THOUGHTS OF A SEPTUGAENARIAN. So, over the three score and 11 years that I've been on this planet, the sport in my opinion that has gone through the biggest metamorphosis is Major League Baseball. Allow me to take you back three score years, and that's 60 years with a score being equivalent to 20 years if you've forgot the first sentence of the Gettysburg Address given by President Abraham Lincoln, to 1964 and reveal to you what the MLB landscape was when I was getting ready to turn 11.

The Show had expanded from the original 16 teams, 8 in the National League and 8 in the American League, to 20. 1961 saw the Los Angeles Angels and the Washington Senators (the original franchise had migrated north and became the Minnesota Twins) join the AL. A year later the Houston Colt 45s and the New York Mets became the newest members of the NL evening out both leagues at 10 teams each. In 2025, there's 30 teams with 15 in each league divided into three division comprised of five teams each. That's different.

Also the number of games had now increased from 154 to 162 and that decision was also made in 1961. There was no divisions. Each team played the other nine teams in their league 18 times and there was no interleague contests either like there are today.

Starting pitchers took the baseball every 4th day as opposed to next year teams that are talking about deploying a six man rotation. Plus back 60 years ago hurlers didn't come out. Out of the 3,252 regular season tilts there were 797 complete games. That compares to 28 in 2025.

I'm witnessing a different game now than back in the early 1960s. Batters have gone from tying to just make contact to put the baseball in play to swinging for the fences even with two strikes. Striking out multiple times in a game that was once frowned upon is now an accepted part of analytics.

The objective of a batter in the 1960s was to not make out as opposed to today striking out six or seven times before hitting a homer is almost celebrated.

There you have it. A simple kids game where pitching and catching plus hitting and throwing were the cornerstones has now become a slugfest between a pitcher bringing it around 100 mph versus a hitter trying to go yard with every swing. Gosh I miss the old day.

Book it Dano!

.