Sports Column: Oh how baseball has changed, and not for its betterment

It was was of those important decisions that come up from time to time. It wasn't a matter of money in that box seats were $3 and grandstand reserve were $2.50. There were still some good seats remaining as there usually were for the Kansas City Athletics, even on Opening Day.

When the guy opened the window of the booth where I was standing he asked, "How long have you been waiting?" I thought for moment before letting him know it hadn't been all that long.

"You must really love baseball to get here this early," he said.

Shoot, the game was starting in two hours and I didn't want to miss anything.

The big decision, though, involved where to sit. They still had quite a few singles down close, but I noticed some clouds moving in and decided it was best to get under the upper deck. And so it was. Section 14, Row 12, Seat 5. I still have the ticket stub.

It didn't rain that night, but that's not what this column is about. It's about change, and how the young fans of today wouldn't recognize the games I fell in love with.

Man, I thought the A's looked cool with their green and gold uniforms. and white, kangaroo shoes.

While we didn't know what it was about at the time, the P.A. announcer came on with the following announcement as the game was about to start. "The Cleveland Indians are playing the game under protest." Huh?

As it turned out, manager Joe Adcock was protesting the game over the A's wearing white shoes. I wonder how Adcock felt about the changes in his game before his death in 1999.

Little could I have known that I would be attending my last Opening Day prior to the sweeping changes that would come by 1969, the next opener in Kansas City with a brand new team, the Royals, and divisions in the majors for the first time, adding more pennant races and robbing the game of its purity.

That was also the spring following the Chiefs ascendendy to the first Super Bowl as champions of the AFL. Now, AFL stands for Arena Football League. They stole our initials. People watch films of the games in those days snd marvel that the players didn't wear those cages on their faces. Yeah, those were the days I spent $42 for a season ticket.

Getting back to the opener. My choice this year would have been either $32 for a box or $27 for a reserved seat. That, you know, is so the owners can pay a Gil Meche $55 million. That's because of the reserve clause, which one Charles O. Finley, who messed up practically everything I loved about the game in those days, welshed on a debt owed to a couple of his pitchers, who were made free agents, thus opening the flood gates for what we have today. Too many players making too much money for too many teams.

Along came the designated hitter in every league except the National League, where you can still see baseball in its purest sense.

Football, of course, moved the goal posts from the front of the end zone to the back and the staid NFL finally accepted the AFL's two-point conversion.

The umpires are now under a single banner, which I hate because it is part of this MLB business. I liked it when the leagues operated independently of one another. And all this garbage of pitchers not being allowed to brush hitters back. That's awful. There is nothing a pitcher can do these days about these goons who hit home runs and stand at home plate, preening, pointing and admiring their work. I can imagine what a Don Drysdale, Don Newcombe, Sal Maglie, Juan Marichal or Early Wynn might have done. You can bet that stuff would never have started in their day.

Those were the days when a home run was a home run, hit by the big guys. The top homer hitters were always Babe Ruth, 714, Jimmie Foxx 534, Ted Williams 52l, and Mel Ott 511. Those were big four. Know what? Foxx is now No. 14 of all things and Ott is all way down to 21. Oh, for the brush back pitch.