I found this post over at the MLB message board and I thought it had made a few good points about how baseball has changed over the years…

The season was shorter. The big money wasn’t there and the players didn’t work as hard to stay in shape. The travel wasn’t nearly as exhausting.

The owners were as greedy, but didn’t realize how much they could get away with. The players on teams were mostly the same from one year to the next and as a result there was a hometown identity between the players and the fans.

The athletes were probably not as talented, but the level of overall talent on an individual team was probably higher. Fewer teams meant the talent wasn’t spread as thin. The game was at the forefront of sports, not second to football. Affordability led to crowds that drew from the working class, the middle class and the upper class in a truly democratic mix.

Games didn’t last an average of three a half to four hours and consequently were more interesting, as the commercial breaks were considerably shorter, there was more foul territory so innings didn’t last as long, and it was unheard of to stop the game to warm up a pitcher to pitch to one batter. Rain delays didn’t last several hours. If it was raining that hard the game was called.

Players mingled with the fans and signed autographs, mostly for kids, and the autographs were treasured for the memories they brought, not sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. New York had no trouble supporting three teams within a subway ride of one another, Chicago and St. Louis, two teams, and nobody bought up the rival’s TV rights.

AND PERHAPS BEST OF ALL, TV broadcasts featured knowledgeable, talented announcers who focused on the game at hand (I realize now in the days of ESPN, this one is particularly hard to believe, but trust me, boys and girls, it’s true!).