Posted on 07/13/2011 3:14:20 PM PDT by EveningStar
How can we improve Major League Baseball?
I'm sure we all have our own ideas. Here are some of mine:
Come up with a realistic method of capping a team's payroll.Well, those are some of my suggestions. How about yours?
Eliminate inter-league play. If you want to watch the other league, use your TV.
Have only two divisions in each league. The top two teams in each division would play each other. The wild card would thus be eliminated.
The All-Star Game:
The winner of the All-Star Game would no longer determine the home field advantage in the World Series. Thus the All-Star game would no longer "count."Determining the home field advantage in the World Series would revert to the alternating mehod used before 2003. The American League would have the home field advantage during odd-numbered years and the National League would have the home field advantage during even-numbered years. Why not let the team with the best overall record get the home field advantage? Unlike the NBA, NFL, and NHL - these are two separate leagues.
Since the All-Star Game would no longer count, games that are tied after 9 innings would end in a tie. No more extra innings in an All-Star Game.
Get the National League to give the Designated Hitter rule a three year tryout. Most amateur leagues and most minor leagues use it.
Eliminate the Bus Selig White Liberal Guilt rules. Selig is another white lib who thinks it's still 1963.
The Dodgers retired Jackie Robinson's number 42 in 1972. Robinson was still alive and attended the ceremonies (he died later that year). Allow the other teams to use the number 42 again. Besides, 42 is Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.
Eliminate Jackie Robinson Day. Please, Bud. Why not just rename Major League Baseball "Jackie Robinsonball"?
The Civil Rights Game? Are you kidding? The Jim Crow era is over. We don't need no stinkin' Civil Rights Game.
Crazy talk. They also mostly use aluminum bats. Get the American League to man up and give real baseball a three year tryout - pitchers at bat.
2. Use Instant replay to overturn bad calls.
It is the arbitrary nature of umpires that does more to undermine the integrity of baseball than any activity on the field by players or managers. We are one "Umpire corruption" scandal away from destroying baseball. There is too much money out there for me to be naive enough to believe that selective outcomes aren't being bought and paid for.
Regards,
TS
The worst was Nomar Garciaparra.
“Say, why don’t we have a three-year experiment where the American League does away with the DH? That sounds better to me.”
A this stage,asking a pitcher who hasn’t hit a baseball since 3rd grade to go up against a 90mph fastball is dangerous.
I don't know about refs and coaches, but I don't think that the NBA players take a back seat in the prima donna department. I've never seen one yet who didn't make a "who me?" face when called for a foul. And the taunting and trash talk in both the NBA and the NFL are pretty close to the opposite of the sportsmanship that teach game is supposed to further.
Ya think it just MIGHT be time to forgive Pete Rose and welcome him back to baseball and the hall of fame?
Get rid of DH. If you can’t get in the batter’s box, you won’t pitch.
I've missed several great plays because there was a wall of candy floss obstructing the view.
I couldn't agree with you more. The technology is already there. Having an unaided human (each with his own "strike zone") make the ball/strike decision is ridiculous, and I am tired of hearing from so-called "purists" who say that it's "part of the game." Why have goalposts in football? Why not just put a piece of tarp down across the end line and have a ref judge if the field goal attempt is high enough and straight enough. Hey, we can remove the hoop from the basketball backboard and have a ref decide if a shot counts as a "basket" or not.
Shakespeare said it best: “First, we kill all the lawyers...”
Baseball was a terrific game until Curt Flood.
And yet it's done every season. So why are not pitchers getting injured all the time from interleague play?
Number one: Give the Mariners team from that liberal sewer/cesspool of a city, Seattle, math lessons. TWICE(!!) in about a 9 or 10 day stretch recently their opponent’s hitters were awarded walks by the brain dead umps after only 3 balls! (I believe one of these runners ended up being the only, and wining, run in one of the games) After the first time their manager assured everyone that there was no excuse for their not paying attention during the game etc. etc. and heads would roll if it happened again, the players and coaching staff would never allow it to happen again etc. etc.....and it happened AGAIN!!! Number 2: When a hitter is drilled by a pitched ball....he gets a free whack at the pitcher with his bat in the same spot he was drilled! Number 3: Bring back Teddy and Mick!!
That would pretty much guarantee a successful stolen base on the next pitch after any pick-off attempt.
1) No DH. The pitchers should have to face the other side’s pitchers. Will cut down on HBP. Take a couple of 95 MPH cutters in on the hands and they’ll think twice about drilling the other guy.
2) Raise the level of the Pitcher’s Mound to where it was. Lowering it was a stupid move to increase hitting, and it failed. Go back. Help save the pitchers’ rotator cuffs.
3) No juicing. Caught once and you’re out of baseball forever. Period. No such thing as rehab for these highly-paid performers.
4) SEVERE penalties for cheating. Pitcher caught with an emery board? Using a corked bat? Out for the rest of the season, and no pay. Death penalty for spitballs.
5) Fine Umpires that blow more than 3 calls in a game. If not a fine, punish in some other way, and make it public so we can all see there was retribution. I’d settle for flogging in stocks. Drawing and quartering may be applicable in playoffs. If it blows a perfect game, as it did for Detroit last year, then firing squad may be sufficient. Right after the Pitcher’s immediate family finish having their way with the Umpire in question.
6) Don’t even THINK about going to aluminum bats. It would destroy the ambiance of the game to hear “clink!” instead of “crack!” In fact, get the Al bats out of college baseball (another rant).
7) Offer a significant cash prize to any fan that catches a ball out of play. It will improve the odds somebody will swan song off the upper deck, thus more entertainment. And no safety nets. That would defeat the purpose. If you are drunk enough to jump, you are drunk enough to die.
I have more, but this may be enough...
I’d be satisfied with three balls and three strikes.
One of my best friends was a huge Dodger fan. During our wilder days 16 - 20 something he would not go out unless his transistor radio was stuck to his ear. When we went to a party he would spend most his time in his car. It think his heart broke when the Rams moved. I disliked the bums and and the fakers and razzed him all the time.
He passed away about eight years ago and I told him I would become a Dodger fan in his memory.
It was the transitor radio that sealed the deal.
Go Dodgers!!
Pitch clock. The biggest problem the game has is that it spends way too much time doing absolutely nothing. Give pitchers 35 seconds to throw the ball either as a pitch or pickoff “attempt” (let’s face it they’re really just delaying the pitch), if they “attempt” 4 pickoffs during one batter he walks, if they violate the pitch clock he walks. Also limit batters stepping out of the box, 3rd time they do it in an at bat and they’re out.
Doing that will shave a very boring hour and a half from the game.
Baseball needs female players, in fact all the major sports do. I'd love to see an NFL where every team had to keep one female on the field at all times. Oh, the strategies this would create! And the top female players would pull in salaries as high as the men because there would be so few of them, they'd be in high demand. And the endorsements they would bring! NASCAR is the only sport that has caught onto this. Women still do most of the purchasing and you can bet a popular female NFL player would just sell, sell, sell. And more women would watch too. It would be a marketing bonanza.
Is MLB really considering aluminum ‘bats’? Oh noes, shoot me now. At least wait til after I’m dead!
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