Feeling Nostalgic about the 70's

[DrungoHazewood]

17 hours ago, Frobby said:

This is not quite 1970’s nostalgia, but 1969 welcomed the publication of the 1st edition of the Baseball Encyclopedia.   I got a copy as a present and it’s certainly the best present I’d ever gotten to that point in my 11-year old life.  The full career season-by-season stats of every player who had ever played the game!   A couple of pages on the stats for every season ever played, team-by-team, with the final standings for each season!  Lists of the top career hitters and pitchers in all major categories!

I don’t think younger fans can really appreciate how big a development this was.   The information in that book was not available in readily usable form anywhere else on earth.  My brother and I took turns studying every page of that book, learning about past great players and sometimes just very good players who had one amazing season.  We used to have drafts where we’d alternate picks, add up the stats of the players we selected, and see who won.  Sometimes we’d do the draft based on the player’s best season, or it might be best three seasons, or best five seasons, or best three consecutive seasons, or whatever.  Sometimes we’d do it by decade.  The variations were almost limitless.  Sometimes we’d do it “open book,” other times from memory, but either way, we’d use the Encyclopedia to tell us who had the better three seasons, Addie Joss or Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown.   It was awesome.  

It was huge. I wasn't old enough to read it until about the 1980 version, but I'd check it out from the library every few weeks and probably read it cover to cover multiple times. It was there that I found things like Willie Keeler's .432 average in 1897, for the National League Baltimore Orioles, of all things.

I think many people don't realize that before the McMillan Encyclopedia there was no single comprehensive source for this information. In many cases no source at all. You mention the Whos Whos in Baseball publications, but they only had active players. And I'm not sure how accurate they were, or how comprehensive. If you wanted to see who won the American League in 1907... I don't know. Or who won the 1922 batting title if you didn't have a stack of old Sporting News or Spalding Guides. There were some earlier books, like one called Daguerreotypes, but they were not well known or widely available or probably very accurate. I think it's true that when Ty Cobb retired he probably didn't know how many hits he actually had. When Babe Ruth started hitting homers some writer had to go dig around old guides and total stuff up to see if he was getting near some career record.

The main reason a lot of HOF selections from before the 1970s were a little wacky was that the voters mostly were relying on 20 or 50 year old memories because they didn't have a reference. "Oh yea, I remember Bobby Wallace, the greatest shortstop... or was it third baseman... in the 1890s or something." That and the fantastically screwed up voting systems.

The Encyclopedia was the beginning of the end of people who'd tell these long-winded stories of great feats of baseball from decades ago that were mostly not true. End of the Cliff Clavin era.

Edited September 25, 2023 by DrungoHazewood

[Gofannon]

I broke the bindings on these books every year.

[Fan4Life]

Was watching some YouTube WS compilations from 69-71.  I was taken by surprise as to how much sloppy fielding there was for the O's and their opponents. Several balls to the outfield were muffed when trying to glove the ball, or take it out of the glove. Happened more times in each WS condensed games I watched then I have seen it happen the entire 2023 season. And really can't ever remember it happening more often in my lifetime. 

[Fan4Life]

3 minutes ago, Fan4Life said:

Was watching some YouTube WS compilations from 69-71.  I was taken by surprise as to how much sloppy fielding there was for the O's and their opponents. Several balls to the outfield were muffed when trying to glove the ball, or take it out of the glove. Happened more times in each WS condensed games I watched then I have seen it happen the entire 2023 season. And really can't ever remember it happening more often in my lifetime. 

I was also surprised at the conversations between Managers and their pitchers when making a visit. Nothing like has to be going on today....  when the reliever entered he give the ball, tell them the game situation, man on 2nd and 2 outs for example, and leave.  I have to think today there is much more discussion about strategy... obviously didn't just start recently.. 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Fan4Life