MLB Thread 2026

[Grandpa]

Tugboat might be underselling him
He looks like Big Country Reeves or Rick Reuschel

funny thing about Reuschel , since I brought him up, on his off days he would get used occasionally as a pinch hitter, or even as a pinch runner once in awhile cuz he knew the game so well and was a decent hitter for average

Game I attended back when for $8 you could buy a seat in row 6 between home and 3B. Reuschel on 3rd, Cardenal on first, no outs. I'm excited, Madlock is up. Gonna score some runs, right? He hits a foul ball behind the plate near the wall, Simmons catches it. Cardenal has tagged up and heads to 2B. Simmons throws to second, Cardenal stops, laughs at the infielder, and points at home where Reuschel is about to score. Infielder throws home where nobody is covering. Simmons is still by the wall. Cardenal goes to third. All 7,000 of us fans went wild!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sort of miss those days, but not the sucking horribly part.

 

[WolfpackIllini]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2051436981352038520

This has been making the rounds online.

Four team divisions just reflects the inability for people in sports not to be hopelessly NFL-brained about everything. But it does (mostly) put the local rivalries together, which is the right idea.

The best path has been obvious to me for a long time.

Four eight team leagues. Call them leagues. Call winning them winning a pennant. Winning the pennant in an 8 team league over the course of the six month season was the core of baseball for five-plus decades in which it dominated the public consciousness.

And these leagues should be regional, and the schedule should tilt toward playing the local league more frequently. MLB is not like the NBA where you need the stars to visit every city every year.

Regionalism is a very strong instinct in Americans that sports are increasingly ignoring in favor of bland corporate slurry. Reject that. Winning the Midwest League should be like winning the Big Ten, not like winning the NFC South, it should be an accomplishment recorded and cherished independent of the World Series.

And then this setup dovetails perfectly into the new playoff format, with the four league winners getting byes.

Cubs and Sox in same division?! This is nuts. Ditto with the Yankees and Mets.
I think splitting the AL and NL into 4 divisions makes sense from a playoff bracket standpoint,
but then you only have 4 teams from each side, instead of currently, what, 5??

 

[Mr. Tibbs]

Game I attended back when for $8 you could buy a seat in row 6 between home and 3B. Reuschel on 3rd, Cardenal on first, no outs. I'm excited, Madlock is up. Gonna score some runs, right? He hits a foul ball behind the plate near the wall, Simmons catches it. Cardenal has tagged up and heads to 2B. Simmons throws to second, Cardenal stops, laughs at the infielder, and points at home where Reuschel is about to score. Infielder throws home where nobody is covering. Simmons is still by the wall. Cardenal goes to third. All 7,000 of us fans went wild!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sort of miss those days, but not the sucking horribly part.

I was an 11 year old in 1972. it’s mid June
my buddies wealthy grandpa takes us to a weekday game where once we got in he slipped the Andy Frain some money and we were sitting in box seats 10 rows back at about 3rd base . probably 8000 people there .

Reuschel had gotten called up from Iowa the day before and he’s starting . Cubs v Giants
He hit a double . pretty sure it was his first at bat.

edit: just checked . that was his debut but he didn’t start .