I’ve written about this in the past – the history of baseball seems to fit really nicely into 25 year(ish) eras, and it is time to close the books on the most recent one.
The Prehistoric Era – Cavemen until 1920.
Big Ed Walsh can win 40 games and you can be the home run champion with 12 HRs.
The Golden Age – 1920-1946.
I am using golden just because that’s how comic books do it. Gold then silver then Bronze.
Regardless, let’s start this in 1920 when Babe Ruth takes the home run record from 29 to 54. You could make a case for doing this is 1919 when Ruth his 29, but when I see 1919 I think Black Sox, so let’s leave that in the muddy period of 9 Game World Series contests and other oddities.
In the Golden Age we have two 8 team leagues and segregation.
The Silver Age – 1947-1968.
We begin with Jackie Robinson and see an age of pitching. Expansion. Teams moving around. The West Coast becomes a thing. Integration.
The Bronze Age – 1969-1994.
This is the baseball most of us grew up on. 4 Divisions. Pitching and stolen bases. You can win the MVP with 30 HRs. We knew the record book. Then something broke.
The Steroids Age 1995-2019.
Baseball recovers from the missed World Series. Cal Ripken hides some damage with his Gehrig chase. McGwire and Sosa inject the sport with some enthusiasm and who knows what else. Baseball gets a Subway Series and a Red Sox championship to continue to hide the cancer inside.
Bonds makes a run at the records and for the most part nobody cares.
By the end of the steroids age, the record book has been broken (in many ways) and it becomes increasingly noticeable that baseball has lost its way.
The Age of Death 2020-2045.
And now we are in the age of death. Expanded playoffs. The 5 seed plays the 6 seed in the MLB Finals which are little watched. We pretend that anyone cares about Aaron Judge setting the “AL Record” for home runs. A super balanced schedule. The DH in the NL. It all adds up to Who Cares.
Along with this, the bill has come due on the last 30 years. Fox and MLB played the biggest games’ biggest moments after midnight on the east coast, and two generations grew up not watching baseball. The boomers died off and Gen X became old men.
And baseball became horse racing, or boxing. A grand sport of the 20th century that lost its way and became an also ran.
Welcome to The Age of Death commissioner Manfred. Like the climate emergency, the signs were there and people were screaming about it for decades, but you just cashed those checks. It’s not going to be your problem, it will be the problem of the next commissioner.
Don’t get me wrong. The sport will continue. Hockey sails along. So does NASCAR. MLS makes a living. Baseball can live at this tier for another century no problem. Now, it’s a second tier sport where nobody watches the big games. Welcome to the minor leagues!
