10 Things I Hate About You
How to Make MLB Better, Bigger, and More Fun
Major League Baseball is not getting great press right now. The owners and the players union haven’t inched closer to a restart of the season. With each passing day, the possibility of an MLB-less 2020 looms. Baseball losing a season would be a catastrophic outcome for a sport that desperately needs some spice. With no baseball season, the NBA would be free to dominate Summer 2020. If everything goes well the NBA could be looking to creep even further into baseball’s summertime turf. Baseball is in need of some saving. The sport, once so entwined in the American cultural fabric, finds itself slowly fraying from the mainstream. Baseball for too long has prided itself in its tradition. A new game of baseball is a must for the survival of the sport. The MLB needs to be better, bigger, and, most of all, more fun. Here are 10 ways for baseball to change for the better.
Fewer Games: Ask yourself, “What the hell do I need 162 of?” The answer, almost assuredly, is not baseball games. There are too many games for the viewers, but also way too many games for the players. An MLB season is 186 days from April to the end of September. It would be hard just to watch that many games in such a small period of time, let alone having to go and, you know, play the games. Over the same time span, the average person only goes to work 133 times. The physical toll placed on the players is immense. A season with fewer games would see players be fresher physically and mentally. The overall MLB product would improve dramatically and, as an added bonus, top pitchers would be able to pitch more frequently. Baseball needs more marquee pitching match-ups, not fewer. Finally, the most important part of the equation, fewer games means each game is more meaningful. This is an area where the MLB really struggles and finding a remedy to this could really help it. Which leads me to……...
Three In season Tournaments: Baseball suffers from how long its season is in two crucial ways. First, for bad teams, there is basically nothing to play for almost all year. Second, on a per-game basis, there is not much at stake. The NFL kills in this department. By having three in-season tournaments you make more games have more tension. The best part is you would barely have to change the schedule at all. Each division has 5 teams. They play each other 19 times each for a total of 76 games. The team with the best record in those 76 games wins the division tournament. Why should you win the AL East because you dominated the AL Central? Make those 76 games matter more. Give more teams more hope. The next tournament is the League Championship, given to the team with the best record against the National or American league. The final in-season tournament will be the MLB Championship. The team with the best record in all of baseball wins the award. Baseball wouldn’t have to alter a thing to their current schedule. Now, why would anyone care about winning these tournaments? Well, you get a trophy, bragging rights, and champagne showers, but also they would all factor into postseason seeding.
Alter the Playoffs, but not really: Each cup winner will make the playoffs. The MLB cup gives home field throughout (we already do this), the League cup gives you a buy, and a division title guarantees you make the playoffs. Every year you guarantee 7 teams from the American or National league make the playoffs. The teams with the next best records in the league standings all fill the vacant spots. The rounds would go best of 3. Best of 5. Best of 7. Best of 7. Get rid of or keep the wild card in some capacity, I don’t care. On second thought, yeah, keep the wildcard game. Have 16 teams make the postseason, who really gives a shit. The postseason is fine the way it is.
The Pinch Hitting we Deserve: Baseball suffers from a lack of in-game tactics. Football and basketball have timeouts where coaches dial up plays. Baseball severely lacks in this department but it also lacks in late-game star power. In football and basketball, you give your best players more opportunities than anyone else, and you especially give them the rock late in the game. In baseball, you have to hope the ball is either hit to them or wait patiently through the batting order until they come up again. This particularly sucks at the end of the game. We want, no we deserve, to see Mike Trout in the bottom of the 9th in a tie game. Here's the fix. You let managers pinch-hit players that are already in the game. Once this happens the player is out of the game and a new player has to take their place in the field. You can only do this three times per game and once per player. It would be a fun wrinkle for managers and we get more AB’s for the best players in the most dramatic moments.
Put Calls to the Bullpen on Speed Dial: How to make a call to the Bullpen for Idiots (Read in your best Caveman voice). Manager point to bullpen. Pitcher toss ball to catcher. Pitcher run to bench. Reliever run to mound. Catcher throw ball to reliever. Reliever throw one pitch. Play ball. Keep simple.
Pitch-Clock: Have a pitch-clock and make it a real thing. The pitcher has 10 seconds to catch the ball and throw a pitch to the catcher. If he can’t. It’s an automatic ball. The move not only makes the game faster, but it will help to alleviate the sky-high strikeout rates that pitchers currently enjoy. The pitch clock will make it harder for pitchers to throw absolute gas all the time. Less gas means fewer strikeouts. Fewer strikeouts mean more balls in play. A pitch clock would also carry over to holding runners on. You don’t get a new 10 when you pick off, making them super risky, which in tandem with…...
Pitchers only getting one pickoff attempt to each base per pitch, would mean more steals. Steals are fun. We need more of them. The problem is you have to be super successful at them for the math to work out (about a 75% success rate). The only way teams are going to steal more is if it’s easier. This makes it way easier. I want the stealing of the 70s and 80s without cocaine being used to line the field.
Three Strikeouts and You’re Out: After a batter strikes out three times in a game they have to be removed, if a team cannot field 9 batters (i.e goes through the whole bench and pitchers) the game ends due to forfeit. Baseball has too many strikeouts, walks, and home runs. This would penalize hitters and teams for striking out too much, which would lead to fewer strikeouts and presumably fewer home runs too.
Stop Being Extra: If your sport doesn’t have a time limit then it can’t have extra time. We want 9 innings of baseball, not the existential dread of experiencing the 33rd inning. Have ties. Make the 9th extra dramatic. Plus, no extras is a great way to introduce…..
Use a points system. 3 points for a win. 1 point for a tie. 0 points for a loss. Pretty simple. For sports with ties, points systems incentivize winning. The end result will be more dramatic games, more desperate attempts at home plate, more steals, and more of everything good as teams vie for a lead and the sweet victory of 3 points. Football and basketball kill in the final two minutes in a way that baseball doesn’t, but that doesn’t need to be the case. If reality tv can manufacture drama, why can’t baseball?
Baseball will eventually have to change if it wants to remain a part of the zeitgeist. Some would argue that it has already ceded that distinction to football, basketball, and soccer. Baseball has not made any meaningful changes to the game in its entire organized existence. Football has (hello forward pass). Basketball has (hello three-pointers). Soccer has (hello back pass). They all did it to make the game better for the fans. If baseball doesn’t embrace change the whole world will continue to change around it. Before too long the most popular American sport of the 20th century will become a relic of the past. Baseball can be America’s pastime and a part of its future. It simply has to be bold enough to grow.