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Improving Major League Baseball

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.

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."

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.
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.

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.
Well, those are some of my suggestions. How about yours?


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: baseball; mlb
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To: EveningStar
Pro Thunderball (From Upright Citizens Brigade).

"Three balls in play at all times. Batters fighting their way around the bases, using their bats as a weapon. Wild hounds and gorgeous honeys wandering the field to distract the players. A car that roams the infield. And just behind second base - the gun circle, inside of which lies a fully loaded pistol the players are forbidden to use".

And don't forget to get your tickets early for "three oranges and a sock night"

61 posted on 07/13/2011 4:40:19 PM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: EveningStar

I really don’t see how any of those things improve watching the game.

So far, the best suggested improvements that I’ve seen are Blernsball on Futurama, and when Kang and Kodos on The Simpsons used an accelerator-beam to speed up a World Series baseball game, though I think even they would agree they overdid things a bit in their desperate attempt to make the game less boring.


62 posted on 07/13/2011 4:40:56 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Made from the right stuff! (Anybody but Obama for 2012!))
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To: Cyber Liberty
Different. That was women competing against other women. We get to see that all the time - especially on soap operas.

No, this would me women competing on the same team as men. A totally different experience.

63 posted on 07/13/2011 4:42:18 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Obama: The Dr. Kevorkian of the American economy.)
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To: getarope
Can we no longer have stadiums named after corporations, please?!

Corporations pay BIG money to facility owners for Naming rights. It's a great way to recoup expenses. I don't like it but I understand why they do it and I think it should be allowed.

64 posted on 07/13/2011 4:50:50 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: OrangeHoof

I agree. The DH has removed all strategy from the game. Kill the DH.


65 posted on 07/13/2011 4:51:16 PM PDT by bwc2221
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To: So Cal Rocket; LibertarianLiz
It's called the phantom double play and it's been around for decades. Sadly, it's still with us. :(
66 posted on 07/13/2011 4:57:43 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: Joe Boucher
Ya think it just MIGHT be time to forgive Pete Rose and welcome him back to baseball and the hall of fame?

He made his bad choices. He needs to live with them. Maybe give him some sort of posthumous HOF recognition - with full disclosure of his misdeeds in the HOF exhibit.

67 posted on 07/13/2011 4:59:37 PM PDT by Keith in Iowa (FR Class of 1998 | TV News is an oxymoron. | MSNBC = Moonbats Spouting Nothing But Crap.)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
“A this stage,asking a pitcher who hasn’t hit a baseball since 3rd grade to go up against a 90mph fastball is dangerous.”

If you followed high school baseball, you'd realize that many pitchers are often among the best hitters on the team and often play first base or the outfield when they are not pitching.

68 posted on 07/13/2011 5:00:09 PM PDT by bwc2221
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To: OrangeHoof

“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.”

I prefer the Lingerie Football League.


69 posted on 07/13/2011 5:03:51 PM PDT by bwc2221 (")
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To: Joe Boucher

Yes. He’s a jerk, so what. There are probably a lot of jerks in the HOF. Some people thought that Cobb, Feller, and Mantle were jerks.


70 posted on 07/13/2011 5:09:24 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: famousdayandyear

Not that I’ve heard of. Shhhh! But there were stories in the All-Star coverage complaining of bats that break.


71 posted on 07/13/2011 5:13:49 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Oh, well, any excuse to buy a new gun is good enough for me.)
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To: EveningStar

J.Jerk , whom the title “jerk” is attributed was also a jerk. Yep , a him.

just more little known facts from your...... Cliff Clavin


72 posted on 07/13/2011 5:14:55 PM PDT by advertising guy (it is now decided.......game 6 and game 7 of the 2011 World Series is back in Phoenix)
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To: EveningStar

But Cobb WAS a jerk. He said so.


73 posted on 07/13/2011 5:14:55 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Oh, well, any excuse to buy a new gun is good enough for me.)
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To: EveningStar
Considering this is a vanity....I say make it mandatory that pitchers throw at every batter..at least once a bat. And batters must swing at least once at bat.

On top of that...let's make pitchers throw one down the middle every at bat...and mandatory that they throw two balls.

About as crazy as what you want........

74 posted on 07/13/2011 5:15:49 PM PDT by Osage Orange (HE HATE ME)
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To: OrangeHoof

I’d like to see that.


75 posted on 07/13/2011 5:15:51 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Oh, well, any excuse to buy a new gun is good enough for me.)
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To: OrangeHoof
You aren't a baseball fan....obviously.

That's fine with me....

I'd be fine with your experiment....but don't lump all the DH's with roids........

76 posted on 07/13/2011 5:18:53 PM PDT by Osage Orange (HE HATE ME)
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To: TruthShallSetYouFree

Well heck...we just don’t need umpires. You have the solution.


77 posted on 07/13/2011 5:22:18 PM PDT by Osage Orange (HE HATE ME)
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To: EveningStar
Get the National League to give the Designated Hitter rule a three year tryout. Most amateur leagues and most minor leagues use it.

IIRC, the National League is the only league in professional baseball that does not use the designated hitter. The only thing letting the pitcher hit adds to the game are sacrifice bunts and double switches.

With regard to your other items, I too detest interleague play but it makes too much money for the owners to get rid of it. So if it must stay, give the home field in the Series to the team with the better head-to-head record in interleague play and if they're tied, then to the league that wins the most games in interleague play.

78 posted on 07/13/2011 5:26:07 PM PDT by Colonel_Flagg (You're either in or in the way.)
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To: EveningStar

I’d like to see the length of season reduced by 2-3 weeks so that we have a later start and earlier finish. This could be accomplished by reducing the schedule to 154 games and/or reintroducing scheduled doubleheaders. Playing baseball in Philly in November is ridiculous, and it isn’t much better when the season starts. Obviously other cities are much worse in terms of climate.


79 posted on 07/13/2011 5:30:13 PM PDT by NittanyLion
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To: famousdayandyear

“Get rid of DH. If you can’t get in the batter’s box, you won’t pitch.”

I agree. I don’t like the DH. Everyone should bat.


80 posted on 07/13/2011 5:30:57 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (As long as the MSM covers for Obama, he will be above the law.)
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