Clock, time-outs in baseball. And Constitutional amendments dealing with time for team sports.

Concepts have been refined but the original speed up the game stuff holds up surprisingly well. I've since learned that there's a twelve second rule to pitch but it's not enforced. Now, my rule for the batter: if you step out, you're out. Only players and umpires on the field. Only the pitcher on the mound unless another player is fielding there.  Change pitchers on the fly (no warm ups). Common sense stuff like that.

There are more general things below from Constitutional amendments for team sports. Friday, June 8, 2012.

Written June 9, 2006 (first post of this blog February 20, 2008):

Radical Baseball

1. Start the closer.
2. The Real scandal of the last 16 years: propagation of non-uniform playing areas.
3. Four leagues, no divisions.
4. Walks: a terrible rule.
5. Designated Fielders and the Six-Player Batting Order.
6. Clock, time-outs, … you know, like the other sports.

6. Clock, time-outs

Put in a damn clock! These four hour games are driving me crazy! I wouldn’t mind except there’s nothing happening. 90% of what passes for action is two guys playing catch. In a nine inning game there is at most 30 minutes of action and that includes the batter taking a pitch and the second baseman throwing out a runner. Make what little action there is continuous. Watch a basketball game to get the idea. Baseball is by far the simplest game. 70% of head coaches in the NFL never played in the NFL. 30% of head coaches in the NBA never played in the NBA. 10% of MLB managers never played MLB. That’s a pretty accurate reflection of the relative complexity of the sports. Football cannot leave the running of a team to some dumb former player. Basketball is about in between football and baseball. Only baseball entrusts a $100,000,000 to $200,000,000 payroll to a dumb tobacco dribbling former player. Why? Because baseball is simple. There are at least 10,000 twelve year old kids who know enough baseball to run a MLB team. I could run the Yankees. No way I could run the Knicks and I wouldn’t even think about running the football Giants.

So, why is baseball the only sport with no clock and with unlimited meetings? Give each team three time outs per nine innings, then one more for each additional three innings. No meetings other than the time outs. Do not stop play by calling time. A base runner does not need time out to dust off his uniform. Get in the box and stay there. Get on the rubber and throw. Once, just once, I’d like to see a meeting on the mound followed by the pitcher not looking in for a sign. He just talked to the catcher! Decide on the pitch in the discussion and just throw it!

A team could get a competitive advantage by changing the pace of the game. Only baseball teams do not attempt this. Twenty years ago the San Francisco 49’ers started games with their first 20 plays scripted; no huddle between plays. Baseball cannot do that for even one batter! How difficult can it be? Just start pitching without waiting for a sign!

Baseball has a twenty-second rule, which of course it never enforces, with no runners on base. It needs a twenty second rule with runners on base and a zero second rule with no runners. Just start throwing. If the batter is not in the box, too bad. If the batter wanders, call strikes. If the pitcher wanders, call balls. What passes for coaching is instructing both the batter and pitcher to make the other wait. Hey, you’re both making the fans wait.

___ End ___

Constitutional amendments for team sports. Friday, June 8, 2012

Team sports really means baseball, football and basketball, the only sports that count.

Why constitutional amendments?  Obviously, the dominant professional organizations (MLB, NFL, NBA) have not understood the urgent need for fundamental reform.  Constitutional amendments will provide the much needed framework for the reforms.  The professional leagues will then need to change their rules to conform...

1. Regular season games must end within two hours.  Playoff games may have an additional 30 minutes for overtime.

2. No overtime in the regular season...

9. Replays must appear on the large screen in the arena at the same time they are broadcast...

12. No pre-season games.

13. The entire season including playoffs may not exceed 180 days.
______________________

Radical Constitutional amendments for team sports revisited.

It started with:

Constitutional amendments for team sports. Friday, June 8, 2012

Team sports really means baseball, football and basketball, the only sports that count.

Why constitutional amendments?  Obviously, the dominant professional organizations (MLB, NFL, NBA) have not understood the urgent need for fundamental reform.  Constitutional amendments will provide the much needed framework for the reforms.  The professional leagues will then need to change their rules to conform.
______________________

15 were listed.  Later each was addressed with implementation suggestions.  There were other posts that referenced them.  Here is a link to all my posts with the word constitutional:

http://radicalbaseball.blogspot.com/search/label/Constitutional

They are in order by date, with the most recent first.  Cruise back through them.  When you get to the bottom of a page, click on "Older Posts".

This link is on the right side of all posts along with other "Labels".

The slide violated a proposed constitutional amendment. The Utley Rule may result.

Constitutional amendments for team sports. Friday, June 8, 2012

Team sports really means baseball, football and basketball, the only sports that count.

Why constitutional amendments?  Obviously, the dominant professional organizations (MLB, NFL, NBA) have not understood the urgent need for fundamental reform.  Constitutional amendments will provide the much needed framework for the reforms.  The professional leagues will then need to change their rules to conform...

10. Players may not unload on other players.
____________________________

There are 15 amendments.  Number 10 applies to the slide by a Dodger, which resulted in the Mets shortstop suffering a broken leg.

Joe Torre, who handles certain tasks for the league, has now suspended the base runner who deliberately crashed into the shortstop.  The suspended player's appeal will probably be heard this afternoon by a colleague of Torre and is likely a formality.  The player will be suspended for both tournament games in New York between the Mets and Dodgers but may return for a possible game five in Los Angeles.

Chase Utley Aug. 22, 2014 By Go Phightins! via Wikimedia Commons

Chase Utley had a very good career for the Philadelphia Phillies.

• August 19, 2015: Traded by the Philadelphia Phillies with cash to the Los Angeles Dodgers for John Richy (minors) and Darnell Sweeney.

Utley should have stayed put.  Now instead of being viewed as a possible Hall of Fame candidate and all time Phillies second baseman, Chase Utley will be remembered for a dirty slide, which was not even necessary given that the shortstop, Ruben Tejada, had no chance of turning a double play.  The rule on sliding may well be changed before next season and might be properly called the Utley Rule.  What a legacy.

No trades during the season.

I don't know how I could state this any more simply or directly.  There should be no trades during the season.  Put another way: trading should end the day before opening day.  Trading may begin again during the next off season.  The more anal among you may try to parse some ambiguity in this but there is none.  No trades during the season.

Constitutional amendments for team sports. Friday, June 8, 2012

Team sports really means baseball, football and basketball, the only sports that count.

Why constitutional amendments?  Obviously, the dominant professional organizations (MLB, NFL, NBA) have not understood the urgent need for fundamental reform.  Constitutional amendments will provide the much needed framework for the reforms.  The professional leagues will then need to change their rules to conform...

3. No trades during the season.
_____________________________

No trades during the season. Constitutional amendment 3. Friday, August 30, 2013

Aside from any tactical considerations trades during the season undermine the integrity of the game, yes, much more than use of performance enhancing drugs (PED)...

The clown rules that seem to provide incentive for teams substantially changing their roster should be changed or eliminated.
____________________________

Integrity of the game undermined by trades during the season. Friday, August 1, 2014

Pulled during a game and the incident was shown on the MLB Network.  And while the body counts mounted the media people and former players mindlessly continued to handicap the trade deadline moves without considering the fundamental implications of trades made during the season...

The issue is not whether any of these moves are good for the team in the short or long term.  The issue is the integrity of the game...

Boston has obviously given up on the 2014 season.  Since the start of the wild card tournament system in 1996 the only previous champion to sell off players during the next season was the Marlins after both 1997 and 2003.  Boston is the first established team to do so.  What a disgrace.

Maybe Cubs fans expected as much this season but how many Red Sox fans bought season tickets and expected to see their star pitcher, Jon Lester, traded with two months remaining in the season?

And what if Lester leads Oakland to the 2014 championship?  What will have been affirmed? Lester will be a free agent after the tournament and could even return to Boston...

Worst of all, I seem to be the only person who thinks it's a terrible system.
____________________________

People are so stuck in their thinking that no one else even considers eliminating trades during the season.  Examples:

Trade Deadlines and Other Rules by Cliff Blau undated

WHY A JULY 31 TRADE DEADLINE JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE ANYMORE by Dave Cameron late July 2014

All the answers to your Deadline questions by Anthony Castrovince August 1st, 2014

Three time outs: simple solution to many problems.

Three time outs per team per nine innings.  Remember, one of my proposed constitutional amendments for team sports: no overtime in the regular season.

Time outs are to be taken literally.  Example:

Brett Gardner leading off for the Yankees on the road.  Gardner, of course, takes the first pitch, then mindless goes for a walk without bothering to even ask for time.  The ump mindlessly does nothing to indicate that he has called time because he has not and the pitcher most bizarrely does not immediately throw a pitch right down Broadway and force the negligent umpire to call a strike on the missing batter.

Under my three time out rule: Gardner has taken an implied time out.  If his manager Joe Girardi comes out of the dugout to protest, that's another time out.  Only one more time out left for the rest of the game.

This scenario is assuming that some of my previous recommendations have not yet been implemented:
- batter: you step out, you're out; no one foot in, whatever that means to the younger, smarter expert unimaginative guests on the commissioner's MLB Network TV programs
- no manager or coaches allowed on the playing field; in fact, get them out of uniform.  No, not naked but wearing some ghastly MLB apparel that can generate additional revenue.  It's amazing that they haven't already thought of that.

Other examples of a time out:
- catcher wants to go to the mound to talk to the pitcher
- coach wants to go to the mound to talk to the pitcher
- infielder wants to go to the mound to talk to the pitcher.

Umpires are to be ordered not to grant time out for any such purpose.

The objective is for the batter to get into the box and complete the plate appearance expeditiously.  No jerking around by anyone.

Challenges should be handled by some electronic alert, not the manager wandering out for a chat as Selig allowed in 2014 in the first season of challenges.  Let's see if new commissioner Rob "Bud Light" Manfred, the A-Rod slayer, is willing to consider this.  If Manfred acts now, he can have this set for opening day in early April.  Teams will have all of the overlong spring training to get oriented.

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.

Arizona Fall League's six experimental rules. Two are dumb, the rest ineffective.

You should read the Arizona Fall League (AFL) stuff yourself and not rely on someone's interpretation.  Here is the link.

My comments:

01. 20-second Rule

modified version of Rule 8.04 ... Rule 8.04 requires the pitcher to deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball with the bases unoccupied ... A pitcher shall be allowed 20 seconds to throw each pitch.
__________________________________

Say what?  20 is 66% longer than 12.  Why increase the time?

02. Batter's Box Rule

The batter shall keep at least one foot in the batter's box ...
__________________________________

I watched a little of one of these experimental AFL games.  Even there the batters mindlessly move one foot either out of the box or away from the plate.  Why?  Who does that in batting practice?  Who did that 20 years ago?  At least the batter is not walking away, turning his back to the plate without asking for or being granted time out as happens in the Major Baseball League (MBL) games.

03. No-Pitch Intentional Walks

04. 2:05 Inning Break Clock

Who cares?  Intentional Walks do not make games 3.5 hours.  Inning breaks are a function of TV commercials.  Even if a minute is added in nationally televised games as a friend who still attends says, that's only about 20 minutes per game.  No one expects baseball action during a TV commercial.  What's killing baseball is lack of action when the players are on the field but are jerking around.

05. 2:30 Pitching Change Break Clock

Why are there breaks to substitute players?  Change on the fly like football and basketball, for pitchers, batters and fielders.  No warm up time.

06. Three "Time Out" Limit

three "Time Out" conferences per game (including extra innings) ... Conferences during pitching changes, and time outs called as a result of an injury or other emergency, shall not be counted towards this limit... offenders may be subject to discipline
______________________________________

This is even more dumb than rule one, which increases the 12 second rule to 20 seconds.  Instead of banning meetings (conferences), they exempt the least needed and longest: the changing the pitcher ritual.

I guess it's better than nothing but if you're going to experiment, do it right:

27 outs or 60 minutes, whichever comes first.  Sunday, August 24, 2014

Regular season games must end within two hours. Constitutional amendment 1.  Sunday, August 18, 2013

Experimental League  Saturday, March 23, 2013

To improve TV ratings: short dramatic games: two hour, single elimination games once a week.

We're hearing the usual drivel about why the low TV ratings in the finals don't matter and how to fix that by changing the tournament format.  Blah, blah, blah.

As Game 7’s Ratings Surge, World Series Avoids a Record Low
By RICHARD SANDOMIR OCT. 30, 2014  The New York Times

Game 7 of the World Series, which brought the San Francisco Giants their third championship in five years, was seen on Wednesday night by an average of 23.5 million viewers, the most to view a Series game since Game 7 in 2011, when 25.5 million watched St. Louis beat Texas. None of the first six games of this year’s World Series had been seen by more than an average of 13.4 million viewers...

Through Tuesday, the matchup between the Giants and the Kansas City Royals was on pace to be the lowest-rated and least-viewed World Series on record...

San Francisco’s 38.8 rating was the best in that market since Game 7 of the 2002 World Series.
____________________________________________

Apparently fans will watch a game that is do or die for both teams.  You know, like the NFL.  This contradicts those who still lament that the two bottom seeds (4 and 5) in each conference of the Major Baseball League (MBL) have only one game in which to prove one is worthy to be the fourth seed.  Maybe that's what the entire tournament should be: single elimination.

Let's consider that.  Even in this year's tournament, with most starting pitchers marginalized more than ever, the starting pitcher is still the most important player in each game, especially if the team is starting the likes of Madison Bumgarner, the Giants pitching hero this season.  The problem is that the starting pitcher changes each game.  That may be OK in the regular season but in a tournament shouldn't each team start its best players at each position?  That would be particularly true if they faced elimination.

So how about this: single elimination with games five days apart so that Madison Bumgarner, Clayton Kershaw, etc. start every game.  That's what quarterback Payton Manning does in the NFL and LeBron James in the NBA.

Ratings would increase a lot.  However, to really improve things:

Regular season games must end within two hours. Constitutional amendment 1.  Sunday, August 18, 2013

1. Regular season games must end within two hours.  Playoff games may have an additional 30 minutes for overtime.
_________________________________________

Jeff Samardzija trade should not have been allowed. Nor the 1997 Mark McGwire trade. No trades during the season should be allowed.

For a league that invokes the best interests of the game as an excuse to enforce all kinds of junk you'd think that not allowing trades during the season would be at the top of the list.  However, the Major Baseball League (MBL) commissioner Allan Huber "Bud" Selig has apparently never even considered this fundamental reform.  He's not alone.  Neither have fans, media people or players.  If something's been going on long enough, it's rarely evaluated.

Jeff Samardzija, Cubs 29 year old starting pitcher, was the primary player in a trade with the Oakland As, the small market team that has the best record in the MBL this season.  This was the trade as shown in baseball-reference.com:

July 5, 2014: Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Jason Hammel to the Oakland Athletics for Billy McKinney (minors), Addison Russell (minors), Dan Straily and player to be named .

No trades during the season. Constitutional amendment 3.  Friday, August 30, 2013

This is pretty much the same for all three U.S. sports.  For a long time baseball has done this the most.  However, with the addition of one more tournament spot in 2012 more teams seem reluctant to give up and trade otherwise good players just to possibly get some benefit a few years later.

Aside from any tactical considerations trades during the season undermine the integrity of the game, yes, much more than use of performance enhancing drugs (PED).

Try this scenario.  A team spends all off season promoting certain players.  Based on that fans buy lots of tickets in advance, including season tickets, i.e., tickets for EVERY game.  Then before the July 31 trading deadline that same team trades some or even all of those featured players.  I'm amazed that fans have yet to file a class action law suit claiming false advertising, etc.

Plus, that team becomes much less competitive immediately.  Any other team that plays them after the best players have been traded has a big advantage over a rival that played the team before it traded its best players.  What happens in 2-3 years does not make up for the impact on the tournament competition this season.

The clown rules that seem to provide incentive for teams substantially changing their roster should be changed or eliminated.
___________________________________________

Mark McGwire 1989
by Silent Sensei from Santa Cruz
via Wikimedia Commons

In 1997 Mark McGwire was on pace to challenge the season home run record: 60 by Babe Ruth in a 154 game schedule, 61 by Roger Maris in a 162 game schedule.  However, McGwire was traded by those same Oakland As to the St. Louis Cardinals during the season.  He hit 58 homers in 1997: 34 with Oakland, 24 with St. Louis.  Nice, huh.  Those Oakland fans must have felt great.  Commissioner Selig did not reject the trade as not being in the best interests of the game.  After all, look at the trade in baseball-reference.com:

July 31, 1997: Traded by the Oakland Athletics to the St. Louis Cardinals for Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews and Blake Stein.

McGwire had hit 52 homers the previous season, 49 as an Oakland rookie in 1987.  McGwire had been with Oakland his entire career and he was traded during a possible record breaking season.  In 1998 McGwire broke the record with 70 home runs.  In 1999 McGwire hit 66.  Subsequently, he was held in disgrace by the baseball establishment because he had used performance enhancing drugs (PED).

Forget the damn drugs.  It's the trade that's the disgrace.  Bud Selig, you're a disgrace.

Constitution: show us yours, Commissioner Selig.

Constitution?  Say what?  Baseball has a constitution?  Who knew?

The New York Times
Rare View Into Inner Workings of N.B.A.
By SCOTT CACCIOLAMAY 9, 2014

Major League Baseball and the National Football League have constitutions that are considered semiprivate — or semipublic, depending on one’s point of view. A spokesman for M.L.B. said its constitution was available upon request as a reference, though the league preferred that its contents not be published.
________________________

Major League Baseball is what I prefer to call the Major Baseball League (MBL) because the two once independent American and National Leagues merged around 1999 during the reign of current commissioner Allen Huber "Bud" Selig.

So, Bud Man, pony up.  Publish the MBL constitution.  Why have you kept it secret?  When was it written?  By whom?  Is there a baseball James Madison?

I wrote the first of my suggestions for amending the U.S. constitution almost two years ago:

Constitutional amendments for team sports.  Friday, June 8, 2012

Team sports really means baseball, football and basketball, the only sports that count.

Why constitutional amendments?  Obviously, the dominant professional organizations (MLB, NFL, NBA) have not understood the urgent need for fundamental reform.  Constitutional amendments will provide the much needed framework for the reforms.  The professional leagues will then need to change their rules to conform.
_____________________________

Subsequent posts dealt with implementation suggestions for each of the 15 proposed amendments.  None of these posts were written with my having any inkling that the MBL had its own constitution.

Mike Trout, best young player since Mickey Mantle, should be a Yankee, too.

Mike Trout plays for the Angels, a team without a municipality.  How is that legal, even constitutional?  Doesn't it violate multiple Geneva Conventions?  What the heck?  The best young player since Mickey Mantle, should be a Yankee, too.  Am I right?  What the heck?

And Trout just signed a big money contract extension through his age 28 season.  With the Angels!  The Angels!  Those will be his best seasons.  With the Angels!  Not the Yankees!  Argh!

Screen capture of actor George Reeves as Superman in the
 U.S. government film "Stamp Day for Superman" 1954
United States Treasury Department film via Wikimedia Commons

Mike Trout: Mickey Mantle 1952?  Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Trout and Mantle share a general physical resemblance: white, blond.  They exude Superman attributes: faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive.  Dynamic athletes who seem capable of anything on a baseball field.

So this is what it was like to see The Mick burst into greatness 60 years ago.  Cool.
_______________________________________

Bubble: financial, not gum. Want to bet?  Saturday, March 29, 2014

Miguel Cabrera became the most recent player to receive a contract, obscene in both annual amount and length...

Mike Trout is the only player on this planet for whom a big ten year contract might make a little sense.
_______________________________________

Yankees spend too foolishly, not too little.  Monday, November 11, 2013

This is the last in a series of posts on team salary or payroll for players for seasons 2003 through 2013...

These posts are not intended to be a complete financial analysis but the information should be helpful in evaluating the current system and the practices of each team.

There is one inescapable conclusion: the New York Yankees spend too foolishly, not too little...

It makes sense to me for the Yankees to get their team payroll under the $189 million cap in 2014 to reset the luxury tax percentage down to 17% from 50%...  If the Yankees get under the cap in 2014 they should be in good position in future seasons to try to sign Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Giancarlo Stanton, ... players both very young and very good.
_______________________________________

Mike Trout, When It’s All Said And Done
by Tony Blengino - April 3, 2014  fangraphs.com

Trout’s ... age 23-28 campaigns ...

four comps – Speaker, Cobb, Mantle and Griffey. As with Cabrera, no Hank Aaron or Willie Mays on the comp list ... Mays did lose two seasons to military service ...

History says that the Angels should get quite a deal on Trout’s contract extension. He’s good enough, and young enough, that we might (be) able to go through this exercise with his next big contract, and come up with a somewhat similar conclusion.
_______________________________________

Yankees need to clean house.  Friday, September 20, 2013

The New York Yankees are not even interesting enough to root against anymore...

A fish rots from the head so the cleaning needs to start with the Steinbrenner Kids ...

I had hoped that the team would be bought by Mark Cuban or equivalent, a sort of George with brains...

So, the Yankees need new owners...

1. Randy Levine, president...

2. Brian Cashman, general manager...

3. Joe Girardi, field manager...

Rather than go through the entire roster let's just say that none of these players is indispensable, including Robinson Cano.
_______________________________________

Spring training games are even more boring than regular season games. Here are suggestions to fix that.

The middle of horrendously boring spring training is as good a time as any to review:

Constitutional amendments for team sports.  Friday, June 8, 2012

12. No pre-season games.

13. The entire season including playoffs may not exceed 180 days.
_________________________________________

Chief Wahoo appears on a Cleveland Indians advertising sign
in Winter Haven, Florida, March 30, 2007
At the team's new spring training grounds in Arizona,
the logo is not prominently displayed.
By Josh Hallett via Wikimedia Commons

Those two relate to spring training.

If the Major Baseball League (MBL) insists on playing games during its training period, these should apply:

1. Experiment.  I've already recommended an Experimental League.  Since that has not been created, at least loosen the rules in the practice games.  For instance, allow players to return after being removed.  Allow do-overs.  Example: let the same player bat twice in a row, if both managers agree or if a certain number do-overs have not been exceeded.  Try new rules.

2. Count the games in the regular season.  If there is no experimenting, start the regular season in warm weather locations.  Some teams have training ball parks that have the same basic dimensions and configuration as their home parks.  There are no longer sad old minor league quality parks.  If they're keeping score, the score should count.

Do you think the new commissioner will embrace any of this after Allen Huber "Bud" Selig passes the baton in 2015?

League outlaws plate collisions. Duh.

MLB Network spent many hours covering the winter meeting this week.

What did not happen:

Monday, December 9, 2013  Owners, fire Bud!

Also, no one saw Fred Wilpon and John Henry together at the same time.  Twits of a feather.
______________________________________
______________________________________

Portrait of former MLB pitcher Vic Willis
 wearing a catcher's mask, circa 1900.
By William M. Vander Weyde
Wikimedia Commons

The big news was that for the first time since the start of winter meetings in 1876 a major baseball league has outlawed collisions at home plate.  The backwardness of baseball thinking is emphasized by those who applaud this as progress without mentioning how overdue it is.  Those same also applaud the meager expansion of review of close and controversial plays.

Sunday, May 29, 2011  Eliminate the catcher, outlaw the collisions or properly equip the fielders.

A few days ago Giant catcher Buster Posey was seriously injured when a runner smashed into him standing near home plate.  I thought it was revolting, the kind of thing that is becoming unacceptable in the NFL.

MLB fans and pundits produced the usual expected drivel about this being baseball, blah, blah, blah.  Also, revolting.
_____________________________________

Saturday, September 7, 2013  Players may not unload on other players. Constitutional amendment 10.

The most obvious example of unloading on another baseball player is smashing into the catcher when trying to score.
_____________________________________

Tuesday, September 24, 2013  Protect Joe Mauer from himself: eliminate the catching position.

Joe Mauer has not played since August 19 and will not play again this season...

In that final game against the Mets Joe Mauer was hit in the head twice by foul balls.  Mauer sustained a concussion.

Austin Romine of the Yankees had his season end the same way but since he is not among the leaders in any batting stat most fans are not aware of his fate.
____________________________________

Ah, Thursday night football.

Baseball v. Football: length of games.

Baseball apologists defend baseball by attacking other team sports.  All three American team sports take too long and should be restricted to two hours by constitutional amendment:

Sunday, August 18, 2013  Regular season games must end within two hours. Constitutional amendment 1.

One attack on football is that its games take longer than ever.  That's true but how does their length compare to the length of baseball games?  Let's look at the Major Baseball League (MBL) and the National Football League (NFL).

Slate SEPT. 12 2012
How daytime football games became primetime football games.
By John Koblin

 ...  In Week 1 this year, games averaged 3 hours and 14 minutes. That was about six minutes longer than last year's opening-week games...

For all of last season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the average game lasted 3:07. That was a minute longer than 2010, which was a minute longer than 2009, which was two minutes longer than 2008...

According to Elias, it was a ponderous 3:10 in 2002, and a brisk 2:59 in 1992...

a football broadcast consists of 11 minutes of actual football, surrounded by nearly three hours of everything else. And that ratio of padding to action hasn't kept the games from being wildly popular television programs.
_________________________________________

The NFL championship game, aka Super Bowl, is not typical.  It is a bloated media event with an obscenely long half time interruption and flashy new TV commercials sprinkled throughout the game to attract non-football viewers.  Everyone knows that it is extra long.

Last season's game, played February 3, 2013, took 4:14 (including power failure interruption).  To me that's surprisingly shorter than I had expected.  The score was San Francisco 49ers 31 - Baltimore Ravens 34, so there was plenty of actual football action.  Game one of the current Boston - Detroit semi final series took 3:56 to produce one run for Detroit and one hit for Boston.

How about a few more recent NFL championship games:
New York Giants 21 vs. New England Patriots 17
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Duration 3:23

Pittsburgh Steelers 25 vs. Green Bay Packers 31
Sunday, February 6, 2011
No time given.

New Orleans Saints 31 vs. Indianapolis Colts 17
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Duration 3:14

Source: pro-football-reference.com

So the most recent NFL championship game time of 4:14 is an aberration because of the power failure that interrupted the game.  But even that is not so bad compared to the 1-0 four minutes short of four hours for that Boston - Detroit atrocity.

Game Changers: Picking up the game's pace
By Alden Gonzalez MLB.com 06/14/10

The average time to complete a nine-inning game in the 1970s -- not including on-field delays -- was two hours and 30 minutes. That increased to an average of 2:57 in the 10-year span from 2000-09. Through Thursday, this year's league average was 2:51, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

In the playoffs, game times have been longer. Last season, nine-inning regular-season games lasted an average of 2:52, while in the postseason, that number jumped to 3:30, according to STATS LLC...

But almost everyone is cautious about tinkering too much with a game that has been so relevant for so long.

While the overall average game time is down from 2000, the time of Red Sox-Yankees games and postseason games continue to be longer.*

Year	MLB	NYY-BOS	Postseason
2000	2:58	3:05	3:25
2001	2:54	3:02	3:11
2002	2:52	3:08	3:25
2003	2:46	3:08	3:06
2004	2:47	3:12	3:15
2005	2:46	3:10	3:02
2006	2:48	3:28	3:08
2007	2:51	3:31	3:26
2008	2:50	3:18	3:13
2009	2:52	3:30	3:30
2010**	2:51	3:38	N/A

* All times are for nine-inning games
** Through June 10
Length:
NFL 2011: 3:07
MBL 2009: 2:52

Wall Street Journal
11 Minutes of Action
By DAVID BIDERMAN
Updated Jan. 15, 2010

According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes...

The most surprising finding of The Journal's study—that the average game has just 10 minutes and 43 seconds of actual playing time—has been corroborated by other researchers. In November 1912, Indiana University's C.P. Hutchins, the school's director of physical training, observed a game, stopwatch in hand, between two independent teams. He counted 13 minutes, 16 seconds of play. During last week's Wild Card games, Mr. Crippen, the football researcher, dissected the broadcasts and found about 13 minutes, 30 seconds of action.
________________________________

Wall Street Journal
In America's Pastime, Baseball Players Pass A Lot of Time
By STEVE MOYER
Updated July 16, 2013

By WSJ calculations, a baseball fan will see 17 minutes and 58 seconds of action over the course of a three-hour game. This is roughly the equivalent of a TED Talk, a Broadway intermission or the missing section of the Watergate tapes. A similar WSJ study on NFL games in January 2010 found that the average action time for a football game was 11 minutes. So MLB does pack more punch in a battle of the two biggest stop-and-start sports. By seven minutes.

Baseball is remembered for its moments of action, and it is no secret that such moments are fleeting. But how much actual action takes place in a baseball game? Geoff Foster has the breakdown.

The WSJ reached this number by taking the stopwatch to three different games and timing everything that happened...  This may be generous. If we'd cut the action definition down to just the time when everyone on the field is running around looking for something to do (balls in play and runner advancement attempts), we'd be down to 5:47.
________________________________

Action:
NFL: 11
MBL: 6 or 18

Yippie for baseball!  Everything is A-OK!  Yeah, if you embrace the higher number (18) and ignore the lower (6).  But even with 18 minutes of action baseball is at a disadvantage compared to football.

The nature of the action in football is dramatically and violently different.  Ninety percent of what passes for action in baseball is two guys playing catch.  At most there are 13 players on the field at once, usually ten.  On most plays most players on the field do nothing.

In football 22 players are engaged in pretty much every play.  Almost all of that engagement is potentially violent and thus more compelling.  Americans express their preference for football by attending and watching on TV.  See recent posts:

Sunday, October 6, 2013  Baseball v. Football: do you really want to do this?

Monday, October 7, 2013  Baseball v. Football: MBL tournament v. NFL early season attendance in Oakland.

The NFL and the National Basketball Association (NBA) are constantly tinkering with rules to improve the entertainment value of their product, usually by favoring scoring and improving officiating.  The MBL instead has launched an inquisition into performance enhancing drugs (PED), including steroids, and we are now enduring tournament games with too many strike outs, too few runs that take too long to play.

Bud Selig: worst commissioner of all time in any sport?

Yesterday Allan Huber "Bud" Selig announced that he would resign as commissioner of the Major Baseball League (MBL), an entity that he does not even know exists, effective January 2015.

What?  2015?  You mean he'll be hanging around through two more winter meetings and all of next season?  Say it ain't so.

A commissioner is selected and paid by the team owners, so the commissioner's loyalty and fiduciary responsibility is to them, not the players and certainly not the fans.  As such it makes sense for the owners to pick one of their own to represent them as they finally did for the first time with Selig who owned the Milwaukee team.  Using that relationship, one could make a slim case that Selig has been successful.  The owners, especially Selig personally, have made money while he has been commissioner.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013  Bud Selig has been a disaster as commissioner.

Thursday, August 23, 2012  Great White Father

Tuesday, November 27, 2012  Collapse is coming.

Monday, August 5, 2013  Worse offense: steroids or hitting batters in the head ... twice.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013  Vigilantism: so is it OK or not? Selig procrastinates.

Some alternate titles I considered for this post:

Buddy, we hardly knew ye.

Bye Bye Buddy.

I come to bury Bud, not to praise him.

Bud, you're a moron.

You'll hear and read the usual drivel about the wild card, inter-"league" play, steroid policy, review, blah, blah, blah.  Nothing that seemed good during the Selig administration happened because of him and that would not have happened anyway.  Some stuff, like the second wild card and review of plays Selig opposed.  Read my posts listed above.

Vigilantism is alive and well under Selig.  The NFL commissioner takes strong action against vigilantism and other unfair acts of violence.  The NFL commissioner tried to protect the players from themselves and punishes bad conduct on the field, such as taunting.  Selig is oblivious.  The NFL has a drug policy but does not dwell on it.  Selig is obsessed with his.  We all assume that NFL players use performance enhancing drugs (PED).  Selig abetted by the simpleton media applies a different standard to home run hitters, who made lots of money for Selig and his fellow owners.

The policy that sums up what a clown Selig has been is that the all star game decides home field advantage in the seventh game of the finals of the tournament.

Selig did reward the owners in the biggest story of the season, which the mainstream media, of course, missed by a mile: the players turning on one another as exemplified in the Alex Rodriguez suspension.  That dynamic will have a profound impact on future negotiations between the owners and players.

So next week the fun begins.  No, not the tournament.  Selig v. Rodriguez arbitration hearing.  Selig demonstrated his personal animosity towards Rodriguez in both the timing and severity of the punishment.  Rodriguez works and hustles at least as hard as any player.  He had just finished long and difficult rehabilitation from his second hip surgery and was about ready to play for the first time since October 2012 when Selig rushed to judgement and suspended Rodriguez in August for the remainder of the 2013 season and all of the 2014 season: 211 games.  The standard for a first time offender was 50 games.  Selig was acting as if he had 'roid rage.

Selig extended a baseball tradition different from the other sports: denigrating the product, the players.  People who maintain the field and distribute tickets are employees.  The players are the product.  No baseball players, no baseball game.  Baseball needs players, not owners.  Selig represents and protects owners.

By far my most viewed post:

Tuesday, August 31, 2010  More on possible steroid use by Nolan Ryan.

Nolan Ryan is now an executive of the Texas team.  Bud has enabled the steroid zealots.

After 21 years and two teams switching "leagues", teams in the same division still do not play the same schedule.  That's pretty basic stuff and and a whole lot more about the integrity of the game than chasing steroid users.

How to fix Selig's mess?  Implement the suggestions I specified this year for my:

Friday, June 8, 2012  Constitutional amendments for team sports.

Oh, and make me commissioner.

Playing rules must be the same for all teams in a league. Constitutional amendment 15.

15 (final).  Playing rules must be the same for all teams in a league.
______________________

Friday, June 8, 2012
Constitutional amendments for team sports.

______________________

OK, this one has something in common with:

11. Playing areas must be uniform.

Both are really needed only for baseball.

Friday, June 24, 2011
8 men bat: resolving the DH impasse.

Now that the two separate leagues, American and National, no longer exist as independent entities, having different rules in what amount to conferences in one league (MLB) is really stupid.  The other sports leagues don't do that...

This is the 40th year in which AL and NL have a different rule, the designated hitter (DH).  This was dumb from the beginning.  It should have been what I am now suggesting as a compromise: a designated fielder (DF) with only 8 batters.

To accommodate the players union, the owners should offer to expand the rosters from 25 to 26 players.  This would ensure approval by the players.  It would also probably save the owners money.  That 26th player would make the minimum, about half a million dollars, as opposed to several million paid to a DH.

The additional advantage would be that the better and more popular batters would bat more frequently.
___________________________________

Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Merger: AL and NL merged years ago. How come no one noticed?

If the merger between the once independent American and National Leagues had been treated as such then the new organization, MLB, Inc., might not have made such absurd decisions about organizing the new single league...

More of a mess is that MLB did not even attempt to reconcile the different rule, the 1972 designated hitter (DH), which applied to the AL but not to the NL.  That schism persists to this day, the first of the MLB finals, and MLB is not even embarrassed by that as it should be.  FORTY years and MLB has not resolved a simple rule aberration...

It was a merger.  A damn MERGER!
__________________________________

Major Baseball League: a new phrase is coined.

Major League Baseball (MLB) should change its name to Major Baseball League (MBL).  Maybe I'll do it for them.  Ladies and Gentlemen, now introducing the already existing Major Baseball League with its American and National conferences!  Get used to it...

In case it is not obvious enough the intent of this name change is to drive home the point yet again that the old American and National Leagues merged into one league known as Major.
___________________________________

No common player draft. Constitutional amendment 14.

14. No common player draft.
______________________

Friday, June 8, 2012
Constitutional amendments for team sports.

______________________

From the 1972 movie The Godfather:

Emilio Barzini: "after all... we are not Communists".

Don Barzini was referring to the sharing of political influence but his comment is still pertinent.  Or in the sentiment of Don Corleone: how did we come to this sorry state?

It's bad enough that professional football and basketball embraced socialism early on but did baseball really need to follow in 1965?  The American pastime using socialist methods?  It's no wonder that the Major Baseball League (MBL) teams now share revenue and have a luxury tax.

Stop it.  Stop all of it.  If the original goal was to hurt the New York Yankees, it's not even doing that.  If the goal is to help cities that cannot support a MBL team without help, then I guess it is working because there are plenty of those, which is one reason that I support a Super League of no more than ten teams.

What is the lesson for our nation's youth?  That talent may not be concentrated but that it must be dispersed and that the strong must help the weak?  That is a good formula for social justice but not for fierce competition based on merit.

Let any team sign any player from anywhere.

The entire season including playoffs may not exceed 180 days. Constitutional amendment 13.

13. The entire season including playoffs may not exceed 180 days.
______________________

Friday, June 8, 2012
Constitutional amendments for team sports.

______________________

That's about half a year, which seems like more than enough time to determine a champion, don't you think?

If my suggestion in implementing Constitutional amendment 12 (no pre-season games) were implemented, then those spring training games that count would mark the start of the season.

No pre-season games. Constitutional amendment 12.

No pre-season games.
______________________

Friday, June 8, 2012
Constitutional amendments for team sports.

______________________

Pre-season is a euphemism for exhibition which would at least suggest that experimental events, other than playing below replacement level players, might occur but that does not happen much, especially in baseball.  No testing of theories.

Constitutional amendment 12 should really be no exhibition games at any time.

If teams are keeping score then they should play to win and the games should count.  Otherwise don't keep score and certainly do not track wins and losses.

Thursday, March 17, 2011
All games should count.

What follows applies to all leagues and all sports.  ALL games should count.  Otherwise, just perform drills.  If two teams are involved and score is being kept, count the games.

Sure regular season games can be played in Florida and Arizona.  Why not?  Practice games should be played between teammates, not between teams.
_______________________