I usually check ESPN Classic to see if it's playing any good baseball stuff. Today, I watched the Home Run Derby, when it was still a show, of Bob Allison vs. Bob Cerv. Disappointed, I looked up other ones. I still found there was a lot of pop-ups and hard grounders
My friend happened to see it also, and began going on and on about how 1950s and 1960s players were terrible. Given their awful swings and inability to hit home runs on practice pitches, he would have been the greatest of all time in his era. I tried explaining that the training wasn't as advanced as today, that these guys learned their craft from sandlot games and seasoned players/coaches. He wouldn't have any of it.
The baseline of this generation exceeds that of over fifty years ago, so I wasn't expecting twenty homers in a round. Yet I must admit, I was disappointed to see greats like Mays and Killebrew hopelessly launch into BP balls, sometimes out of the zone, only to send them on the ground by the foul lines or popped up to the shallow outfields. None of them waited on pitches, etc. Someone could win a derby by hitting four homers.
Perhaps I am missing something. Was the show staged? Was the strike zone exaggerated? Is there some factor that makes these players look like middle-schoolers compared to the stars of today?
My friend happened to see it also, and began going on and on about how 1950s and 1960s players were terrible. Given their awful swings and inability to hit home runs on practice pitches, he would have been the greatest of all time in his era. I tried explaining that the training wasn't as advanced as today, that these guys learned their craft from sandlot games and seasoned players/coaches. He wouldn't have any of it.
The baseline of this generation exceeds that of over fifty years ago, so I wasn't expecting twenty homers in a round. Yet I must admit, I was disappointed to see greats like Mays and Killebrew hopelessly launch into BP balls, sometimes out of the zone, only to send them on the ground by the foul lines or popped up to the shallow outfields. None of them waited on pitches, etc. Someone could win a derby by hitting four homers.
Perhaps I am missing something. Was the show staged? Was the strike zone exaggerated? Is there some factor that makes these players look like middle-schoolers compared to the stars of today?
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