On twitter yesterday I was riffing that when the 2026 All Star Game arrives in Philadelphia (that’s a thing), there will be 26 year olds who grew up in the 2010’s who don’t like baseball.
From my catty point, I started thinking more seriously about how the 2010’s have been the So What Decade for baseball.
There really haven’t been memorable moments. There’s no Pete Rose 4192, no Cal Ripken 2130. Nobody chasing 60 or now 70+. Nobody climbing up to 714 and beyond.
Remember Face of MLB? David Wright? Nice guy. Big fan. He isn’t in the realm of anyone else I name dropped. Joey Bats? Superstar? Come on.
Someone pointed out the Cubs won the World Series. OK cool, one thing happened. That WAS pretty cool. Go Cubs Go.
Other than that? What even happened this decade? Some random Red Sox teams? The famous Royals-Mets five game World Series? Is anyone actually that excited about the Astros?
Someone will now make a list of today’s best players. On twitter someone mentioned deGrom. Is deGrom really a superstar? He isn’t. He’s not even the biggest star pitcher on his own team. Sorry. Very good player, but he’s not in the national conversation outside of baseball fans.
Here’s MLB.com’s version of such a list.
Who is the Griffey Jr.? Who is the A-Rod? The Piazza? The Cal? The Pete Rose? The George Brett? The McGwire? The Bonds?
I even tried to do some research. I typed in things like “Baseball History 2010’s” and didn’t find anything. One year ago,this site made a “best lineup of the 2010s” and well…Joey Votto?
Remember this moment from the 2010s?
No. No you don’t. And can you tell me who that player is? The answer is in nice tiny print in the bottom right if you need help.
Here’s one of baseball’s biggest stars of the 2010’s gracing the cover of MLB The Show!
And the following year, the immortal Josh Donaldson!
I went to MLB.com’s own history page! Take a look at the below. They haven’t bothered to recap a season since 2012…ok maybe that’s just bad webpage management…but look at the milestones….whatever happened to milestones?
You guys can Clayton Kershaw me all you want. You can A/B Mike Trout’s stats next to whoever you want as he quietly accumulates them out of the limelight. You can tell me I don’t like baseball….oh I like baseball….I don’t like what baseball has become. Maybe you’ll take Joel Sherman’s word for it.
I think this has been a lost decade. Discuss!
