<DIV><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>The incredible year that baseball got the designated hitter, wife-swapping pitchers, world champion A’s</b>, <b>and Willie Mays said goodbye to America</b></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><BR><BR>Baseball as we know it today was born in 1973. Attendance was dropping; interest was flagging; and the game, stuck in a rut, was dying. Then Steinbrenner bought the Yankees—but these were the Yanks that no one talks about: a second division club with wife-swapping pitchers. Across town, the Mets, with Tom Seaver and Willie Mays managed by Yogi Berra, couldn’t get it right, but it wasn’t over till it was over. Across the country, the A’s were breaking rules while their maverick owner, Charlie Finley, was fighting to keep them underpaid. See the muttonchops and Technicolor uniforms of the day, and get know the players inside those uniforms and the times in which they lived. Elvis drew a larger audience than the Apollo landings. A Dodge Dart cost $2,800; gas was a quarter per gallon. Computers were the size of a locker room, and a fiscal crisis was looming over Vietnam, Watergate, an oil embargo, and the resignation of the vice president. Relive one of the most exciting years in the history of the game, the first with the designated hitter and the last before the first free agent, then watch the two World Series opponents go head to head above the baby steps of a dynasty that soon dwarfed both league champions. It was a turbulent time both for the country and the game, neither of which would ever be the same again.</p></div>