The Void Is Here: Time To Reminisce About Great Players, And The One That Baseball Really, Really Needs

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.
-- Rogers Hornsby

I am too young to have seen Bob Gibson pitch. But I have seen video of him, and like most fans of the game have read story after story about his famous drive to win, and his intolerance of anything that smacked of disrespect...of him or the game.

Baseball is in a marvelous position right now. Because of the NFL's careful, calculated attempts to curry favor with the SJWs in some misguided attempt to create new and larger fan base, they have alienated many of their dedicated fans. Baseball can poach some of them if they are smart. But too much thuggish and undignified behavior will push away any potential fans, and perhaps irritate their current fan base enough to hurt the game.

I have no illusions that baseball can return to its glory days in the 1940s-1960s...when it truly was America's Game. And I understand that younger players chafe against the traditions of stoicism that make the game unique. But there is a line between exuberance and grandstanding, and if baseball isn't careful, they will get a generation of players who think that prancing and preening and dancing after every reasonably good play is appropriate behavior. It happens in the NFL, and it is vile.
Bob Gibson Quotes, Stories and Anecdotes

Hank Aaron on Bob Gibson
“(Hank Aaron told me) ‘Don’t dig in against Bob Gibson, he’ll knock you down. He’d knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don’t stare at him, don’t smile at him, don’t talk to him. He doesn’t like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don’t run too slow, don’t run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don’t charge the mound, because he’s a Gold Glove boxer.’ I’m like, ‘Damn, what about my 17-game hitting streak?’ That was the night it ended.”
—Dusty Baker

posted by CBD at 12:00 PM

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