 thing coached to you every practice? "Don't skate with your head down". If you take the physical aspect out of the sport, IMO, it lessens the quality of the sport.

Scott Stevens is a HOF hockey player. He wouldn't even be allowed in the NHL nowadays. And to me, that is a shame.

 

100% correct on everything you said above. And yes, I'm taking my anger out on Bettman, Selig & Goodell, but you are right, it goes way beyond and above them. I'm not a big "tough love" guy, but I definitely feel as a society we have become very soft.

Like you, we use to play tackle football in elementary school on our breaks as the teachers watched. We also use to play murderball (others may know it as something else). It involved throwing a tennis ball or rubber ball off the side of the school from about 60 feet and basically simulating a ground ball. It was great practice for baseball players. The downside is if you made an error, you would have to stand infront of the wall and take a shot in the back (if the guy throwing the ball was accurate enough). Teachers use to watch this and share in the laughs. And I am not talking the 1950s here either, but early 90s. It wasn't cruel or malicious, but the funnest game, looked forward to it everyday in the fall and spring. I can only imagine how barbaric this game would seem in today's age.