Remembering when baseball was fun and not woke

 (My new American Thinker post)

Like many of you, I’ve spent much of the 2021 season avoiding baseball.  I guess that’s my way of saying the commissioner cracked on moving the All Star Game from Atlanta and the pace of the wonderful game has slowed to a crawl.

Some people are even calling for a clock between pitches — an awful idea, but it may take something like that to get pitchers to throw.  On the other hand, 50 years ago, two games took less than 2 hours and 13 minutes, including one that lasted 1 hour and 59 minutes.  Four other games that day took less and 2 hours and 30 minutes.  Another was over in 2 hours and 31.  I remember back then watching a game at the stadium that started a 7 P.M. and getting home to watch the highlights on the local ten-o’clock nightly news.

It does not help that my two favorite teams, the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles, will lose 210 games between them.  The Orioles are already at 105, and the Rangers at 98 with 7 to go.  Add the D-Backs from the other league, and it may be the first time that three teams will lose 100 games.

Is this what they call rebuilding?  They charge fans major league prices to watch AAA or AA teams.  Well, there were 7,935 fans at the Texas-Baltimore Friday night game.  It must be high school football!

The “woke” commissioner has a lot on his plate, and changing the Indians to the Guardians is not going to put people in the seats at Jacobs Field, or whatever they call it now.

Let me tell you about one of those baseball moments that you are not likely to see again.  It’s like Nolan Ryan’s seven no-hitters and 5,714 strikeouts.  Or Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak.

Jim Palmer and the Orioles made a little history on this day in 1971.  He won his 20th and joined teammates Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, and Pat Dobson as 20-game winners.  Cuellar pitched 292 innings, Palmer and Dobson 282, and McNally 224.

A few days later, the Os swept the A’s in the ALCS.  Then they lost to the Pirates in the World Series.

A great moment in baseball history: four 20-game winners in one Orioles staff!

By the way, the O’s are probably going to lose 100 games next year, even with the new Guardians in the league.  In the meantime, I will go back to my old baseball cards and hold that Rocky Colavito wearing that wonderful Indians uniform.

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