Managing In the Golden Decade (1947-57)

[KG Erwin]

I had another great phone conversation with my buddy Lets Play 2 last night, and we discussed playing in those bygone days. I moan and groan about my bullpen, but it's easy to forget that this was the pre-closer era. The term "closer" hadn't even been invented yet. What we had were second-rate youngsters and a number of downward-sliding veterans who were the actual relievers. Back in those days, a starter was generally expected to finish the game.

In PS, I'm seeing the CG rate at approx 1/3 of starts, which is not bad considering that there were 4-man rotations in common usage.

Then there's the parks. Other than the Babe, hitting over 35-40 HRs was rare. The parks were generally hitter-friendly, though, and the big-boob play was the triple.

I talk much about Jackie Robinson, but apart from breaking the color line, he actually affected playing styles with his baserunning skills. Now, I give him the green light nearly every time he reaches, so if an average-armed catcher is opposing him, watch out. 87 SB in 1947, 45 as of July 1948.

One must also consider the 154-game schedule. My Dodgers lost the pennant by 2 games to the hated archrival Giants. What could've happened with a few more games?

The future Hall of Famers -- there are SO many. My team has four, so far: Campanella, Reese, Robinson and Snider.

This is not to say that any particular historical era is better or worse than modern baseball -- it's just different.

PS I still wish we could import team-specific playcalls into the managed games. To use recordings of Mel Allen or Red Barber or Ernie Harwell or Harry Caray or Bob Prince in certain circumstances would be oh-so-cool.

[KG Erwin]

Addendum: after attempting a brief foray into the modern era, I decided that I can watch it on TV. My fascination is with the game that was played before I was born, the era that I watch on B&W films and read about in books. I can't explain it with going into some rambling psychobabbble nonsense, but I am drawn to it.

In particular, there's the Brooklyn Dodgers. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1HUlmHc ... re=related

[SittingDuck]

Wow.  Thanks for that, KG.  I really enjoyed watching it.

I can understand the fascination of the previous life generation when it comes to baseball.