MLB: Four Ways Baseball Has Changed In The 21st Century

The MLB is changing and evolving even while the rules stay the same. Subconsciously, we “see” these changes as they are taking place while at other times they kind of just sneak up on us…..

Since the days when Abner Doubleday (supposedly) invented baseball on a field in Cooperstown, New York, baseball is still a game played on a diamond with four bases that are ninety feet apart and a pitching rubber that is 60′ 6″ from home plate. A game is still concluded after nine innings of play if one team has scored more runs and there are still three outs before a side can be “retired “.

And yet, the game as we see it played today is very different from the game we saw saw played in even as short a time frame as twenty years ago.

Often, the changes that occur evolve instead of being imposed like the DH that was ruled okay in the American League but not in the NL. These subtle changes, however, can often be as profound as the ones that are imposed on the game. And often, they are occurring right before our eyes and senses, but we don’t even realize it.

This is about those kinds of changes. I’ve chosen not to list them in any particular order and not to make judgments about whether or not they are good for baseball because that would lend itself more to another day and time. So, let’s get started