What is the next thing that can be done to improve baseball?
With the steroid investigation digging up more names almost every day (like the cocaine investigations of the 1980s), what can be done to improve baseball & restore its competiveness?
I think there are some specifics that would help:
1. Remove the "rubber band" from the core of the ball - as much as steroids, this has led to the artificial rise in HR numbers. This could also revive other aspects, such as the hit & run, suicide squeeze, etc.
2. Return the mound to 15 in. in height - This would change the angle of the pitches (give more room for a breaking ball, for example), and lessen shoulder & elbow injuries because of the better angle.
3. Contract at least 2 teams - Would eliminate at least 50 players who wouldn't otherwise be in the majors. It would improve the quality of play.
Even if the called strike isn't restored to rule book levels, these other measures would result in a more balanced game & restore pitching to a more equal part of the game.
Opinions? Suggestions?
2007-11-09T14:01:49Z
Some super answers, so far. I'll keep this open another day to see what comes.
Anonymous2007-11-09T08:14:41Z
Favorite Answer
I love your suggestions!!!
1. Put the mound back up, maybe even to 18 inches.
2. Get rid of the DH in the American League.
3. Instead of adding teams, reduce it to a round number, with 4 in each division for a total of 24 teams, or
3a. put 4 teams in each of 4 divisions in the 2 leagues for a total of 32 teams. (This would get rid of that stupid wild card junk!!)
4. Play on grass.
5. Change contracting around to a low base contract with incentives for performance. (For instance, give A-Rod about a million dollars and let him play to see how much he wants it!)
6. Never put the instant replay in!! (The nice thing about baseball is that it is a game of inches determined by the umpires . . . the "human factor" keeps it real. Not fair, but real.)
7. Kick anyone found using a drug on a specified list from this point out of the league, never to return. Eliminate all talk about what happened before and just move forward with it. Make a freaking impact today!!
8. Forget parity in the league. I hate the Yankees, but if they want to buy the championship, let them. Gives the Rays something to shoot for . . . (Same goes for the Red Sox!)
9. Eliminate the domes.
10. More double-headers on Friday afternoons.
11. Re-invent the cheap seats for the lower-income fans. It costs a mint to go. Want to get the game back respond to the people in the cities wherein the teams play. It isn't about the burbs anymore, it's about young boys and girls getting as close as they can to Albert, Derek, Alex, and Miguel.
12. One of those teams above needs to be from Japan, and the other from South America or Mexico. Start the thing going truly international instead of the Ichiro-Show!
There's a round dozen. Off the cuff. Hope you enjoy!!
1.) Agree with raising the mound, but leave the ball alone. With the mound raised back up, the power pitchers might be able to complete a few games. It was actually thrilling to watch the box scores to see who, Juan Marichal or Sandy Koufax, would get enough shut outs to lead the league. Now we're lucky if a guy gets 2.
2.) Ditch the DH. Either make a better rule (there IS a possible better rule) that both leagues can agree to or lose the AL atrocity.
3.) Ditch replay. For crying out loud. Baseball doesn't need it and they have made all the sports pretty generic as it is.
4.) Put all the playoffs on mainstream TV. Even if most people do have cable, some don't. Football is beating the pants off of baseball by mainstreaming everything.
5.) Keep in mind the fans in, oh, one or two decisions a century. The Players' Union and the Commissioner's office really act as if the fans are the dirty unwashed hicks they must tolerate in order to make their money.
Players can't actually call time-out; they request it, but umpires almost always grant it. Stop that practice and speed up the game. Nomar and Ichiro don't need to step out of the box after every pitch.
You could contract players without contracting teams by reducing rosters to 22 players. No team should need more than 10 starting pitchers. This would also reward more versatile players from the bench.
Eliminate body armor or specify that being hit on armor will not count as an automatic walk. Move the batter's box off home plate to give pitchers the inside corner again.
Intentional walks would be worth two bases--maybe this would be hard to judge, but you might say that a 4-0 walk will be judged as intentional. At the least, a pitcher would always have to throw one in the strike zone.
A return to the 15" mound would be very hard to adjust to all of a sudden. I doubt if that is a great idea.
Scoring is pretty high, i think the Yanks and Red Sox were pulling about 5 maybe 6 runs a game and that Texas output versus Baltimore, 30 runs? Ridiculous. But as previously stated, "chicks dig the long ball", and offense apparently brings in dollars.
These rule changes are in every sport: the semi-circle under the rim in basketball, lower pitching mound in baseball, no hand-checking (installed because the Knicks defense was too good for people like Jordan and Reggie Miller), all the changes to hockey (plus the shootout, which i hear people enjoy actually), increased enforcement of defensive holding on cornerbackers (the Ty Law Rule essentially), tighter baseballs increased home runs....
Sports is cyclic, eventually we'll get to a point where there's TOO much scoring and they'll adjust but 30 years after that, they'll go back again.
I dont kno about getting rid of teams, that seems a little drastic. Unless the cities aren't supporting the teams and those teams are falling in the red, you can't just disband them altogether.....the Florida Marlins front office, maybe, cuz they can't afford a hot dog stand, let alone a baseball team.
Braves need starting pitching, players that can hit when it counts, players who can bunt and move runners around, and players who play with consistancy and know how to run bases. Now that I think about it, they need a team. Any team can have a bad year. Injuries are part of the game and are no excuse. But you would think the hitting coach could teach these guys how to bunt and not swing at so many bad pitches. If a batter swings at non-strikes, why should the opposing pitcher throw strikes. It also seems odd that so many pitchers on one team get injured and for so many seasons. Makes you wonder if the pitching coach is doing something wrong. Anyway, they are my team and this next season will be better.