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

Mr. B Ball fan...All I have to say is I completely agree!!!

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 made this statement earlier in the day and I began thinking about it on my way home after taking Aden, Aden's mom and Aden's grandma out to dinner. This wasn't a very good statement at all, because the expansion didn't really begin until 1961, the year Roger hit 61 home runs. The AL added the Angels and Senators for the '61 season, but Roger hit 39 home runs the year before and won the MVP that year, as well. (Interesting year, 1961, Roger hit 61 home runs and Norm Cash won the batting title with a .361 average. Incidentally, it was the only year of Norm's career that he ever hit over .300) Back to my apology. The NL didn't even expand until 1962, with the addition of the Mets and Astros. Sorry, it just wasn't a very good argument, I should think longer before I write.

"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."

"Opportunities Lost" the future title of my autobiography.