Andy Amey: MLB's first half gets a passing grade

Jun. 30—At the halfway point of the 2023 season, I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that Major League Baseball is pretty good this year.

Some of the rule changes have worked out at least as good as I hoped they would, maybe better (love the pitch clock, still not crazy about the imaginary runners). Pace of play has improved, and some teams are actually playing baseball instead of making 27 outs while swinging for the fences. And I like the new schedule, in which every team plays every other team in at least one series.

Stolen bases are a thing again, apparently because of some weird psychological effect. The bases were enlarged, which so far this season I have seen make a difference in exactly zero plays. But because so many people have said, "The bases are bigger, so stealing is easier," the managers have bought into the myth and are pursuing strategies that would have been just as effective before.

For those of us who have been sick of the Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox (to name three overpublicized teams), there are some interesting and/or entertaining teams to watch this season too. The Diamondbacks, one of those teams that runs and plays real baseball, are one of those teams, and I watched two others that are even better examples on Monday night when I was off work and could check in on the Reds — yes, it surprises me to the point of throwing up in my mouth to call the Reds interesting or entertaining, but they are (and would be more so if they'd let Hunter Greene bat) — and the Orioles. New faces! Excitement! FUN!

By contrast, though, the other channel I was watching Monday featured the aftermath of a team that used to be new and exciting and fun — the Chicago White Sox.

With the swaggy Timmy Anderson, the Bo Jackson-like Luis Robert, slugging Eloy Jimenez and a pitching staff with studs like Dylan Cease (yes, that's two players in a row traded to them by the Cubs), Michael Kopech, Liam Hendriks, etc., the Sox should be one of the most entertaining teams in baseball, and they were B.L. (Before La Russa).

But the south side of Chicago's answer to the Loathsome Ricketts Family is Jerry Reinsdorf, who felt he owed former manager Tony La Russa a favor. He brought in the over-the-hill, no-fun, traditionalst La Russa to run the team, and he ran it into the ground. Now the Sox are swag-free, emotionless and dull. All the fun the team had been having was sucked out of them and they're a pitiful excuse for what they used to be. Sad.

Is there any way the Cardinals could bring La Russa back?

* One negative

* — The one trend in MLB that's still heading the wrong direction involves pitching philosophies.

Although the launch-angle analytics folks may be slowly losing favor among people who actually know baseball, the state of hitting is still atrocious. And yet?

Apparently all the .185 hitters (looking at you, Schwarbs) are so dangerous that any pitch close to the strike zone will be hit 500 feet. So pitchers try to throw everything about six inches off the plate hoping the batters will swing; when there's finally a three-ball count, there's finally a strike thrown, which will usually be popped up or missed.

So which is it? If they can't hit, why not throw them strikes? There's a name coming up in a paragraph or two who would do that.

* Eras ending

* — Some sad realizations emerged the last few weeks as I covered high school sports.

As Shakamak prepared for its semistate baseball action, Brady Yeryar confirmed to me that yes, he was the last Yeryar who will play baseball for the Lakers for a while (and I'm not sure I ever covered a Laker team without at least one member of that family involved). My favorite Yeryar, the guy who would throw strikes to anybody, was Jimmy John, whose philosophy probably stemmed from Gary Yeryar, the former terror of Terre Haute Men's Senior League.

When Derron Hazzard and Jacob Hopton played last weekend in the Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association All-Star game, Derron also confirmed that he and Jacob were the last of the cousins — grandchildren of the late John McMullen, whose three daughters were in classes in which I substituted at Rosedale and Riverton Parke a year or two ago — to be wearing Riverton Parke uniforms in several sports.

The line for me between entertaining and intensely crazy is a very thin one, but I love the kids who fall on either side. I already lost my favorites, Sullivan's Shorter twins, to graduation a year ago, and now the Yeryars, the Hazzard-Hopton-Virostko boys and the Adams triplets (Sullivan High School must have been wild the last few years) are leaving me.

Nature abhors a vacuum, though, so I expect to meet several new sources of joy as soon as school starts in the fall.

* Speaking of senior baseball

* — I got an email from Jim Acton recently, pointing out that it's been 20 years since Terre Haute won its first senior men's world series. The league is always searching for players and those interested can call Jim at (812) 239-3267 or Darren Brucken at (812) 240-0442.

Andy Amey can be reached by email at andy.amey@tribstar.com or by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808. Follow TribStarAndy on Twitter.