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MLB News: Goose Gossage Goes Ballistic on State of Baseball

In today’s version of “Old man yells at cloud, but maybe he has a point,” Hall of Famer Goose Gossage pilloried the state of Major League Baseball in a story by USA Today in which several baseball lifers are quoted.

To Gossage, the game has become all about home runs, defensive shifts and, as he so eloquently puts it, “These [expletives] won their rotisserie leagues at Harvard and all of those [expletive] schools and now they’re general [expletive] managers.”

Legitimate gripes?

Gossage, as well as Pete Rose, Lou Piniella and other former managers and players, decry the modern game’s lack of action. For this, they blame the launch-angle obsession of hitters, the apparently juiced baseball and defensive shifts.

The result, they say (correctly) is that baseball has become a game of home runs and strikeouts and not a whole lot else.

“I can’t watch these games anymore,’’ Gossage said. “It’s not baseball. It’s unwatchable. A lot of the strategy of the game, the beauty of the game, it’s all gone. It’s like a video game now. It’s home run derby with their (expletive) launch angle every night.’’

Even Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who has an intimate relationship with the game in 2019, says he’s concerned.

What now?

It’s not uncommon for professionals in any industry to think their era was the best time to be active. Perhaps this is no different.

But it’s also a fact that attendance is down throughout Major League Baseball (and most sports, for that matter) and that TV ratings are stagnant at best.

So what should the game do? Gossage, Rose and others interviewed offer precious few ideas.

Written by GMS staff report

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