Baseball. Taking a warm spring drive and having the game on is therapy. (those are flip-down shades) Baseball does well on the radio. So much hasn’t changed, but so much really has.
What must never change to keep baseball…well…to keep baseball “baseball”?
I think we always need wooden bats. When wooden bats are no more, baseball is no more to me. It’s a real threat that aluminum might be allowed, but it’d ruin it all for me.
And while we’re at it, we can pepper in something we wish would go back to the way it was. Put me down for abolishing the designated hitter rule.
Oh, Philster, this is love! Swing when you’re up, dammit! And use a wooden bat!
Baseball on the radio – the unmistakeable crack of a homerun. Screen door slamming, kids running around the yard with jars full of lightning bugs, baseball on the radio…
In the summer, we drive home 4 1/2 hours from our farm listening to the game. So right, it’s therapy. Just eases that transition back to the world of work.
I was 16 years old before I discovered the last two words of the National Anthem are not “play ball!”
I couldn’t agree more about aluminum bats (is this actually being considered?) and abolishing the DH or, at the very least, getting rid of interleague play. I didn’t like it even when the purpose was supposedly to generate regional rivalries but now that, for instance, the Giants are going to spend most of June facing teams from the AL Central, it’s almost pointless. Giants and Tigers–yeah, there’s a heated rivalry.
I also don’t like the idea of the All Star game determining home field advantage for the World Series. The point of the All Star game is to showcase the best players, but if the outcome actually means something, do we think a player like Bonds is going to have a chance to show off his home run trot? Of course not. He’ll get walked, just as he does during the regular season games. And probably half of the pitchers won’t even get in the game if the starters are hot.
And why do we need three divisions in each league and a wildcard in postseason? Yeah, I know: Money. In particular, TV revenue. Having more teams might be good for the business of baseball but it also thins the talent pool and ultimately hurts the game.
There. I think I’m done. But thanks for posting this question. I needed a good rant.
Really? I remember seeing sport stories about getting rid of the aluminum bat in college ball because of injuries to pitchers. I haven’t head anything about brining them into MLB.
Anyway, how about raising the pitching mound to where it used to be. Or bringing back the Double Headers and how about playoff games that don’t start 11:00pm EST when an East Coast team is playing on the west coast (wishful tinking).
Stop letting the fans vote for the All Stars. Does Giambi really deserve to be starting at 1B while batting .211? Set a deadline and let the leading stats by position dictate who starts.
While various seating expansions are necessary and expected, the overall look and feel of Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Yankee Stadium should stay the same. Yes, those places are old and vaguely crummy in areas, but the history and feel can not be duplicated.
Things to change:
Bud Selig
Just because the pitcher threw one inside or hit you, it was not a challenge to your manhood. Take your lumps and take your base without feeling the need to charge the mound.
The DH
That horrid hill in centerfield and Minute Maid. Yes, I know it is a nod to the past, but certain things in the past should remain there. Thankfully, it is relatively small, but I still fully believe a blown knee is just around the corner.
I’ve heard only bits ‘n’ pieces about aluminum. Maybe it’s a percieved threat by me, but seeing how just about anything can change, even stuff we hold sacred, I am putting this on my sacred list: wooden bats only.
Token wish for the way it was: less player movement from team to team. Free agency …blech.
I don’t think there is any serious consideration of aluminum bats. They would present a significant safety hazard.
I like having the DH in one league and not in the other. The leagues being different is a good thing, in my opinion. If it was up to me I’d have even more differences.
I’d get rid of interleague play. Other than that I’m actually one die-hard baseball fan who likes change, and would like to see some changes. I like the 4-division idea Jonathan proposes. I don’t like the idea of raising the pitching mound, but I think the batter’s box should be moved back and enforced strictly, and batters should be forbidden from stepping out without a very good reason.
However, NYR407, I cannot agree that you could just pick All-Stars by “leading stats.” First of all, it would result in even more absurd picks. Let’s say Giambi gets hot and is batting .296 with 19 homers when the day rolls around to pick the team, and some clown on a hot streak is batting .297 with 20 homers. As a wise man once said, it’s not the All-Hot-First-Half team.
Having the fans vote for All-Stars is just fine. It’s an All-STAR team, not an All-Approved-By-Leading-Sabermetricians Team. Players aren’t entitled to All-Star selection and so I say let the fans pick who they want. If a perennial MVP candidate has a weak first half but the fans want him anyway, that makes perfect sense to me. I would RADICALLY change the voting structure though; I would go to an electoral-type system where players get points for how they rank at each park, with votes at large being counted as three parks or some such thing. That would essentially kill ballot stuffing.
No to aluminum bats - I’ve never heard that this is even being considered, though, and I doubt that it is.
Turf - but this seems to be on the way out. The Mariners had artificial turf at the Kingdome, but the new park is grass. Ditto for the Astros, I think. The Expos may move soon, and that could leave just the Twins and Blue Jays (I think).
Selig. Conflict of interest, much? He’s also just a lamewad.
The new All-Star Game thing. It should NOT determine home-field advantage. The game is meaningless and there’s nothing you can do about it. I know it’s supposed to be an incentive, but why will players on the Tigers, Indians, Mets, and dozens of other teams with no chance be motivated by this? It’s stupid. Give the advantage to the team with the BEST RECORD. That’s the ONLY logical thing to do - which is why it’s done in hockey and basketball.
The “every team needs to be represented in the All-Star game” rule. I’m not 100% on this, but it seems stupid. The constant personnel changes suck. Baseball is not geared to be played that way, it’s designed to be a long-term thing, not a one-off. 30 players to each team might mean your team gets a player in where they normally wouldn’t, but even if he gets in, he’ll only play for an inning or two. It just makes the game into a nonsensical blur. This rule will be severely tested this year when it comes time to pick a player from Detroit. Nate Cornejo? Dmitri Young, maybe?
The constant movement of free agency can be a downer, but the system that preceeded it sucked - players had no rights of any kind - so I have to say that I disagree with “free agency …blech.”
Aluminum bats will never be allowed in MLB. Pitchers would strike.
Things that need to be changed:
No more coporate naming rights, unless they built the whole damn stadium.
Ditch fan voting in the All-Star game
Raise the mound
Bring back the spitball!
Increase the required distance from home to the fences
Kill two teams and go back to two division leagues
Kill the DH
Kill Astroturf
Minimum five game suspensions for anyone who leaves the dugout, bullpen or their position in a fight only two people involved should be the pitcher and the batter. Minimum 3 game suspensions for the two participants.
Get rid of that stupid beanball ejection rule and let the pitchers pitch inside.
Bud Selig needs to go
Batter can’t call time except to change a broken bat
Catcher can go up to the mound once per game
If the umpire hasn’t called time out and the batter isn’t in the box when the pitcher pitches, tough beans
No calling timeout after a stolen base
The manager or pitching coach comes out to the mound only if the pitcher is going to be removed. Maybe allow one freebie visit per game. That’s it.
Canadian teams aren’t allowed to win the WS anymore because it makes Americans feel inferior.
No more body armor except helmets and maybe an ankle guard.
$100 million salary cap and $50 million salary floor.
More revenue sharing.
Angels get a 10 game lead right out of the box every year.
As far as player movement goes I once read a study that cited there is LESS player movement (in the early 90s…when I read it) than in the 50s. What makes this less evident is:
STAR players now move
NON-STAR players now just don’t last.
In the past the scrubeenies would move from team to team at a high enough rate to bring up average movement while the reserve clause made sure that teams NEVER lost a star until the end.
So it’s really player-of-high-visibility movement that people are complaining about. Don’t knock free agency…it’s better than corporate slavery.
Oh, and I’m all for complete and total revenue sharing.
**RickJay , I missed one important word in my post, it should have read: Stop letting the fans vote for the ** startingAll Stars.
Sure let them vote for their favorite players but being popular shouldn’t guarantee starting the game. They need to earn it. Of course I still think “the clown” example you give should get the start. Who is to say that he won’t continue to play great the rest of the year? If they don’t want to play by mid year numbers, don’t play the game in July. If I am not mistaken, Carlos Delgado is destroying Giambi in stats but is getting his ass kicked in voting. That’s fair?
You would like to move the batters box back (advantage hitter) but not bring the pitchers mound back to the old height (would make an advantage to pitcher)? Hitting is already out of control with the ever shrinking parks and juiced ball. I say even things out.
I’ve said more amens reading this thread than a years worth of masses. My two cents:
Wooden bats are sacred, aluminum an abomination. I hate the “chink” off the bats in HS and college. It ruins the pitchers because they’re afraid to learn to pitch inside.
Kill the DH. Now. Why can’t we at least get a vote?
I voted on line for the all-stars. MLB informed me that I can vote 24 more times! Why? People that don’t have lives get to stuff the ballot box?
Ditch four teams and go back to two divisions with a 7 game playoff.
Kill interleague play. It exists for 2 reasons- Yankees-Mets and Cubs-White Sox. Those sellouts aren’t enough reason to pollute the schedule.
No more corporate names for stadiums. Really, the money isn’t enough to buy one good player.
Shorten the time between innings. And ditch the extra long patriotic seventh inning stretch. That takes the whole rhythm out of the game.
Kill the rock music in the stadiums.
Rebalance the schedule somewhat. Yes, you should play teams from your own division more but not THAT much more.
Get back to Sunday doubleheaders and cut the length of the season by two weeks, one at each end of the season.
No more day-night doubleheaders. If you play two, play them back to back and give the fans a treat.
Make the umpires call the strike zone by the book. This would speed up the game.
For God’s sake, ESPN, quit showing the Braves! We can see them every other game if we wish on TBS, show somebody else!
Spot two runs to any opponent of a team using rally monkeys or thunderstix, four if both are used.
(those are flip-down shades) Baseball does well on the radio. So much hasn’t changed, but so much really has.
