In Episode 29 of The Busted Locker: As someone who is quickly approaching 50, I am beginning to resent more and more this notion that once you reach a certain age, your opinion doesn’t matter. I see it practically every day on the socials, in particular when it comes to sports: an “old-timer” expresses his dislike for something, and he is immediately shouted down by the younger crowd for being the old man yelling at a cloud, or yelling for the kids to get off his lawn.
I fully understand that some things and some ways of thinking should be left in the past, but I’m smart enough to know that just because something is new, doesn’t necessarily make it better (lookin’ at you, New Coke).
All you need to do is look at the recent situation involving Pirates broadcaster Steve Blass, and the social justice windstorm he created with his comments during a game against the Braves. A lot of people took a 15-second clip and used it to call Blass everything but a flat-out racist to his face.
Because he is an old, white guy who dared to use the term “back in my day”, he was labeled as someone who doesn’t like black players or Latino players. It was a disgusting assault on a man who, by all other accounts, has been a good ambassador for baseball for 60 years.
But that seems to be the way the scales are tipping when it comes to baseball. In are the new baseball metrics, and the flashy, home run-pimping, “look at me” players, and out are the old “unwritten rules” and the grumpy old players who swear by them.
Major League Baseball has been pushing its "Let the Kids Play" promotion, but the more the kids play, the worse the game gets.
And that ain’t the old-timers’ fault.
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