Posted on 09/08/2022 7:24:49 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Major League Baseball will implement a pitch clock and ban defensive shifts beginning in the 2023 season, people familiar with the matter said, an attempt to quicken pace of play and reinvigorate offenses as a means of combating the sport’s faded appeal with fans.
An 11-person joint committee that includes four active players recommended the changes. Former Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox executive Theo Epstein served as an adviser to the committee. The league also will increase the size of bases by three inches, a measure it believes will reduce collisions and injuries.
The changes, expected to be announced Friday, are aimed at injecting new excitement into a sport that has seen pushback from fans in recent years. Plodding games with less action have been a factor in both turning off older fans and alienating potential new ones, pressuring attendance and TV ratings. A new collective bargaining agreement with players last spring gave MLB commissioner Rob Manfred the authority to implement rule changes with 45 days notice, much faster than the one-year’s notice the commissioner previously was obligated to give.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Can someone explain why defensive shifts are a problem for the game?
I always thought they were interesting.
Go Woke, Go Broke.
Go Woke, Go Broke.
I’m not a fan what has happened with the shift, but I think it’s stupid to ban it. If they don’t like the shift, batters can take advantage of that positioning. Hit it where they ain’t.
A Pitch Clock?! What is this, the NBA?
Just give the ump more discretion to tell the pitcher to hurry up, and tell the batter to stop leaving the batters box.
This is as bad as the ghost runner on second base in extra innings.
They are creating new problems without fixing the real problems.
Watch videos of baseball games in 1975, which lasted 2 1/2 hours and do it that way.
In theory, it'll open up the field.
“... sport’s faded appeal with fans...”
I wonder what caused this? Could it be fans are fed up with wokism? Fed up with players kneeling during the national anthem? Fed up with greedy millionaires telling us they hate America?
The game has changed since 1975 so you have to change the rules to adjust. Managers are doing much more micro-managing today than they did in 1975 so you see them bring in all the relief pitchers from the bullpen and they will be always constantly shifting their infielders.
I don’t much care about MLB. I really enjoy the Little League World Series (volume off) but they need an automated home plate umpire. The volunteers this year were brutal on balls and strikes. You gotta feel for the kids pitching especially.
Honestly, that's only a small part of it. Watch an old game on ESPN Classic 40 years ago and compare it with a game on TV tonight. Completely different. It was baseball back then. Now there are only three true outcomes in baseball. Walk, strike out and home run.
“...Could it be fans are fed up with wokism?...”
***********
Could it be that fans are afraid of going into the belly of the beast (downtown Minneapolis) to watch a game? Mugged, car Jackings, dirty lefties, gun shots...Democrat Mayor, Governor, AG, Senators...
The most common lowest common denominator fan hates boring defense and loves baserunning and scoring. Anything that impedes action has to be limited. Radical shifts work in modern MLB. Same thing with frequent pitching changes, they work but limit action.
Freegards
The Braves moved out of downtown.
It seems all sports have been ruined. Maybe I am just old and like old people through the ages, I complain about change and remember fondly of yesteryears. The ironic thing about changes in sports, it chases old people away and generates no additional interest from the young.
It might be part of getting old. Football seems to be in better shape than other sports. That's just met. Hockey is too Canadian for me.
Spray hitters ala Rod Carew and George Brett are hard to come by. They don’t make’em like that to often now days. To bad they put the DH in the National League IMO. Some teams had good hitting pitchers and the approach to the game just ain’t what it used to be.
They embraced the woke BS so f-em they are dead to me.
In Theory, but not reality
Everyone is swinging for the fences and striking out 180+ times a year, so it won't make much of a difference.
Pitchers make too much money so they are reluctant to hit. Even if they are naturally good hitters (there are a couple). That's the downside of them making all that dough. Pitchers are specialists.
Pitchers didn't get paid too much money back in the old days so they were willing to hit the ball. But if they have a 100 million dollar arm? Forget it.
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