1953

Everyone here talks funny! I'm 10 and can't understand what anyone is saying. Ike is President, Korea ending, Dad at work, Mom at home, a new brother on the way...life is normal. Except my Uncle and Grandmother are 1000 miles to the south. Upheaval in its first version. South to north, a couple of years here then a new home in Natick. And back to Everett. By this time I understand everyone and there are two or three more...oldest of 11, so this is normal?

The time frame of ten years, 53/63 is one that shows huge change in everyone's way of living. We go from Korea to Viet Nam. One police action to a more vicious one. There are constants...dead is dead! Mom at home is quickly being replaced by a new normal. Equal rights gets a big boost from economic reality, without two incomes a family is in trouble.
Going to the corner to "flip" cards or coins with your pals is also on the way out. Organized sports are in. "Play dates" haven't been heard of yet, but not that far off. Howdy Doody and the Peanut Gallery meet the "Fonz". I go from 10 to 20 and visit Italy via USN for first time. Naples of 1963 was not the best way to be introduced. Other stops on this tour include; Marseilles (1st aircraft carrier to go there...10 years before the next), Athens, Istanbul, Barcelona, Palermo...the money you would spend for that trip now, wow! 

That 10 years in the life of major league baseball was dramatic. Everything in professional sports is predicated on the paying customer. If you don't get as many as you want you move, ie: Giants, Dodgers, Browns, A's, ad nauseum. Or, 
you expand, Minnesota, LA to start, eventually doubling the number of teams and overpaid ballplayers, about 400 new millionaires per season. Now for every action there is an equal, but opposite reaction. With the onset of expansion more players are needed. Simple solution #1, bring them up from the minors. #2, bring them in from Cuba, Latin America, #3, forget the color line. Green trumps bigotry!
So now we have a polyglot baseball scene, what next? Negro leagues fade from scene, hundreds of former players no longer have a job or recognition. Minor leagues follow suit. Pacific Coast League, the highest independent league aligns with MLB. All independent leagues collapse. Structure of minors goes from; D,C,B,A,AA and AAA to low/high A, AA and AAA. Your local venue folds. TV owns the game. Instead of an inexpensive night out with the family it's TV dinners in front of an ever expanding screen. I'm sorry but I don't see which are pro's and which are con's, for that matter is it progress? Is progress inherently good? Am I just another old man venting? Remember, when there are two sides to a question the odds are constant 50/50! I may be right!