Three months off gave me time to think about how sports have changed during my lifetime, particularly the big three, football, baseball and basketball. They’ve all changed. Some changes occurred because of rule changes and others because of the evolution of the game.

Of the three, baseball has changed the least. The playing rules have remained pretty much the same. No additional runs are scored if you hit the ball 400 feet instead of 300. The only big changes are the playoffs and the designated hitter in the American League. The National League refuses to allow designated hitters. It’s unusual in big time sports for two leagues to split on a major rule. 

There are some differences in high school, college and pro football and basketball, but no one is allowed to take a free throw other than the player that was fouled, (he doesn’t have a designated free thrower), or play 12 men in football at times. Baseball has also changed its playoff formula, and as a traditionalist, I think Commissioner Bud Selig should concentrate more on bringing the two leagues together on the designated hitter rule rather than adding another playoff game.

The game of baseball on the whole has been static and what scored a run 50 years ago would probably score the same run today. That is part of the charm of baseball and also part of its lack of growth with the viewing public in comparison with football.

Football pretty much follows the same rules it did 75 years ago. Although, you see very few dropkicks today. In any case, there really hasn’t been a game-changing innovation since the T formation.

Basketball has been made into a much different game than the one I played 60 years ago. There have been many, many rule changes beginning by cutting the bottom out of the peach baskets that were hung at each end of the gym long ago.

Hall of Fame high school coach Burt Munson of Mountain Lake was blessed with good players, but perhaps more importantly, his style of play was suited to the rules of the time. His theory was to pound the ball into the center. In the ‘50s, the lane was only six feet wide and the center stood only three feet from the basket. It was almost impossible to stop a big agile man. And he didn’t have to be all that agile.

George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers and his hook shot was very difficult to stop. His hook shot was not so much of a hook shot, but a wide angle layup. Mikan and the Lakers dominated pro basketball. 

The NBA then enacted what some called the Mikan Rule. They expanded the lane from six feet to 12 feet which started the movement toward wide open basketball and today’s game. For a while, the big agile centers still dominated the game. Centers such as Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell were necessary if you wanted to win a championship. During this time, there were fine basketball teams such as the Lakers with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, but they were still vulnerable to the team with the superb center.

Then, pro basketball reacted to the rule changes and had champions without a dominating center. The Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls with mediocre pivot men won six out of nine years.

There has been a tremendous change in basketball and relatively not so much in football and baseball. To give you a comparison; How would George Mikan fare in today’s basketball? Not so well when compared with how Ted Williams would do in baseball and Sammy Baugh or Johnny Unitas in football.