**What things are sacred in Baseball and should never be changed? **
Funny how everyone started listing things that should be changed.
60 feet, 6 inches.
90 feet between bases.
White ball with red laces. Remember the yellow and green balls the A’s used in the 70’s for a while? GAH!
Ack! That was supposed to be a part of the one where I said batters can’t call time, sort of. Should have read “Batter can’t call time except to change a broken bat, so if the umpire hasn’t called time out and the batter isn’t in the box when the pitcher pitches, tough beans.”
Stupid work getting in the way of my posting.
I also want to get rid of interleague play. Have I mentioned that? And I have no problem with an unbalanced schedule if there’s no wild card.
What things are sacred in Baseball and should never be changed?
The seventh inning stretch.
Ball park hot dogs.
Sure. Delgado is the best hitter in the American League, Giambi’s sucking, but Delgado will unquestionably go to the All-Star game unless he gets hit by a bus tomorrow and then Mike Scioscia can take Giambi out in the fourth inning and put Delgado in.
I disagree with half the All-Star selections ever
What??? Moving the box away from the plate is a HUGE advantage to the pitcher. Hitters being able to stand on top of the plate are one of the reasons we’ve had an offensive boom; it’s taken away the outside pitch (when combined with the understandable aversion to brushback pitches.) What makes you think that’s an advantage for the hitter? It would do wonders for pitching to force hitters like Bonds, Everett et al. to back off the plate.
Parks aren’t really getting smaller. Pacific Bell Park is a horrible hitter’s park; Safeco Field and Comerica Park are both pretty big. Enron/Minute Maid/Whatever Park/Field is pretty big.
Raising the mound would be an advantage to the pitcher to be sure, but the effect would be to increase strikeouts. We are already at historically high levels of strikeouts; we don’t need more strikeouts. It’s very clear that the high offense isn’t due to a lack of strikeouts, it’s due primarily to the size of the hitters; steroids aside, we are seeing the first EVER generation of major league players where almost all of them regularly lift weights and engage in professional workout regimens. Combined with the crowding of the plate, the smaller strike zone and simple emphasis on power hitting, we’ve seen a huge increase in homers and (as a result of homers) walks, but no corresponding increase in batting average, stolen bases, etc.
I think it would be a good idea to reduce the home run barrage a bit, but I DON’T think we need more strikeouts and less batting average. I think changes that would force hitters to go the other way, slap the ball a little more, and hit fewer homers are in order. You can’t put the weight training genie back in the bottle, but maybe some minimum circumference for bat handles or something?
Rick Jay, but Delgado deserves to be the starter. In my senario he would start and Giambi would come later in the game.
Re: Batters Box
I thought when you said “move the batters box back” that you meant towards the catcher giving them more time to see the pitch. Obviously you mean to move the batters box away from the plate. Did they originally have it farther away?
We are going to disagree on the mound issue and thats fine. I think if you raise the mound the pitching advantage will help compensate the hitters current advantages.
When I said “smaller parks and juiced balls” I meant that the parks play smaller because of the jucied ball. I realize now I phrased that really bad. The home run has lost its mystique. Blame steriods, conditioning and diluted pitching too if you like.
The close outfield walls are another story.
Baseball caps and baseball style uniforms shouldn’t be changed. Some team several years ago - I forget who - had as a promotion “back to the future” uniform day and what they wore were the most hideous things I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen Padres old yellow unis so I so know ugly when I see it. And while we are on the subject, caps should only have a logo on the front above the brim. World Series patches belong on uniform shirts, not on caps! I hate those new Yankee cap that have some unreadable logo on the side.
The Hall of Fame should remain in Cooperstown for all time, and all fans must make a pilgrimage there at least once.
To kick the hornet’s nest: Pete Rose and Joe Jackson should remain banned.
Put me down for going back to 2 divisions per league with no wild cards. Bring back the pennant race, I say!
Hot dogs and soda pop prices in the ballpark should be brought down signifigantly. As my buddy Paul says, anyplace that charges $5.00 for a coke should have lap dancing available on site. 
Realignment should result in the following divisions:
AL East: NY Yankees, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Toronto, Boston, Detroit
AL West: Chicago White Sox, Minnesota, Kansas City, Texas, Oakland, Seattle, Anaheim
NL East: NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Montreal (soon to be Washington DC ), Florida, Houston
NL West: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Arizona, Colorado, Milwaukee, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis.
…except for that lovely short porch in right field (just for Barry).
Unpires should start calling runners safe when the second baseman or shortstops pull one of those “in the vicinity of second base” on a double play. I’ve seen way too many of those allowed.
Wooden bats, now and forever. Somebody said a few years ago that if Mark McGuire had had an aluminum bat, at least three pitchers would be dead.
An rule that should stay: If you bunt foul on the third strike, you’re out.
A rule that should change: A pitcher can bluff to third or second but not to first. WTF is up with that? Looks stupid anyway.
There are no cheap home runs to any field at Pac Bell, especially right field. I think Barry’s average homerun travels about 410 feet.
Or look at the “splash hit” counter on the wall at Pac Bell. There have been about 32 balls hit into the water. Barry’s hit 25 of them. If a right field home run is a cheapie just for Barry, why aren’t are all the other left-handed NL power hitters dropping 'em in the Bay every game?
If a pitcher could bluff to 1B, you’d have interminable fake/dive back…fake/dive back…fake/dive back…and games would last 6 hours. If a pitcher has to run the risk that he might throw the ball away, he has to think twice before throwing over to 1B.
Not on Wednesdays…
So do I. But that may be because I grew up in AL cities after the advent of the DH. That and I have no need to pay $30something to see a pitcher swing a bat.
Kill interleague play. It’s just wrong wrong wrong. (who are the “geographic rivals” of the Mariners? Tell me with a straight face. Yeah, I thought so.) I personally have chosen not to believe in it, and don’t attend games or read sports pages when the abomination is occuring - but other people keep attempting to infringe on my reality.
And of course, Selig needs to go.
I miss double headers.
That said, I like the absurdity of the all-star fan voting (though the game shouldn’t count for anything at all. That idea needs to die. It should be a meaningless thing in the middle of the season.) And the rest of the allstar game rules, too.
I like rain-outs. Civilized sports should not be played in a downpour. Go home, come back and play again when the weather is cooperating.
I like impossibly long games - That the game goes until someone wins… as many innings as it takes.
I like the marathonness of the season. Not only can anything happen during a game, but with that many games, anything can happen all year.
And the “charge” song.
And scorekeeping as an art and science.
And bizarre promotion days.
And not fooling around with the uniform if you’re the Yankees. That’s sacrilige. And fooling around with the uniform if you don’t have a decades long history of continuity (which has happened since the beginning).
Being die-hard Phillies fans, when we were kids my brothers and I would vote for only the Phillies players. On the American League side, where we had no strong allegiance to any team, we tended to vote for the players that were most recognizable, the biggest stars. Given the talent on some of those Phillies teams, it was a strategy that would have resulted in a 40-run loss for the National League, had we been successful.
We’ve had this debate before.
I know it’s hard to believe this, but Pacific Bell Park hurts Barry Bonds; it’s costs him a few more homers than it gives him. Even in his 73-homer year it was basically a wash: he hit one more homer at home than on the road.
I’ve been there, and believe me, that fence ain’t as close as it looks; it’s really short right down the line, but it falls away very quickly to the power alley, 421 feet to right center - where it is in fact the deepest right-center fence in baseball. Add in the nasty weather and the sea level air and it’s probably the worst home run park in baseball. Last year only 114 homers were hit there, the fewest at any ballpark in TEN YEARS.
-Wood Bats, always.
-No @#$%ing AstroTurf.
-No more baseball for Montréal.
-No DH.
-The batter stepping out does not equal time out. The umpire has to call time out, and he is the one in charge. It should not be so automatic like it is now.
-Kill “the ‘every team needs to be represented in the All-Star game’ rule”.
-No hills or flag-poles on the playing field.
-No interleague regular-season play.
-“America’s Team” is the Braves, my ass.
-Locally, bring back the Bay Bridge Series. The Giants and A’s always played three games against each other in the Bay Area to close out Spring Training.
I never gave much thought to #1, but I agree. #2 I agree with, assuming “the whole ballpark” was an exaggeration. 
3Com can blow me, but Pacific Bell helped build me a ballpark.
You’ll need it (Yeah, yeah, shut up.)
I agree. Get back out there and play some ball!
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I totally disagree. If I’m still sitting in the seats, then the rich guys should be playing for me. If the field becomes a significant hazard, then yeah, call the game. And replace the grounds crew. Plus, rain delays give creedence to the “Baseball players are wimps” argument.
I know I keep bringing up negative things, but how about no more building ballparks with taxpayer money? Ick.
Something that should stay: sacrifice flies.
Another positive: baseball should keep expanding internationally. Wonderful thing. [I don’t mean more teams, I mean more international players.]
Check!
…hence my lack of vitriol towards Pacific Bell.
Perhaps I’ll reveal my ignorance, as I do not know the circumstances surrounding Mr. Jackson. IMHO, Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame. He bet on his team, but was betting for, not against them. I remember him as a Philadelphia Phillie, and the man played with all his heart and soul.
Aluminum bats sound funky.
Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes;
You know I think it’s time to give this game a ride.
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all - a moment in the sun;
(pop) It’s gone and you can tell that one goodbye!
(lyrics courtesy of John Fogerty-Centerfield)
jsc1953 and RickJay: Just to clarify, I was being sarcastic about Pac Bell’s right field wall. Some players around the league complained about it when the park first opened, saying it gave Bonds an unfair advantage. As for the splash hits: The total is 25. (Although they only count Giants’ splash hits. I believe only three or four opposing players have landed one in McCovey Cove.) 23 of those are Barry’s. (The other two were by Felipe Crespo who is no longer with the Giants.) Spread out over 3-1/3 years, that’s not a lot. Hence the sarcasm and the smiley face.
Troy McLure SF
You’ve got to be kidding me.
From sportingnews.com
To increase the hitters’ ability to see the pitch, Finley developed a bright orange baseball that, although revolutionary, never took off.
“Batters can see an orange ball better, particularly at night,” Finley said in 1975. “If we start using this ball, batting averages will increase. That means more action, and that’s what the fans want to see.”
I can’t remember if it was ever used in a regular season game.