I gave up on MLB after the strike of '94. I was so disgusted with both the players and the owners I just walked away, after being a huge Dodgers fan all my life. At this point I probably couldn't name more than 4-5 active players, and some HoF players have probably played their whole careers with me never even hearing their names (unless they got called before Congress for juicing). I have watched some minor league games off and on, but very few Shorebirds players make it to the Show.
However, for the first time in decades I've got a bit of an itch to see what's happening in the game. For some reason Sports Illustrated started showing up in my mailbox unsolicited, and now that March Madness is over they are talking about baseball. If I do jump back in, I'll still be a Dodgers fan, but maybe I'll look into the Nationals too, since they are the local team. Other than the Orioles, who I always hated.
The point of this is, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get up to speed on what's happened over the last 20 years or so? Any good books or anything like that? At least to figure out who people are talking about when they compare the new players to guys I never heard of. Like I know that the MLB has gotten a lot of Japanese players over the years, but the only one I know about is Hideo Nomo, and only because he was a Dodger. Things like that.
I'll be interested in seeing what y'all suggest.