The end of an era?

My copy of Lindy’s Sports Baseball 2023 Preview arrived in the mail yesterday. This is what it has come to. I couldn’t find it at any of my usual outlets: CVS, the local newsstand, or even Barnes and Noble, so I had to order it online.

It may be the last such publication I buy. Like the current offerings of baseball cards, they have lost their allure.

First off, the only issue available of all the “regional issues” available, i.e. ones featuring players in a particular market, featured Marcus Semien of the Texas Rangers and Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros. Nothing against these guys, but it seems poor planning not to have a larger supply. Of course, back in the day there was one cover for the whole country and I really don’t know if team-specific issues increase sales that much. But that’s neither here nor there. The feature stories are the same for every issue.

As a Mets fan, I turned to their section in “comprehensive reports” first. That’s all I had to read to know that information in the rest of them had to be suspect as well.

The Mets section based its projection in no small part on the addition of free agent third baseman Carlos Correa. As we know, Correa re-signed with the Twins so anything Lindy’s had to say was tossed out the window. (Of course, no magazine could have foreseen the injury to Mets closer Edwin Diaz, lost for the season, or others that have transpired so they can’t be faulted for that. These predictions are predicated on an ideal that never seems to come to fruition. How likely is it that at least one key player per team will sustain an injury?

Now, I’ve already acknowledged that these magazines run the risk of being outdated as soon as they’re available and this just proves the point. Also, the quality of on-line reporting is such that these paper dinosaurs seem in real danger of becoming extinct altogether. (Both The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated — practically required weekly reading a generation ago — are now monthlies and can’t possible offer the same relative immediacy and intimacy as they used to.)

The “State of the Game Report” was a fairly standard recap of the 2022 season along with thoughts on what this year might bring. Same for projecting prospects. But I think the real nail in the coffin for me was “Keeping the Faith,” a profile of “Darryl Strawberry — a real man preaching God’s word” (emphasis in the original; what does the writer mean by “a real man” anyway?). Sorry, I may be  narrow-minded here, but I don’t need to read about religion in my sports magazines. There are other outlets for such topics.

Just sayin’.