We don't really have a thread going for this year (other than the one talking about illegal substances) and I wanted to bitch a little.

Like most professional sports the MLB game just isn't as much fun today as it was in the past.

So many times it is the little things that have changed to water down the game.

Today St Louis was playing the Mets. They were up 2-0 going into the 8th. Wainwright was due to lead off. The Cardinal manager pulled him out and pinch hit for him.

He is certainly the ace of the pitching staff. He is one of the better pitchers int he game today. He is making big bucks with his new contract.

In the olden days he would have batted, most likely made an out (which would have been fine with me.) and went back and sat on the bench and rested until the bottom of the inning. Today they put a .222 hitter up who, no surprise, made an out. St Louis finished the inning and did not score so they brought in a new pitcher for the 8th and another one for the 9th. The Mets ended up scoring 1 run but St Louis won the game 2-1.

My complaint is the best pitcher on the team should have been left in the game to try and finish it. He had only pitched 7 innings. He had only thrown 95 pitches. He had not given up any runs. Only 2 walks and 4 hits. He was in control of the game. It is possible the lesser pitchers they brought in could have given up 2 or 3 runs and blown the game. The starters can all throw 125-130 pitches easily.

If he got into trouble then fine bring the new pitcher out but not before he is going to be needed.

In the olden days they would have left Warren Spahn, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax or any of the other greats in the game. Heck they would have left the 3rd or 4th best pitcher on the team in the game if he was throwing as good as Wainwright was today.

As I am putting this together I am thinking about the hockey game last night. It was a fun game to watch but it would not have been the same if they took the starting goalies out and stuck their backups in crease for the 3 OT periods. Every sport has a different game I know. We don't mind it Aaron only has to play the first series of the 4th quarter and then gets to sit down for the rest of the game. (I hope he can do that in the SB.)

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The whole pitch count thing really pisses me off.
Back in the day of real baseball stud pitches like WPR mentioned regularly went 9 innings and more if necessary.

Yesterday the Tigers lost to K.C. 3-2 in 10 innings.
Justin Verlander had a 2 hitter going through 7 and the Tigers were ahead 2-0.
He had a pitch count over 100-120.
Leland takes him out and goes to the pen.
Valturde the "closer" comes in in the ninth and with 1 on 2out and 2 strikes on the batter serves up a HR to tie the game.
Shit!
I don't care how many pitches Verlander threw, he should have been allowed to stay in the game to get the win.
Instead he throws a 2 hitter and gets a no decision.
Bullshit I say!

Leland is considered to a genius by some when it comes to handling a pitching staff. It is plain old over managing in my book.

I think guys like him and his buddy La Russa made the game soft in so many ways.

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I wholeheartedly agree with you, but what are you gonna do? The way they play the game has changed, and everybody, it seems, in managerial and coaching positions buys into the crap. A couple of my pet peeves are the closer role being such an absolute thing - taking out some guy who did great in the 7th for somebody else in the 8th, and then your closer - who if the team name is Brewers, may be VERY shaky in the 9th.

In keeping with your bitching hahahaha, I remember "watching" on the radio, possibly the best pitched game of all time, Harvey Haddix of the Pirates pitched 12 PERFECT innings against the MILWAUKEE Braves. Lew Burdette of the Braves limped along and gave up something like 15 hits in 13 innings and got the shut out win. Haddix finally got tired in the 13th, walked a couple of guys, and Ol' Joe Adcock hit one over the fence to win it. He got so excited that he stopped running after getting to first base, so the score ended 1 - 0 Milwaukee.

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I'm definitely not on the Leland "genius" band wagon.
Many a day I scratch my head, mystified by the "genius" of Jim Leland
in all phases of the game.

On paper the Tigers are the best team in baseball.
And then there is Jim Leland "manager".

Oh, WPR you got my dander up!

They have all bought into it that is for sure. Perhaps Harvey should have only gone 10 innings. I won't say that pitchers didn't have their careers cut short because of over use. But they have gone too far the other way now. Not only is there 5 starters instead of 4 but if he gets anywhere near 80-90 pitches the manager starters to have a cow. A guy who throws 100 mph should be looked at differently than a guy who throws 85. Someone who throws a lot of curve balls should be treated differently than a split finger pitcher. A kid who hasn't pitched a lot in professional baseball (minors and majors) should be treated easier than a guy who has been around for 5-6 years.

I do have to make one correction. The Cardinal 2nd run scored after Wainwright was lifted for the pinch hitter. But they would have scored the run no matter what since his replacement didn't do any more than he would have.

Still every where you look all professional sports are watered down today. I referred to last night's hockey game. I was reading about icing last night during the game as I saw the linesman waive off icing a bunch of times and wondered why. They have changed the icing rule about 4 times since 1990. The rule was made in 1937 and first modified in 1951. Now 4 times in the past 20 years. Just one of the indications about how litigious our society has gotten. We have to micro manage every aspect of every incident.

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I'm not so sure about the "healthier nowadays" thing either hahahaha. The days of Spahn and Sain and 2 days of rain were before I was born, and Warren Spahn was still winning 20 games a season - every year - until I was a mid-teenager.

On a personal level, so often you hear about hamstrings, groin pulls, lower back pain, this and that, ending on the DL - 20 and 30 year olds!!!. I have never stretched in my life; I eat whatever the hell I please, emphasis on ice cream, greasy hamburger, runny scrambled eggs, etc. I go out and just start playing tennis - not tappy tap stuff, full speed, full power, nowadays with my 19 year old grandson, and I never had any of those little injuries. I did have a rotator cuff a couple of years ago, but that was because I got mad and THREW a 16 pound bowling ball 2/3 of the way down the alley - I was mad because I was bowling like crap hahahaha.

They were saying on the Rangers game the other day, back in the day, they served Hostess Cupcakes in the clubhouse - during the game. Now they serve fruit hahahaha. I can't help thinking this stupid emphasis on somebody's idiotic theories of nutrition and working out, etc. does more harm than good.

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