In this nice article in
USA Today Keith Hernandez has ideas for games being shorter which include getting rid of 4 teams and no replay. Here’s a paragraph from the article that I wish I could italicize but the WordPress App for Ipad wont allow such technology, and mean Day Job Boss kept me from blogging all morning:
The SNY crew, says Hernandez, know they’re in for a long night when pitch-count obsessed managers yank starting pitchers who’ve been cruising through the lineups of the opposing teams — and hand the ball to progressively wild relievers who stretch out the telecast.
Pretend that we’re now back in normal font so you know its me and not the article.
So as I sit here in mass transit wishing the person on my right wasn’t writing left handed (elbow annoying me, and a dude already stepped on and broke my iPhone buds) let’s ponder which teams we would contract.
Remember when the Twins were to be contracted? They they won like 7 divisions and got a new stadium. These things are cyclical, but lets be commissioner for a day and gun some folks down:
The Rays. Nobody cares and there is nowhere to move. Dispersal draft time.
The A’s. I hate to gun down Jimmie Foxx’s old crew but the 1930’s are long gone. Just go to Giants games if you want to see a game.
Toronto. Skydome or whatever it is called is so 1994. Let Canada take the Coyotes and the NHL.
White Sox. Just be a Cubs fan. The Sox built a stadium in the last day before someone thought of retro stadiums. Another old guard team bites the dust.
I have saved the Pirates. I am not sure why. You guys are next. I also took 4 teams out of the AL. I could sit here and make up some realignment plan but since Hernandez Contraction won’t happen I’ll just let you know I am sending Milwaukee back to the AL where they belong and Arizona because I hate 9:30 starts.
If a White Sox blogger told me to just be a Yankees fan, I’d probably hunt him down and do unspeakable things to his Ozzie Guillen bobblehead. Is this misplaced anger for Seaver being plucked?
For you kids out there, the Cubs are our most ancient enemy. Don’t create any more fans for them.
I’m too young to hold any animosity for the Cubs, but how about we send the Cubs fans to the Sox? Give ’em a cute cuddly mascot, hell, call them the “White Cubs” (that sounds racist) and we’ll call it even.
contracting teams can’t fix things, but contracting the size of rosters can. force managers to play with either a really short bench and long bullpen, or vice versa (or somewhere in the middle). force the evolution of the game back to one where starting pitchers could throw 150 pitches in a game because they had to. the only time pitch counts matter are for players who aren’t stretched out yet (i.e. spring training and rehab assignments).
I was at the Mets game on Thursday night where the game was played at a pace to be played in about 1:45 until Jerry Manuel made a double switch in the 5th inning and it turned out to be a 3 hour 20 minute game. Take the relievers away from the manager and he can’t make those moves. But then again, pitching changes means advertising time (both in the broadcast and then the commercials), so maybe there would be opposition.
contraction isn’t the answer, but shows that the recent expansion was wrong. but think if that was the talk after 1968 with how bad the Mets were and 4 more teams entering the league.