The 400

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times the players I spoke to mentioned the fact that back when they played, there were only 16 teams, 8 in each league, and only 400 players in the big leagues. It was almost like a mantra. I never brought it up; it always came up somehow during the course of conversation. by "Don't forget, back in those days..."

Not only that, but there were a whole lot more farm teams back in those days. The Golden Era players are not exaggerating when they tell me it was harder to make it to the majors back then. There were tons of guys who played pro ball in the 40s and 50s, but only a fraction of them made it to the bigs. Some “D” class teams sported only one future major leaguer. Others actually had none, in certain years, on their rosters. That’s how hard it was to make it.

The pre-expansion era was, in many ways, a completely different time for baseball. Once that first expansion draft was held at the end of 1960, things changed forever. The National League lagged a year behind, but that was it. There were now 20 teams. The notion of the 400 players was no longer valid. And the quality of players on these new teams was, well, sometimes less than stellar. To begin with, the new teams were allowed to “protect” some of their players, leaving others (not their most valued ones, of course) open to be drafted. As one player explained, the unprotected ones were likely to be "long in the tooth."

The number of teams changed again in 1969, and again several times more after. Look how many teams and divisions we now have. The idea of "playoffs" was only born due to the increased number of teams. There are a lot of teams, and a lot of players.

This is not to say today's players are not excellent athletes who are deserving of their spot in the bigs. However, it is an affirmation of the difficulty of making it back in the day. A player who is drafted and signs these days, is far more likely to make it to the majors than one who signed 50 years ago.

So it follows that when asked what their best memory of their career was, many a player simply told me - "Just putting on that major league uniform and taking the field."