I love baseball. I get depressed every November after the World Series ends and get charged up every March when Spring Training games are played. Its one of my great joys. I follow it, I read books about it and have a fantasy baseball league that has been running on 10 years. (Which I have won more than lost)
The game has its flaws, lots of em. Inspired by Bill Simmons, I’m focusing on game length. They have got to, for the love of God speed up the games! I know Grandpa Bud Selig (the commissioner of baseball) has paid lipservice to game speed but they have to really push for it by changing the rules. Here are my none invasive rule changes.
– Pitch clock. Put it behind home plate and in straight away center so everyone can see. Once you toe the rubber it starts. No more Trachsel based rain delays. If you don’t throw, its a ball.
– Official timeouts. Every sport has a set amount of timeouts, baseball should have one too per team. Let’s go with 35 per game. 1 for each batter and 7 for pitching changes, mound visits etc. When you are out of timeouts and you stop the game…its a ball or a strike.
If you don’t like the timeout rule let’s go with:
– Any mound visit must result in a pitching change.
– Catchers my only visit the mound once per inning.
There is so much dead time in the game its ver easy to stamp out just by enforcing existing rules. Its not doom and gloom but the game could stand for much better pacing.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours?
Posted via email from Laurent Courtines Free Online | Comment »
