Commentary
Forty years have passed since 1981, so we thought it was high time we took a look at how baseball has changed since then.
Life was simpler in 1981. The pitches were simpler (fastball, curveball, change up, knuckle ball, etc.) and didn't require as many classifications (e.g., four-seam vs. two-seam fastballs). We wouldn't swear to it (since we've never been baseball aficionados) but as far as we remember there was no such thing as a "cutter" back then. Of course, if we're wrong, we'll hear about it via the feedback button where we make it easy and convenient for our website visitors to provide feedback. Not.
The scandals have changed (steroids to "sticky stuff") and the equipment has changed (e.g., batting gloves were far less common back then). There are more statistics and metrics to keep track of in 2021 (e.g., WHIP which is the sum of walks and hits per inning pitched). When we wrote this funny top ten list in early September, it looked like the Dodgers and Yankees might do well in the post-season, which would have been a repeat of 1981. We now know that neither team made it to the 2021 World Series.
We do need to apologize for item 1. Not only did we stray from the topic of baseball, but we had the wrong year for the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (it was released in 1985—not 1981). We regret the error.
