Baseball Faces An Era Of Change

By 1980, the baseball fan can expect the following things to come to pass:

1. Interleague play during the regular season, pitting American and National League teams against each other on some limited basis.

2. A livelier baseball in use by the major leagues.

3. A central headquarters, located in New York, for all top baseball administration (including the Commissioner, the two major league presidents and the head of the minor leagues) -- but not a significant centralization of the commissioner's authority at the expense of the league presidents.

4. At least two franchise shifts in the major leagues.

5. A full-fledged strike by major league players.

6. An artificial playing surface in the majority of major league parks -- possibly all parks.

7. Weekday World Series games played at night.

8. Some significant weakening of the reserve clause, voluntarily by negotiation or under pressure from court or Congressional action.

9. Pay television for games televised locally in places where (unlike New York) free television has not been customary -- but no pay television for the World Series, All-Star Game or Game-of-the-Week programs, which will remain free on national networks.

10. A drastic revision of the minor leagues, virtually doing away with the traditional system, and replacing it by one that emphasizes central scouting, instructional and rookie leagues based in geographically compact complexes, and more day games.

11. A legal attack on the draft of previously unsigned players, the so-called "free-agent draft," which allots negotiation rights to players coming out of high school and college without their consent.

12. Considerably higher ticket prices.

These developments may be rated "likely." Less likely, but distinctly possible, are:

1. Major league teams in Tokyo and Mexico City (after supersonic transports begin to fly).

2. A complete re-alignment of the major league teams, so that each of four six-team divisions would contain teams that emphasized local rivalry. That way the Mets and Yankees would meet regularly, the two Chicago teams, the two Los Angeles teams, St. Louis and Kansas City, Oakland and San Francisco, and so forth.

3. Some step toward "free substitution" -- the use of a pinch-hitter more than once in a game, a permanent hitter for the pitcher, permission to use some sort of offensive or defensive specialist, and so forth.

[By William N. Wallace]

A professional football team of 1979 will reflect several changes for the sport in the next decade. A study of the crystal ball reveals that the squad of the Honolulu Alohas will number 50 highly-paid specialists. They will be larger and older and more of them will be black than on a 1969 squad. They will play on plastic grass at all times in shoes with crumble cleats like ski safety bindings and thus they will not tear up their knees so often.

Pro football already is specialized, with athletes trained for specific tasks. We have seen nothing yet. By 1979 there will be individual units for varying down-and-yard situations. "Here come the third-and-10 teams on the field," the announcers will say. Because of specialization, the coaches will have persuaded the owners to permit 50 rather than 40-man squads. The money will be so good that players will stay with the game well into their 30's. They will be larger, because athletes will continue to grow. The 6-foot 5-inch 240-pound quarterback will be no novelty.

There will be more black players because a professional sports career will remain in the forefront as the best and quickest way for them to climb the economic ladder. The athletes will be richer than ever because by 1979 cable or pay television is likely to be a law of the land and owners will have found a way to bring their product into homes for $1 or $2 a game. To keep the militant player unions from directly taking the money, the owners will have enlisted the athletes in employe stock plans.

There will be more teams such as the Honolulu Alohas. The American and National Conferences of the National Football League, which begin play this year with 13 teams each, will expand by three apiece, bringing the total to the easily divisible figure of 32. The conferences then will be divided into four divisions of four teams each, and season-end playoffs will take a month. Phoenix will have a team. So will Seattle, Memphis, Birmingham, Ala., Portland, Ore., and, of course, Honolulu.

No, pro football will not expand abroad; the natives there think our violent game is insane.