Size of Players

[His High Holiness]

All;

Anyone who has known me a while knows that I collect statistics, mostly about umpiring. Here is a trend about baseball, not umpiring, that I have noted for quite a while and I wonder if it is just me or the part of the country that I work. Only those that have passed the half century mark of life will have the necessary input.

When I played college baseball in the late 60's and early 1970's I was of average size of the players on my team. I went to the equivalent of a DIII school that only had about 1500 students. I was 6' 1/4" and 180 lbs. I was right in the middle of the team in terms of height and weight.

Today, age has robbed me of about 1/2 inch of height and I have added about 10 lbs. Yet I note that I am about 1-2 inches taller than the avarage D1 player for whom I umpire.

Today, kids physically mature about 3 months earlier than they did when I was growing up. Likewise, kids are about 4-6 months older when they graduate from high school than when I was growing up. (This is due to September 1 cutoffs for age in entering school instead of the January 1 cutoff that was common when I was growing up. In addition, lots of kids started school early in those days which is a rarer occurance today. I started college 3 weeks after my 17th birthday.) These two factors put together mean that college players today should have almost 9 months of physical maturity on the players of the 1960's. Yet, I am sure that the baseball players are smaller, unless my mind is playing tricks on me.

Last week, I did a high school varsity game which involved a team from the largest school in Virginia - 2500 students. Every single player on that team was shorter than I, most were 2-4 inches shorter. I will agree that the players of today are heavier than when I was in high school. Fatness in those days was unusual.

I attribute this to the fact that the NBA and the NFL were just coming of age in the late 1960's. More or the best athletes in those days went into baseball. Today, perhaps only the failures from the other sports wind up in baseball. I don't know.

I am not saying that the players today have less skill. I think that the pitching today is better. I am only talking about the height of the players. Have any of you other old timers noticed this? If so, any ideas on what is causing it.

Peter

[GarthB]

Peter:

I think a true study would show that to a regional thing. In my area, kids are still three sport athletes and they are much bigger than the average kids when I played. Some catchers, in particular, are huge and haven't been taught a proper stance.

I like to tell my kids that the first time we had a 240 pounder on our high school football team was at the 20 year reunion.

[His High Holiness]

Originally posted by GarthB
Peter:

I think a true study would show that to a regional thing. In my area, kids are still three sport athletes and they are much bigger than the average kids when I played. Some catchers, in particular, are huge and haven't been taught a proper stance.

I like to tell my kids that the first time we had a 240 pounder on our high school football team was at the 20 year reunion.

I agree that the football and basketball players are much bigger today than they were 30 years ago. Coaches in football say that their lineman especially, are 2-4 inches taller and 100 lbs heavier than 50 years ago. I am referring specifically to baseball players. Three sport players in D1 college sports are rare today.

[Tim C]

I am sure it is regional as Garth intones . . . HOWEVER in my neck of the woods we see many, many baseball players that run from 5'7" to about 5'10" -- we see "shorter" players at the baseball area.

What we see also is that the traditional "3 Sport" players that used to be Football, Wrestling, and Baseball are now "3 Sport" players that play Football, Wrestling and Lacrosse.

We have schools with very large populations (+1500) that have 8, 9, or 10 varsity baseball players.

Heffner 4:68

[GarthB]

Originally posted by His High Holiness

I agree that the football and basketball players are much bigger today than they were 30 years ago. Coaches in football say that their lineman especially, are 2-4 inches taller and 100 lbs heavier than 50 years ago. I am referring specifically to baseball players. Three sport players in D1 college sports are rare today.

Peter:

I know you are referring to baseball players. So am I. No longer working D-1 , my reference is high school and the high school players are not smaller than they used to be, they are larger. My post was intended to credit that in part to the fact that there still are a lot of three sport athletes here.

[jicecone]

Peter,

I was just at the doctors the last week and he confirmed what indeed may be the problem.

1. Your definitely getting older

2. Your eyesight is definitely getting worse.

3. Your senility has progressed to the point of not being able to differentiate between fat or thin, short or tall, and male or female.

Go home, keep taking your medicine and hopefully you will be ready to do a game next week.

Great advice, however I can't figure out why I just got a bill from the Veterinarian down the street