AMEN JOE! Congress is too busy to check over whats really written in any bill but has time to work on this mess in baseball---- let Baseball take care of baseball--- (that beeing -- the fans) I hear Congressmen all the time saying let the market do the talking... well LET IT!

Gee-- any team going to the line 22times might not want to complain to much about officials (but I have a time or two myseld)

Sure hate to see you agitated Joe. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about Congress, but I don't believe Bud Selig can do anything. It is time to put Bud on the shelf and bring back Judge Landis.

"Baseball is something more than a game to a young boy...Destroy his faith in its squareness and honesty, and you have destroyed something more; you have planted suspicion of all things in his heart". Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Baseball has not made any comeback or advancements at all, and it is boring to read about how it has come back. It has been in decline for years and years and it still is. Television or cable has made strides, not baseball. Actually Sports Center has done well, it has obviously sold baseball well with film clips, but there is no one in the seats when you watch these home runs. Baseball players are athletes who for whatever reason (money) that could not make it in football or basketball. Baseball, Major League Baseball is a video game for most people. I know the streets are lined with ticket stubs from ball games that people just got back from, but it is just not that way, not many people go to games. On a blog here many people wanted to go to NY to the Hall of Fame, we're not talking darkest Africa folks, it is just a few miles away, why haven't they been to Cooperstown if baseball is so big a deal. It is not the peoples game anymore, even Little League is not as great as it was. Here in Bloomfield they took a great place to play ball and moved it out of town I don't even know how to tell someone where it is but one thing I do know is that kids from Hashtown cannot ride their bike to the ball diamond anymore if they wanted to go out for ball or watch a game. I assume it was a real estate deal and it worked for some one, but it did not work so well for some. And the sad part is that Little League was great in Bloomfield once upon a time. No blame is in order but baseball is still in decline. One must admit they have tried and tried again to sell baseball and they have only been able to make it a video game. No one watches many complete ball games on TV and when a person does get into a game it is only that they noticed that the game was close or some phony record is about to be broken. No one cares what someone does to get on TV. Wrestling has made a better comeback than baseball. And yes no one cares how a wrestler got to be that size. I wonder what Ted Williams was on when he decided at the top of his game to take time off and go to war in Korea, must have been something really good huh. Or Bob Feller, what was he thinking, and many others, back when baseball was a National Pastime, it is not now, those days are gone. If Mountain Landis were commissioner of baseball there would not be enough players who are in the league now to make up more than a couple of teams, the rest would be on suspension, probably many of the managers and owners also, in other words baseball would have to make a comeback in order to have a league, a live league not a Television League. And the strange thing to me is that I do not know anyone who bets on baseball, if it was a big game more people would bet on it, many bet on football and basketball. I always wondered how Pete found a guy to take bets on baseball, I don't know where you bet on baseball except in Las Vegas. I would like to hear a good argument for the Designated Hitter and how it helped the game, the game not a washed up players bank account or a film clip on TV. And congress talks about baseball, well we will see if the mighty American Government can bring back baseball no one else has been up to the task. Oh, that thirty year old Little Leaguer did not do much to help either, nor the people who tried to defend him, you had to feel sorry for the kid. If kids can't make it fun again I don't see all those look alike talking suits doing much good.

79 million went through the gates of MLB this past year and this is the 4th straight year of record attendance.

I've not been to Cooperstown for many reasons, but it hasn't a thing to do with whether or not that I am a fan. Sometimes we just get other things going on in our lives that take precedence over what we want to do. I love to watch baseball, on TV or in person, I just love the game.

BBallfan, let me offer a response to some of your questions and statements.

"It is like I said "phony records" how many more teams are in the league now than when Ralph Terry pitched" -- Sure there are more teams than in the early 60's, but the fact remains that attendance continues to increase each year, which is evidence of growth and support for the game.

"How many games did pitchers win last year by pitching nine innings, probably not many. Complete games pitched are a thing of the past, back when there were about twelve teams." -- This is true because baseball is a dynamic game that is constantly changing. Managers began to realize that they can win more frequently by using relief pitchers in specialized roles about 30 years ago and those tactics have continually evolved into the present day strategy. Go back to the dead ball era and look at batting averages. No one approaches those kinds of averages now. Look back at the late 60's and how low the batting averages were. Yaz won a batting title in 1968 with a .301 average and a Triple Crown the previous year and only hit .326. The game changes all the time, that's one of the things that make it great.

"There seems to be more playoff games now than there were games in the entire season in 1961. I believe Maris, the guy who was just a so-so player, was MVP that year. I don't understand how he did it since the league expanded from 8 teams to 10 that year. That made him back to back MVP I might add. Of course there were no good players back then. How could there be there were not many players at all compared to today." -- You're right, I mentioned in a previous blog that Maris won back to back MVPs in '60 and '61. Maris was a great player for a few short years and an average player for the remainder of his career. Some people suggest that a possible reason for this change back then, was because of the league expansion. Many people felt that the lack of quality pitching, due to the expansion, resulted in the dramatic increase in home run production throughout both leagues.

"Sounds like a suspicious number to me also. I will make a very small wager that the number sited as attendance was how many tickets were sold not how many a--- were in the seats. Went through the gates sounds like something a politician would say instead of how many actually went to the game. Numbers like 79 million remind me of the amount of money taken in from the parking meters, all pennies and nickels and dimes and the deposit slip showed that they took in 79 dollars. How could it be that it was right on the money, even to the dollar." -- I'll have to apologize for the "79 million" number because that wasn't the exact number given by MLB, I rounded it off myself and I was the politician who came up with the "went through the gates" comment. Sorry, I got carried away with my literary license.

"I wonder if anyone I know watched a whole game last year at the game or on TV." - I watched several games last year, at the park and on TV. Like I said, I love the game. Went to St. Louis last year and it was a sea of red, Wigs and I went 2 years ago for 3 games and it was packed every day and we had a blast. You should go and enjoy the game. Maybe I'll have to drag you to St. Louis this summer and show you how to enjoy the game again.

All sports are suffering through a drug problem that is really an epidemic within our entire society. A wrestler who kills his wife and kid on drugs, Landis, the testosterone cyclist in the Yellow Shirt, even a NASCAR truck driver on cocaine, so Baseball is not alone in this drug crazed society. Baseball is having its' problems, but the game is still fun to watch and there are still many good athletes out there.

I concede on every part of your argument, I certainly mean argument in an academic way, except the records. I sincerely believe that records, taken out of context lose all value unless they are for the year played. I believe a player who hits the most home runs that year is the record. It has no relevance to how many were hit ten years ago or even last year. There is no way for me to convey how enjoyable it is to discuss who was a better player or which was a better team in the past. It is a pleasure, with someone like yourself, memorable I am positive. It to me is part of the game. I love baseball more than any sport and sometimes believe it is the only real sport for me. One of the things a friend and I have concluded is that it is impossible to hide a good baseball player is by not playing them at all. If they are good and get to play it will be obvious, unlike many other team sports. In basketball and football one can run plays that ignore a good player, not baseball. If he can hit and plays he will hit, there is no way to hide him. And this adds nothing but I love a pitching duel, one to nothing game more than anything. I believe like it more than the long ball. I will add one of my beliefs about something close to records. The most untold story of a player in adult life is a name I never here when talking about great. I am writing about Jim Abbott, the most inspiring story of baseball, a record that is unlikely to be duplicated. Thanks for writing and Joe gets things started well. I suppose one more thing. The attendance thing is not worth talking about, if the game is going to be on TV in certain markets they are likely to bus in homeless people to fill the seats, marketing I think they call it. Most teams are for sale and they make their money from TV not attendance.

That slamming sound you heard was the closing of the job opportunity in NY, NY for an historical columnist. :-)

LOL ya I had one of those sunday afternoon myself.. :)