What makes the cell phone, lap top agent leaden ball players of today all that different from the old scholl happy go-lucky players of yesteryear? Guess what? The answer isn’t really all that complicated.
When the ball players of the middle century were growing up they swarmed out of their homes early in the morning not to be heard from until the hated sun went down and darkness set in. So where were they? They were on the thousands of vacant lots all over America playing baseball with some splintered bats and some taped up balls. And they were having the time of their lives.
They were playing baseball without any managers or coaches or agents or parents round giving them instructions on just how to play the grand old game. The baseball world would never had seen May’s basket catches, Dimaggio’s long spread out stance, Hack Wilson’s unbelievable hitch, Mel Ott’s big kick while the ball was being delivered and on and on. WHY? These were all the wrong way to do it, and would have quickly been corrected by the little league coaches of today.
Can’t you just imagine what a coach of today at any level would do when a young Mel Ott showed up with his kick? OH MY! Mel Ott’s bad habit would immediately have been corrected. Baseball fans everywhere would have missed out on all of the above unique habits that were learned down on those thousands of corner lots by the old school kids.
Today kids are being driven into the pressurized little league system. Fun? These little gals and guys with brand new baseballs and aluminum bats and their shining new double knit uniforms would have to look up the word in the dictionary. They are pushed and shoved and cajoled into the win-at-all-costs syndrome while the play grounds of our cities remain empty. A good example of this came as we drove around Ann Arbor between 10 AM and 4PM looking at barren baseball fields!! But, at around 5PM here they come. Leaving their TV’s, and computers and their texting and their twittering here they come to the fields to play little league baseball.
What does this all have to do with MLB today, you ask? Do you think that the kids growing up on “corner lot” baseball and making it into professional ball would ever think of taking a day off? Or actually accepting the philosophy of the”pitch count”? Or wearing hitting gloves? AND ON & ON. I think all of you know the answers to the above questions.
