By now, we're a little over a week into the new season.

Nothing signals that Spring has come like the baseball season opener. There is a predictability in baseball that is unlike that of Mother Nature. When opening day comes, the games will be played unless rain or snow makes it impossible to do so. The birds and the bees do not have that kind of predictability.

Baseball may no longer be "America's Pastime", but it is America's sport. There is something about baseball that is timeless, and I'm not just referring to the lack of a clock to govern the duration of a game. If you look at the above picture, very little gives it away as an image taken almost 100 years ago, save for the graininess of the picture, the watercolor like colorization, and the two baseball players in the picture. 

For the most part, today's baseball game is played mostly by the same rules as it was 100 years ago, save for the introduction of the designated hitter. However, the game has evolved in ways no one could have foreseen even 50 years ago. No longer do pitchers throw complete games, nor do they hit in the American League. In a normal game, one sees a starting pitcher, a middle relief pitcher, and a closer. (Could you imagine Babe Ruth's career had he started playing today?  I'd bet that he'd have never hit 714 home runs, as he'd have earned a Hall of Fame slot on his pitching record alone.) 

Of course, much of the game's evolution has been propelled by statistical analysis. There are so many names for specific types of stats, that the mind starts to boggle. And Billy Beane's work with the Athletics was made popular with the book "Moneyball" and the movie of the same name. No longer is "gut instinct" a valid way to manage a team. Instead, a good manager has to understand all the statistics that apply to his players at the current moment in a game, and manage the team based on statistical probabilities.  This is not easy, and I doubt it is as much fun for a manager as it was 100 years ago.

Yet, baseball is eternal.  Children still dream of being a "Big League" baseball player. However, these children often come from third world countries such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic or Panama. The game is much more international than before, and we are seeing a better class of baseball than was available 100 years ago. Would Babe Ruth or "Shoeless" Joe Jackson be able to make it in today's game?  I don't know, but they were the greatest players of their time, and they set benchmarks that still stand almost 100 years later.