The Difference In Baseball Between 1986, 1996 & Today
Posted by Steve L. on July 11th, 2012 · Comments (6)
This evening, I caught a few minutes of season two of Showtime’s “THE FRANCHISE” (with the Miami Marlins). And, they were showing a clip of Giancarlo Stanton working out.
My goodness…no one in baseball looked like that back in 1986.
Maybe 15 years or so, ago, some players started looking like Stanton does now. But, for sure, 25 years ago, no one looked like that.
I can remember watching the Yankees when they had guys like Lou Piniella and Roy Smalley playing for them. Those dudes had “Average Joe” builds. And, they were able to play in the big leagues as position players.
I don’t think that guys like that could play in the majors today – unless, maybe, they were a pitcher. Man, how the game has changed…
There were definitely a lot of toothpicks back then, and they looked skinnier what with tight uniforms.
David Eckstein was on the small side. The Rays seem to have a bunch of guys built like “average joes” in the lineup.
How was the program, Steve?
FWIW, I’m on the bus returning from Buffalo (AAA All Star Game). Neat experience, though the Int’l league was losing 3-0 after 8.
Albaladejo was there, representing the Reno Aces (who seemed to send quite a few players). The lone rep from SWB was LHP Juan Cedeno
@ Raf:
I only saw a few minutes of it.
And, other than thinking that Marlins executive Sampson makes Cashman look like a dream, it was pretty good.
I did see some of the AAA ASG on the MLB Network too. Looked like fun. How long was the trip?
Buffalo is about 6-7 hours from NYC. Coca Cola Park is a nice field, but it has changed a bit from when it first opened back. You can tell there were some seats removed and it is now a fully dedicated MiLB park. When it was built, Buffalo was angling for an expansion team so the park was built with the idea that it can be expanded to 40,000+ people. Needless to say, Colorado and Miami got the teams, and no team even considered moving to Buffalo, so there’s that.
It’s a weird sports town, I don’t know if they could support a ML team (Bills & Sabres do well). Their closest AL rivals would be Toronto & Cleveland. They would draw when the Yanks are in town. If they were to get an NL team, the closest teams would be Pittsburgh & Philly. They’re currently the Mets AAA team (after being with the Pirates and Indians), so I’m sure they’d draw from the local Mets fanbase too.
FWIW, they played “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” which is more familiar in O’s territory, and “Sweet Caroline” more familiar in Red Sox territory.
IIRC, before the Mets got them, I thought Buffalo was AAA for the Indians. And, they used to sell out all the time, IIRC, and that’s why people thought they could become a big league city someday.
That’s a long trip for a baseball game. You, my friend, are a true fan!
You are correct in that the Bisons outdrew some ML teams after the new stadium opened (1988), which is why they thought they’d be able to land a ML team either via relocation or expansion. That’s why Buffalo made it as close as they did to getting a ML team during the NL’s expansion in the early 90′s.
I went to school sorta in the area (SUNY Brockport, maybe an hour away; closer to Rochester), and I was actually up there for court (fighting a speeding ticket in Lockport). Since the court date was the 10th, I figured since I was already in the area, may as well take in the game