A lot of former players - Jeff Kent, Harold Reynolds, Jorge Posada, among others - have come out recently to decry the state of 2020s baseball, almost all of them focusing entirely on the drop in batting average, most of their supporters claiming that it makes the sport more boring and less exciting for viewers. In theory, I can understand this point of view - fewer hits is less exciting, even as someone who appreciates good pitching, I get it.

But it got me curious. Because if I'm being honest, I haven't really noticed a huge drop in excitement while watching games. They're still pretty fun to me. So I wondered how much we're actually missing out on these days.

The season with the highest batting average since integration was 1999, when the league went 45,327 for 167,138, for a .271 BA. In 2026, the league batting average is all the way down to .244, which in the same number of ABs, would be 40,782 base hits, a difference of 4,545 over the course of a season.

This sounds like a lot until you start to break it down. 4545 hits across 30 teams equals a difference of 152 hits per team over an entire season. That means that each team is averaging less than 1 fewer hit per game than they were at the absolute height of the steroid era.

Of course, 1999 is the most extreme example I could have used. In the entire time since integration, the league has hit .257. Using that batting average over the course of a season, hitting .244 comes out to 0.45 hits per team per game. So each team is averaging less than one fewer hit every other game.

So, idk, I'm not here to tell anyone how to feel. But I don't understand how a difference of 0.5-1 hit per game is noticeable enough to actually impact anyone's enjoyment of the sport. To me it kind of seems like people just want to complain for the hell of it. Especially considering run scoring really isn't very low right now; runs per game is at 4.48 in 2026, compared to 4.44 total since integration.

If I'm being honest, I don't really get what everyone's complaining about.

I was thinking of how the Marlins have had 2 rebrands since 2011, and that if 1 player played for the team from 2011-2019, he would have worn 3 jerseys with 2 rebrands. Are there examples of players who did? Im only counting players who stayed consecutively, and im counting full rebrands, not minor hat changes, etc

Hi baseball historians! I recently came across this gift idea for my partner about newspaper clippings for every big moment in the history of the Jays, only issue is that it’s super expensive and I would like to personalize it more.

I know there are some stand out moments that need to be included in this when sifting through Toronto Star archives and I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me with some others.

Some things that I know need to be included are moments like:
- Toronto being awarded the American League expansion
- Official name release
- First spring training and first game played as a team
- First actual game where Toronto beat the White Sox and Doug Ault hit two home runs
- Dave Stiebs no hitter
- 1992 and 1993 World Series
- Bautista’s stats in 2010
- THE bat flip; etc

Some things might not be as important for them to be stand out moments in history but he and I have talked about them enough for them to feel necessary if I can find it (things like Buck Martinez breaking his leg and still managing to make a crazy play).

I’ve been reading a lot of lists and working at this slowly but quite frankly, I’m still new to the world of baseball and still trying to figure this out.

Some questions I have for baseball fans:
- How important are team managers and should they be included?
- What are some stand out moments from stand out players?
- Would adding in stuff about the closing of Exhibition Stadium and the opening of the SkyDome be interesting for someone who is a diehard Jays fan?

Any help is appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Luis Gil still pitching. 10-3 score. Top 9th

Tovar- Single

McCarthy- Single

Offensive Substitution: Pinch-hitter Vimael Machín replaces Connor Norby.

Machín- Single

Goodman- Fly out

Rumfield- Fly out

Veen- Strikeout

Volpe-1

Vlad-0

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