Alva Review-Courier -

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — "The best part of baseball today is its yesterdays," Lawrence Ritter, the author of one of the game's finest and most celebrated books, "The Glory of Their Times," liked to say.

We hear a lot these days, from the offices of Major League Baseball on down, about how baseball needs to change, to adapt, to evolve so the problems adversely impacting attendance and attention can be solved.

There are too many strikeouts, they say. Not enough hits. Too much shifting. Games that stretch into eternity and bore people, driving them to the high-intensity pop of the NBA and the NFL...