Friday, November 21, 2014

MLB Network question: if you could change one thing? Complete games within two hours!

Yesterday they were reading twitter answers and then having some former players who currently work for Bud Selig on his MLB Network TV programs also answer.

If you could change just one thing about baseball (presumably that of the Major Baseball League (MBL)), what would it be?

Somewhere the sun is shining.

Somewhere people shout.

But there is no imagination in MBL land.

Fans and players have struck out.

What a bunch of timid junk, mostly about the stupid DH rule, which should have been a DF (designated fielder) rule from the beginning.  Or go back to allowing base runners to crash into catchers.  Then put on NASCAR and watch car crashes.  Great.  Old school, they say.  That's what you think about baseball when you were 12.  Unfortunately, baseball fans never grow up.

Nelson Figueroa pitching for Tainan of Taiwan
September 29, 2013 by P5693852 via Wikimedia Commons
The only radical thing suggested was by Brooklyn born former pitcher Nelson Figueroa (final MBL game: May 9, 2011 (age 36)): after a few too many foul balls if a fan catches a foul on the fly, the batter is out; play may be reviewed.  Cool. In the past I've suggested some related stuff:
- start the count on 3-2; batter gets three pitches to put the ball in play, then is out
- let fans throw a "home run" ball back to be played by the fielders as in play

My initial reaction to the question was being torn between:
- start the count on 3-2
- eliminate the catcher, which would force:
    - fixed target for a strike
    - no leads or steals by base runners
    - extending foul territory 45 feet from the back tip of home plate.

But then I thought the thing that would force the most fundamental change would be one of my constitutional amendments for team sports: regular season games must be completed within two hours.

The only problem is that the Bud Seligs of the baseball world would probably achieve that by shortening the games to seven innings.

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