Baseball players making 3 million a year? Unpossible!

And speaking of the year 2000, where's my flying car?!

Tiers of playoffs? 7-foot pitchers? Six divisions? Network control of schedules? $25 tickets? What wackiness, that will never happen!

Damn. They got a lot right. I guess the trick to futurism is just to imagine the world 20 times greedier than it is now.

Also: We will be talking about Baseball on something called the "Internet", which will be almost like a "Factory" of baseball thinking.

GB, you clearly missed the quotes around "thinking".

Fantastic article. It really is amazing how perceptions change.

Stan Musial (whose NL record for hits was expected to be eclipsed by Rose that year): "In the year 2000, everybody will be making a million dollars with pay TV. That's the salvation of sports: pay TV..."

Ray Grebey, director of labor relations for MLB: "Pay TV? Everybody thinks it will revolutionize the economics of the game. But pay tv isn't necessarily an extra source of revenue for baseball. You can only show your game in one place. So I don't foresee a revolution, I don't think things will be much different from now if we all keep our heads and work out our problems. But as for $1 million a year or $2 million a year for everybody, there's no way that baseball could stand it..."

If only they knew...It really does make me empathetic with older, injured athletes. I wonder how many times they hurl stuff at the walls when they read about new contracts for players today.

"When I was your age, kid, we didn't have jet packs... We drove to school."

We drove to school.

Uphill both ways, of course. That was before the entire planet was razed into a singular plane.

but it still seems crazy to think the people couldn't foresee the vast amounts of money that could come into the business of baseball in 20 years time.

Baseball has never been particularly good at embracing revolutionary concepts... or even common sense ones that fly in the face of tradition. Keep in mind, though the 70's were all about dollars, by 1981 the reserve clause had only been gone a few years and those changes hadn't affected the rank and file yet. Considering those guys were still selling shoes in the offseason, it had to be outside the thinking of your usual tobacco-spittin'utility infielder that someday very soon, people would never have to work again doing the same job he did.

MLB also still expected to crush Miller and the Union at this time and get things back "to the right way", so of course every damn thing was making the game go broke. Heck, they just finally toned down that talk a few years ago.

It really does make me empathetic with older, injured athletes. I wonder how many times they hurl stuff at the walls when they read about new contracts for players today.

They got the girls.

And speaking of the year 2000, where's my flying car?!

Ask Vaux.

Vauxhall Motors?

In 1963, my Second Grade nun (told you before I was old) told us that by 1970, the sidewalks would move and we would all have airplanes and helicopters, no cars. Our houses would be totally robot-powered and we'd have TVs on our wrists. Maybe she meant 2070!

I would settle for a hoverbike

If only they knew...It really does make me empathetic with older, injured athletes. I wonder how many times they hurl stuff at the walls when they read about new contracts for players today.

Counting Bob Feller, or not?

I especially like Sadaharu Oh's comments:

"In the year 2000, society will be more civilized and developed than at the present time. Science will make the world more sedentary, too, so baseball spectators will want to see more of the spirit of the game, especially since everything will be automatic... However, the world may be short of wood for baseball bats. So I believe we will use aluminum or metal bats, and the game of baseball will be very, very offensive and exciting because there will be more hitting... The stadiums may have to become bigger. Not all, perhaps, but some stadiums will have to be enlarged."

Bowie Kuhn was right about this:

"In the year 2000... I see Pete Rose getting 200 hits."

Pete Rose's hair still gets that many hits:
http://sportsbybrooks.com/pete-rose-still-cherishing-those-last-few-hairs-21187

the sidewalks would move
We have them in airports, anyway.

In 1963, my Second Grade nun
Puppy. In 1958, MY second grade nun was told to start teaching us something about science, since the Russkies beat us to space. I guess I had told her about the big star map that I had, so she made me bring it in one day and teach the class about everything that I knew (which really wasn't all that much beyond the planets, some moons and that Alpha Centauri was the closest star.) Apparently that was enough, since I didn't encounter science again until 9th grade.
She was savvy enough not to talk about flying cars; she knew her limitations. :)

She was savvy enough not to talk about flying cars; she knew her limitations.

Nuns don't need cars to fly, man.

That was before the entire planet was razed into a singular plane.

I can't wait until we all drown.

That was before the entire planet was razed into a singular plane.

Wait, didn't that happen already?

/lives in Ohio

"There will be all kinds of leagues and divisions. All the existing cities in the big leagues will stay, and new ones will be hammering at the door to get in.... Also, there'll be enough domed stadiums in baseball for teams in cities like Denver, Tampa Bay, Vancouver, and Buffalo, and at least four more cities..."

Sorry Montreal!

I do remember when I was a kid it was talked as if it were a given that Buffalo would soon have a MLB franchise. By the time expansion did roll around in 1993 and 1997, I don't even think Buffalo was considered a serious contender.

By the time expansion did roll around in 1993 and 1997, I don't even think Buffalo was considered a serious contender.

In '93 I think it was considered (I.E. they put their name in) but didn't win. I don't think they could anyway. The only reason that the Bills and Sabres are still around are because of luck, Ralph Wilson's longevity, Tom Golisano's piles of money and the fact that fans of Buffalo sports quite literally live and die with their teams. Seriously, if/when the Bills leave town, there is actually a semi-realistic chance that we will storm the Canadian Border, causing an international incident. Although given the low gun ownership in Canada, we may be able to press on and annex southern Ontario.

the fact that fans of Buffalo sports quite literally live and die with their teams.

link?

link

*adds Gamingboy's residence to dossier*

"Although given the low gun ownership in Canada, we may be able to press on and annex southern Ontario."

We will meet you at the border, hockey sticks in hand and pigs lipsticked to the max, and if that doesn't scare you, we will bring you to the asylum known as the House of Commons. Some prizes aren't worth having.

How's the proroguing going up there? I have never heard the word "proroguing" before in my life, and now it is all over the news. Have you started proroguing yet? Who is proroguing whom? Where is the proroguing to take place? How can the average person get in on some sweet proroguing action?

I remember a big dustup about flying cars a few years ago, the one that tfbg9 is apparently referring to, but I can't find it by searching the site. Can anybody find it?