jimmypasta wrote:
* The mound has been tinkered with after 1969 based on opinion.
It's not an opinion, jimmy. When the max height was 15" teams built that fucker higher. When they reduced it to ten inches, teams still built it higher. They couldn't get away with an 18" or 20" mound anymore though. Teams complaining about the Dodger mound was part of the reason for the rule change in the first place.
So why aren't they doing it now? I'm sure in certain instances they are. But this really has a lot to do with the curveball. You have to remember that when they reduced the mound height in 1969 the typical repetoire was fastball-curveball-changeup. Because of the lower mound it became extremely difficult to throw the curve effectively. Those curveball pitchers didn't suddenly disappear with the mound reduction. They were on teams and getting paid. In the long run, the younger guys coming up largely abandoned the curveball and began relying on sliders, split-finger pitches, and eventually cutters. The height of the mound wasn't so critical for these slider-cutter guys, and so that particular bending of the rules became less prevalent than it had been.
I get the feeling you don't appreciate Kershaw and what he's doing nearly enough. Here's a guy commanding a curveball off a lower mound and putting up numbers that are the equal of any in whatever you want to call a "golden age".