Ever seen a pitcher shake the crispness off a catcher’s nuts? Now that’s entertainment.
I remember reading an article on how baseball (specifically MLB) could speed things up. I think it was written by an umpire for Referee magazine.
Among the suggestions:
–Time limit on pitch delivery.
–Restriction on batter movement outside of the batter’s box (some players walk 20+ feet away between every pitch)
–Relievers don’t need any more warming up when they take the mound, just go.
–Don’t bother throwing four pitches on an intentional walk, just go.
There were others, just little things to shave 15-20 minutes off games that now run 3 hours or more for no good reason.
But then you wouldn’t get moments like these.
Also, the warm up pitches aren’t going away anytime soon. It works very well into the commercial breaks for the television broadcasts. I think the networks would throw a fit if MLB tried to shorten the time between innings, and MLB isn’t about to lose that revenue source.
Speed is not everything. I would agree with the second and third item on your list, but not the other two. Pitchers need to be able to do whatever is necessary to out-think the batter, and placing a time limit on each pitch would just screw that up like you wouldn’t believe. You’d start getting scores like football games, and that is bad. You also have to throw the ball for an intentional walk, because there is always the chance that the catcher will muff the throw and allow a runner to score.
There is one; not enforced.
Good idea, but this means fewer commercials broadcast on the teevee.
I disagree. Why would we make the single wussiest maneuver in baseball easier to perform. Every once in a while, the pitcher will throw an intentional ball wayward and the batter can take a hack at it, or it gets by the catcher. No way should we take that possibility away.
And on what I hope is a completely unrelated note, why in God’s name was this the Google ad at the bottom of the page?!?!
That was freakin’ awesome.
Hey - no bashing my Angels! At least an Angel Stadium you can get a beer for less than $7.00! Art Moreno dropped the prices at the concession stand when he bought the franchise.
We have some of the better deals in food and beer in the area, and a decent team. Now just dump the DH, and shorten the season and all will be well.
For which he has been fast-tracked to sainthood. Would that McCourt have the same idea.
I’m curious why the OP alleges that baseball now sucks, and then goes on to list the number of ways that Major League Baseball now sucks.
I’m having a very good summer:
- Playing baseball in a senior men’s league, with wooden bats on real grass
- Watching minor league baseball, again with wooden bats and on real grass
- Watching my son play baseball, albeit with metal bats (but on real grass)
- Drinking < $7 beers at the ballpark … It’s BYOB, of course, and only **after ** the game ends – the senior league game, that is
I could go on, but you get the point.
Small-town baseball, played by young and old alike, is alive and well and being played in some very classy old-style ballparks with great enthusiasm.
It is the one thing that keeps me happy when I see the “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.”
Now - how to improve Baseball:
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End the DH. Pitchers should be in fear of other pitchers - it works like Mutually Assured Destruction.
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Shorten the season. The World Series should be in early September. It should NOT interfere with Football, dammit!
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Drop the price of concessions (like at Angel Stadium). A family should be able to afford to eat at the game.
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MLB should be better about the licensing costs for shirts, etc. We dumped using MLB team names for our Little League older boys because of the cost. We instead went with College teams. Sell more stuff at a lower price.
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Somehow control the price of a championship team. The fact that the teams with the big payrolls have the winning records bothers me, only because it takes away the competiveness. That should be cleaned up a bit.
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REALLY crack down on Steroids and other ways guys jack up their bodies to be at the top. I don’t want my kids idolizing a guy who is a great player due to drugs that have long-term negative effects on the body.
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Create an international championship game. The winner of the World Series should go on to play the Japanese, or the South American World Series winner, or something like that.
Because it is a headline you ignoramus. I could have typed “why major league baseball now suck as it is played in some cities with astroturf” etc.: but i decided to go with brevity. Little did i know that the moron dopers would be out in full force on this one.
Cubs, Brewers. Huge. They like to call Miller Park, “Wrigley North”. We hate them.
You are a twat, aren’t you?
I’m not proud. I did it. I think my final total was 4 Dodger Dogs, a couple bags of peanuts, some nachos, a bag of popcorn, and a bunch of soda. I tell you what, I didn’t feel right for a couple days after the game.
Oh, and back on topic, baseball sucks because they don’t have an “All-You-Can-Drink” section. Or even a BYOB section.
Amen.
Hell, the Giants polo shirts are something like $40. Ridiculous.
True a lot of the time, but not all the time. Witness the A’s is the recent past.
Done.
denquixote- There are literally thousands of people on this board. You do not get to control every one of them. Chill out.
That’s exactly why you need Beernoculars. I have been in the company of people who have used them rather successfully.
Not quite the same thing. Although the WBC is a beautiful thing, and I’m honored that I got to go to a game, it isn’t quite the same thing as sending our current World Series winning team off to an international tournament.
Granted, I think the WBC is better in a lot of ways, but if it’s only going to be every three or four years, I’d like to see more international play in between. Algher’s suggestion is a good one, even if it’s entirely impractical due to the different seasons of different countries.
I have a pair of those. Quite handy, actually. But they work best if you fill them with rum for your $5.00 Coke.
lightingtool, it sounds like you got your money’s worth. I feel your pain.
Well, i guess you are entitled to your opinion as I am to mine, but when someone writes that he is curious why i said “baseball now sucks” instead on why “major league baseball now sucks” was there something in the OP that lead him to believe that i was talking about anything other than major league baseball? is he really curious? or does he just want to show how clever and politically correct that he is? wow! great! you play baseball instead of watching it. I am extremely impressed. what does that have to do with the topic? as i said i could make the topic a paragraph long so that every nitpicking doper could parse it to see where i might have left him an opening to show how insightful, analytical and ingenious (and of course, smarter than everyone else) he is or i could write a brief headline to atttract those who might have an interest in a topic. i chose brevity.
as to controlling what others do, i don’t really care what you do, i just don’t understand why you can’t just get with the spirit of a particular post. i did not post in great debates because i was not interested in a debate, i was interested in what people, other than myself think is the problem with major league baseball. I even went to the trouble of stating that the thread was not for pointing out the good things. I know there are many things that are great about the game and i could have listed those, but i was more interested in what people think ought to be changed, improved, corrected and where the fault lies for the current condition of the game. thanks to those who answered in the spirit of the thread and fuck you to the argumentative nitpicking few.