Thanks to David Chalk who passed this over to me. It comes from a 1981 Sporting News Baseball Yearbook, a preview issue of sorts. The writer asks several people what they think baseball will be like twenty years later…in the year 2000. Some of the most amazing quotes involve money, which the writer, I think as a joke, throws out the idea of “$3,000,000-a-year stars.” I’m sure that popped off the page back in those oh so naive pre-Reaganomics days.

But check out what Sadaharu Oh had to say:

“In the year 2000, society will be more civilized and developed than at the present time. Science will make the world more sedentary, too, so baseball spectators will want to see more of the spirit of the game, especially since everything will be automatic… However, the world may be short of wood for baseball bats. So I believe we will use aluminum or metal bats, and the game of baseball will be very, very offensive and exciting because there will be more hitting… The stadiums may have to become bigger. Not all, perhaps, but some stadiums will have to be enlarged.”

Astute, don’t you think? The wood bats thing is a little kooky, but the rest is pretty much spot on.

As related to scouting there’s a pretty interesting tidbit from Harry Minor, then a scout with the Mets.

“We’re going to radar guns to measure pitcher’s velocity now, so by the year 2000 there’s no telling how mechanized we’ll become in scouting and testing talent. I’m sure we’ll have small hand models of radar guns and, with video cassettes, you could tape a ball game as a scout, go home and play it out again at your leisure. Replay, slow motion, the works.”

This might not sound all that impressive from the outset, but I was a little young in 1981 to have a good memory of what things were like. I do remember my Dad carrying around a 15 pound box on his shoulder, in addition to the camera itself, which was big — a little like newscameras you see now. That might have been in the mid 80s.

Smaller hand models of radar guns — check. And he’s right on with the recording equipment. I often record pitchers at games, then stop and watch them frame by frame. Then at night I edit it and send it to my bosses via email. From Asia.