Monday, June 15, 2015

Things We Don't See In Sports Anymore!

There are some things, many of them before my time, that seemed to be a staple of pro sports. And then, gradually, they have slipped into a forgotten time and place.

Baseball
Flip-Down Glasses

These things looked real, real, cool. I'll be honest with you, I wanted a pair. But sunglasses developed into a good feel in the 1990s and as a result they were fazed out. Too bad. It was kind of like watching players playing with regular glasses switched up, then sunglasses, switched down.

The Hit And Run Play

This went way back to the deadball era in baseball. Opened up a whole on one side of the infield, allowing the runner to go first to third. Alas, looking at it now, it's a risky play. It you miss, the runner is often a dead duck. Most hitters now aren't thinking singles, anymore. Earl Weaver, the great Oriole manager, liked three-run home runs instead of sac bunts. Bit of the same philosophy is now used with hit and runs. Why risk it?

Pitchers Going Nine

Just isn't smart baseball, with injuries over the years to pitchers. And with pitch counts used by everyone, the minute the pitcher reaches 100 pitches, there's one or two men up in the 'pen. You've paying the short man and lefty specialist over a million, as well. Might as well use them, right? complete games and even shutouts don't mean as much as quality starts, anyways!



Hockey

No Helmet

Or how about, no head. Because you don't have your head screwed on straight if you're not wearing one. The league put in a rule in 1970/80 that any player entering the league that year had to wear one. Craig McTavish, who retired in 1997, is therefore the last player to go helmetless.

Sidenote, check out the 1972 Canada / USSR Summit Series. Canada had a grand total of three players wearing them: Stan Mikita, Paul Henderson and Bill Goldsworthy!

Meanwhile, the whole Soviet team had helmets. Later, they had all those Jofas, and Gretzky made them famous not long after.

Small Goalie Pads

Everyone has gotten bigger in hockey. The skaters, and even the goalies, so small pads are the way of the dinosaur. You can't even see the net anymore with the goalie and his big equipment. Why would you go small and lose that disadvantage over the shooter? Tony Esposito in the 1970s, started the habit of bigger gloves, and bigger blocker, and who can argue with his success?

Basketball

Goggles

Well, there was only one Kareem right? And his majestic Sky Hook. I see Kareem now, long retired, and honestly with he still wore them. Even off the court. But goggles only looked good on him (Honourable mention to James Worthy and Horace Grant) for some reason. Anyone else, forget it! Maybe though, it's like that scene in the Simpsons, when Rainer Wolfcastle says, "The goggles, they do nothing!" Did everyone take notice? Watershed moment for the NBA, perhaps?




Small Centres

Big man game today. You got Tim Duncan, a power forward, over seven feet. Can you imagine a guy six-nine at centre trying to guard him. That was back in the days of Russell and later Cowens and Reed. Can you imagine them going up against Shaq? It wouldn't be pretty, says I!

Tennis

Wooden Raquets

Remember Miloslav Mecir? Big Cat? Played with a wooden racket. And did he ever look good and cool with it. But alas, he always seemed doomed against the bigger hitters (Namely Lendl). Even John McEnroe was forced to concede that he needed a more modern stick to compete. The players got bigger and stronger (And continue to) and rackets are always evolving. That brand new stick of yours twenty years ago got over the hill faster then you did!



White Balls

I actually had my father buy a can of these in 1990. But right away, there were problems. You couldn't see them (I played on hard court), and they looked awkward, even on a red hard court. Simply put, watch some of those old Wimbledon matches of the 70s and tell me what you see. And what you don't! 'Sides, we got a white baseball, right?

No comments:

Post a Comment