The Era of Aces

The other day I saw a tweet that interested me. In the tweet, it displayed the top five pitchers from this past season: Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom, and in the image it asked the question, was there a better year of pitchers? 

With the closing of another decade of baseball stars and moments, what really helped define this era of baseball were the starting pitchers dominated the game unlike any other time period, in nearly 100 years. Other generations have had their fair share of great starters, but never before had we seen a collection like this. So I started to wonder, is this the greatest collection of pitching talent we had ever seen. 

My Hall of Fame Adventure

The Induction Field

I love going to the Hall of Fame. I have gone up Hall of Fame weekend a handful of times throughout my life, but I never really had the full experience. Typically my day of choice is Saturday, the day before the induction, because the crowd is on Main Street is incredible. What makes Cooperstown so old-timey, it is simply one road, with a bunch of old time shops, and eateries that you can find in every corner of the country. What makes it different is that everything is about baseball. There used to be a General Store, and despite the disappointment and loyalty of Mike (who had to walk in there every time he goes), but they closed that up. But Hall of Fame weekend, the street comes to life, like Times Square, but baseball themed. People are wearing different teams hats and shirts to not only identify their beloved heroes, but also as a way of identifying how far they have travelled from. Whether people are from Queens, Seattle, Phoenix, Puerto Rico or Panama, everyone is there for the same reason. For the chance to be with their heroes. 

My Plan To Fix Baseball

Two weeks ago baseball introduced a slew of new rule changes that would help vault the game into a more 21st friendly sport. Changes that included a universal DH, a pitch clock, reliever rules, and a more! Baseball is going to become faster, more action packed, and these changes are going to revolutionize the game…

…if they get approved by the players union and Major League baseball. But the commissioner, Rob Manfred, can use his powers to enact any of these rules if he chooses…

…but reports are that he is unlikely to. But he promised that these changes are only a matter of time, and that they will be enacted very soon…

…by like 2021…

…nobody really knows. 

There is lies the problem with baseball. Even when the sport is trying to be exciting, it literally achieves the opposite effect. In the midst of another boring baseball winter, where Free Agent activity is as infrequent as ever, commissioner Manfred rolled out these changes that have amounted into no new changes. 

Baseball's Attempt To Evolve

There is no denying that the sport of baseball is once again at a crossroads. It’s not as bad of a situation that the steroid dilemma presented, but one baseball cannot afford to ignore. Since the steroid era, baseball has become more of a cult sport. If you were brought up on American’s pastime, typically by baseball ‘purists’, you have rode through the tough times and still love the game. But baseball has lost a lot of its casual fans, for a litany of reasons that have nothing to do with previous problems the game had. In today’s TV obsessed world, baseball is just not the best product anymore. The NFL, NBA and their collegiate affiliates just present a more fast-paced, action packed, entertainment. The charm baseball has always had just doesn’t attract to younger viewers like it used to. 

My Nightmare: The 1996 World Series

(Doug Pensinger / Getty Images Sport / Getty)

I was eleven.

I didn’t know any better

But 20 years later, the series still haunts me. The most vicious of nightmares.

Growing up, kids have nightmares all the time. Nightmares of the boogey man, monsters under the bed, or even a piece of hair in your grilled cheese.And I had all of those nightmares. But the one’s that kept me up at night were nightmares of a different variety.

When I was eleven, I had nightmares of guys like Wade Boggs, Paul O’Neil, Charlie Hayes…

and Jim Leyritz.