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Wednesday, August 24, 2005
BTF Mindset List
Today, Beloit College released its Mindset List for incoming freshman (born in 1987).
What would those freshman probably know about baseball? What would a BTF Mindset look like for the kids of the class of 2009?
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Stolen base leaders always get about 50 or so a year?
The Cincinnati Reds, L.A. Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Philadelphia Phillies have never had a particularly good team?
The Atlanta Braves have never had a losing season, or even a mediocre one?
A player who hits 35 home runs in a season doesn't have exceptional power?
2. The only NL Central team to win a championship in their lifetime is Cincinnati.
3. Neither Kansas City nor Milwaukee has made the playoffs in their lifetime.
4. Roger Clemens was the American League MVP the year before they were born.
5. 16 of the 26 big league stadiums in existence the year they were born have been replaced.
2. They never spent $0.50 a call to SportsPhone to find out what happened to said team on the West Coast.
3. They never had to wait till Sunday to read the batting averages for all the league's players. Heck, they never had to wait till Wednesday or Thursday or whatever to read the averages in USA Today.
4. They never saw box scores without batting averages, ERAs, numbers of pitches, and season RBI totals includded.
5. They have never seen a copy of The Sporting News, or Who's Who in Baseball, or Street & Smith's annual, or Baseball Digest.
6. They think that pages of statistics are by their very nature sortable.
-The Orioles, Devil Rays, White Sox, Tigers, Royals, Indians, Mariners, Rangers, Mets, Phillies, Expos/Nats, Cardinals, Cubs, Astros, Brewers, Pirates, Padres, Dodgers, Giants, and Rockies have never won World Series.
-Steve Carlton was only an Indian and a Twin
-John F. Mabry has been the more valuable player in both of his trades
-Dusty Baker, John Gibbons, Tony Perez, Pete Rose, and Bill Russell have only been involved in MLB as managers
-The most costly World Series "gaffe" was Lonnie Smith getting deked on the bases in Game 7 of 1991
-Frank Tanana couldn't throw 90 miles per hour
-Rob Neyer's wardrobe expanded beyond flannel shirts
-Two former A's outfielders, Billy Beane and Jose Canseco, both wrote bestselling books
-Jay Witasick's #### didn't work in the postseason
-Carl Everett has not found a living dinosaur
Kirk Gibson, circa 1988, says hello.
Um, Will, that's still true if you were born in 1957. Or 1917 for that matter. Or 1887 ... :(
Joe Morgan is an annoying announcer, not the greatest second baseman ever.
Three relievers in an inning is common.
Only three teams play on artificial surfaces.
Tommy John is a guy who had surgery on his arm, not a 288 game winner.
Ballplayers have always made millions of dollars.
There has never been such a thing as the Reserve Clause; in fact, what the hell is a Reserve Clause?
(THANK GOD!)
is still published.
Barry Bonds was an average ballplayer before 2001.
Baseball games are won by doing the "little things" well.
You can't win with Alex Rodriguez.
That's good stuff. I still remember when PRODIGY came out and I could finally check stats whenever I wanted online rather than waiting for the Sunday Star.
(Assuming they were born in 1989)
1) They equate the Cubs and the Red Sox (before last year), because both had made it to the playoffs and blown it in heart-breaking fashion, rather than labelling the Cubs as "lovable losers" and the Red Sox as the only tragic team.
2) The Marlins are the second-best franchise of the time period that spans their lives.
3) The Marlins and Devil Rays aren't considered "expansion teams" by them, as the teams were established before they gained a baseball consciousness.
4) You could never buy beer after the beginning of the bottom of the 8th inning.
5) "Dot Races" and the like were always around.
6) Hell, Jumbotrons were always around.
Phillies, White Sox. That's it.
Bud Selig has been the Commissioner of baseball since they were five.
Wasn't he the interim commissioner starting in '90?
Phillies, White Sox. That's it.
METS
Man, I was already out of high school when these kids were born.
Kind of. Doubleday/Wilpon to just Wilpon.
You know what Gary likes about high school girls. He gets older...
Keep going.
Julio Franco has been playing baseball since before Francisco Franco was alive.
Before 2001 Barry Bonds had 3 NL MVP awards and 494 career HR so as for "average ballplayer" not so much.
I can out-oldfart that with one gray hair tied behind my back: my youngest's favorite beer is Heineken. And he quaffs it legally.
Yeah, but you're still younger'n me.
Does that mean I win?
I'm not sure ... there is the fact that I also have a 30-year-old son-in-law ... can you top that?
2. Always had the option of buying USA Today (1982) for crappy national baseball coverage.
3. When they hear "home run spike", they never think of 1987.
4. The first 50 home run season of their lifetime was by Cecil Fielder.
5. Cal Ripken was already in the record books with the 10th longest consecutive game streak in history.
Nope. Even my oldest is dating a guy younger than that.
If that means you win, welcome to the NL West.
A suitable booby prize indeed.
A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to face the inevitable and admit to myself that focusing on the Giants, and following the A's secondarily, was about the stupidest thing a Bay Area fan could be doing, passing up the story of the baseball year and all such.
So since then the A's game is the one I listen to, and the Giants are my backup. Also since then, the A's have suddenly decided that scoring runs is way overrated, and that losing pretty much every day is the way to go.
I'm quite a guy!
I can help if either of you have another daughter.
By the way, the Braves aren't owned by the same person as they were in 1987, are they? Is Turner still officially the owner? He certainly has very little power in the organization.
One of my freshmen advisees was from Atlanta and we had a good time comparing our childhood memories or our favorite team.
One other thing for the list: kids born in 1987 have essentially zero experience with an All-Star game that means anything.
- Pete Rose has always been the hit king.
- The Cubs have never won the world series.
- The All-Star Game has always been about getting as many players in the game as possible.
- What's "MLB's Game of the Week"?
- The Pirates and Brewers have always been bad for as long as they can remember.
- Old Comiskey has been a parking lot for as long as they can remember.
- Bill James's Abstracts predates them.
- No one's ever completed 20 games in a year.
- Mike Maroth is the only 20 game loser.
- As far back as many can remember, Alex Rodriquez has played MLB.
Closers have always pitched for only one inning.
Baseball has never had a cocaine problem, but it's always had a steroid problem.
If you have basic cable, you can sometimes get as many as four or five games a night. You don't have to wait for Saturday's Game of the Week to see teams from the other league.
So since then the A's game is the one I listen to, and the Giants are my backup. Also since then, the A's have suddenly decided that scoring runs is way overrated, and that losing pretty much every day is the way to go.
I'm quite a guy!
In other years I'd ask you to start rooting for the Dodgers, but that hardly seems necessary right now.
I've resigned myself to the fact that the Giants will not win in my lifetime (well, my meaningful lifetime -- 1954 doesn't count).
His mind is focused on two things 90% of the time: Girls and Beer.
So what has changed?
I rooted for the Dodgers 3 times, and only 3 times, in my life: the 1977, 1978, and 1981 World Series, when they played the Yankees. (The Yankees could play the Hitler/Stalin All-Stars, and I'd still root against them.) They let me down the first two times, but then finally pulled one out in the rather-lame strike season of '81.
If you had a 24 hour news radio station in your area, that was a waste of $0.50. Sing it with me:
KYW
Newsradio
Ten-sixtyyyyyyyyyyyy....
Similarly, for these kids, Reggie Jackson, Phil Niekro, Dave Kingman, Tony Perez, Pete Rose, and Tom Seaver are all just stat lines. But they might just barely remember George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Dale Murphy.
40. Scientists have always been able to see supernovas.
Yes, the nearest supernova to Earth in nearly 400 years was seen in Feb. 1987. But scientists have seen thousands of supernovae since the invention of the telescope. I've seen dozens myself. Ugh.
Inter-league play
3 divisions/wild card
2) Ozzie Smith is the host of "This Week in Baseball" to them.
....
I actually have started watching TWiB again, thanks to Tivo. It's not as big a deal as it used to be to me, but it's still fun to watch.
Newsradio
Ten-sixtyyyyyyyyyyyy....
You never needed us more?
But what an agony if you turned on the radio just after the baseball scores, or the phone rang or some darn thing just as they were giving the Phillies result ...
His mind is focused on two things 90% of the time: Girls and Beer.
Thank God my daughter is going to a different one. :)
I rooted for the Dodgers 3 times, and only 3 times, in my life
Traitor. If you'd had to be a Giants fan living in LA for most of the last 42 years, you'd think the Yankees were Mother Theresa compared to the Dodgers.
Thank God I had 3 sons and no girls. I would be the worst father to Girls EVER. They would just hate me for being too overprotective and scaring off all the guys with a baseball bat every time they came within 50 feet of the house.
"Joe Garagiola" is a former general manager, not an announcer.
I suppose so. The Dodgers are sneaky buggers, that's for sure. The only other time in recent history they made it to the WS was against the A's in '88, so of course my Bay Area loyalty outweighed my National League loyalty, and then what happens? Kirk Freaking Gibson.
It's just not right, I tell ya.
agonymercy if you turned on the radio just after the baseball scores, or the phone rang or some darn thing just as they were giving the Phillies result ...Wrong approach. Since teenagers always do the opposite of what you say anyway, just tell them to go for it. ;)
The Dodgers are sneaky buggers, that's for sure. The only other time in recent history they made it to the WS was against the A's in '88, so of course my Bay Area loyalty outweighed my National League loyalty, and then what happens? Kirk Freaking Gibson.
It's just not right, I tell ya.
I'm still waiting for JC or Augustine or somebody to reconcile this with the existence of a just God.
Not that Mefisto needs much persuasion, mind you.
To all BTFers with attractive daughters in their early to mid twenties, I hereby propose that I look after them for you. For a modest fee. Please send pictures first.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned this: The World Series has always been played only at night, and always starts on a Saturday, not a Tuesday.
Umpires' chest protectors have always been worn under the shirt.
Both benches have always been warned after a HBP, and pitchers have always been thrown out of games for hitting guys.
The local team's home games, a lot of them, have always been on local TV, even for kids who didn't grow up in New York or Chicago.
There have always been plenty of baseball games, and other sporting events, on ESPN throughout the week.
There's always been an ESPN, and baseball's always been on it.
None of them have heard Vin Scully announce unless they've lived around LA.
NL umps (AL?) kept wearing the outside protectors until the leagues merged in the mid-90's, didn't they?
And to quite a few of these kids, he has also been known as "Dad."
I guess my memories of seeing them until I was 12 or 13 (which would have been 1991-1992) are just a little off.
For example, there was that discussion the other day in which someone said they'd never heard of Lenny Randle or his beatdown of Frank Lucchesi. And, even more "oh, wow," last year when someone mentioned they'd never heard of Dick Allen, and others chimed in with me toos. On a hardcore baseball site!
In the late '90s a copy editor who worked for me, about 23 at the time but culturally savvy and no dummy, had never heard of "Lou Grant" or Ed Asner. She was vaguely aware of Mary Tyler Moore.
And then Fabian slapped her?
Not for us Expos fans....sniff
I said, as those around me, all about my age (33) or older, nodded, "When we were kids, if they wanted to make copies, they used a mimeograph machine." And then I briefly described the purple ink, the hand crank, that wonderful smell. Her mouth was agape. She said, and I quote, "No waaaaaaay!"
It was Bob Dylan, and the young fellow had no idea who in the world Bob Dylan was.
Mercy.
Nah....even though they will do what they want anyway, down deep they want you to still try to set boundries. Otherwise they think you don't give a rats arse about them, and they end up with self esteem issues.
It was Bob Dylan, and the young fellow had no idea who in the world Bob Dylan was.
Mercy.
A.) Shouldn't that be Oh Mercy! ?
B.) But they all do know the Rolling Stones, right?
Have never seen an episode of "The Baseball Bunch" with Johnny Bench and Tommy Lasorda.
Calling someone's house and if they weren't home, the phone would ring and ring until you hung up.
When someone was out of their house, it was impossible to call them.
If you weren't home when a particular TV show came on, you just missed it.
TV dinners came in metal trays and were cooked in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
And all of this we accepted as perfectly normal. But we didn't complain as we walked 10 miles barefoot through the snow...
/old geezer rant
Quite possibly, sure.
I guess what struck me wasn't his reaction to hearing Bob Dylan for the first time at age 19 or whatever he was. It was that he was 19 and had never heard of Bob Dylan.
I mean, when I was 19, my leisure time listening preferences didn't include, oh, Bing Crosby. But I sure as hell knew who Bing Crosby was.
I did this the other day with a friend who doesn't have voicemail or a machine. I realized with a start that I had been listening to the phone ring for a couple of minutes. It simply didn't occur to me to hangup as I was waiting for an automatic answer.
And I well remember days before the answering machine.
On occasion, I have to make collection calls for some of our commercial or residential rental properties. I know damn well that some of these people are screening my calls, so if they don't have an answering machine, I just put the phone on speaker, dial their number, and let it ring until someone picks up in exasperation 10 minutes later.
I'd bet 95% of kids born in 1992 or later don't even know the Chicken, period.
The Three True Outcomes:
1. Guy runs away and never comes near house or daughter again.
2. shoewizard patinetly waits for his pitch.
3. Guy says: "Hey, Mr. wizard, is that a Louisville Slugger Mickey Mantle model? Wasn't he the greatest?" shoewizard promptly grants his daughter's hand in marriage.
It is a trip down memory lane.
Me too. I think this is a big difference in childhood today. We knew who Bing Crosby was because our parents' culture was THE culture, pretty much. Today, kids have their own culture. They're marketed to. They don't have to watch grown-up TV shows or listen to grown-up music except in those rare hours, like Saturday morning, when they're catered to. They're always catered to. If I had a collection of Hillary Duff and Aaron Cater records when I was a kid (or whatever kids listen to now), I wouldn't have gone sniffing around my parents record collection when I was bored, saying, "Let's see what this Sinatra geezer sounds like."
If there were entire cable channels devoted to my tastes, I wouldn't have come home from school and watched "Gomer Pyle" and "Leave it to Beaver" reruns.
I don't know that any of this is a good or bad thing. It's just different. It does seem to rob kids of a certain layer of cultural history -- I knew at a very young age what the '50s more or less looked like and how it was different then, because I'd seen plenty of TV shows and movies made in the '50s -- but I would guess that loss is made up for in other ways.
Your parents live in Afghanistan?
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