In case you haven’t noticed, most of the Marlins series and last night’s Phillies game were pretty unwatchable. I mean we watched them, but boy what a slog.
The Commish needs to do something.
First let me start with the crazy crazy crazy idea. 6 inning games.
Calm down and stay with me.
The record book has been destroyed. Lupica, Buck, Selig and the rest all looked the other way and celebrated the Greatest Season Ever (there is even a book) and the records were destroyed. Let’s close the book and file it away as The Golden Age which starts with Ruth and ends after 2017.
For now on we’ll play 6 inning games. Starting pitchers only go 5 or 6, and the biggest problem with the game right now are the pitching changes that drag the game to a close. And it’s pitchers nobody cares about or wants to see. Let Thor go 5, Familia go one and let’s go home. Last night’s Mets game could have ended in a 2-1 victory and been over at 9:30. Two and half hours of baseball is all I need, and it’s how long it was when I got into baseball in 1977. The second game of minor league doubleheaders are 7 innings so this isn’t THAT crazy.
So now you ask about the money. We’ll take those 5 two minute commercial breaks that I just eliminated, and make the remaining breaks three minutes not two. The problem with the sport isn’t time between innings, it’s the time within innings. I can tweet or get a drink or pee and kill three minutes. But when you make me kill two minutes every 90 seconds because of relief pitcher matchups, thats what kills me.
Now we have the new rulebook. We can be excited when someone hits 40 HRs and sets the new record. We can celebrate someone winning 400 games, getting 20 complete games in a season again, or a batter getting an amazing 150 hits in a season or 2000 for their career. Who cares…the book has been destroyed…quick, how many home runs did Bonds hit in his career? Are you sure?
OK so we both know the above won’t happen. Here’s some other ideas. I want to go over to Manfred’s house and watch any game with him, and we can immediately pick up 50 things that will speed up the game.
- No stepping out of the box
- Umpires should never ever grant time to a hitter
- Pitch clock
- Nobody can go to the mound. Not the catcher, not the pitching coach, not the manager, not the next Keith Hernandez. Pitch.
So far so good. Want to get more radical?
No pitching changes mid-inning. None. Zero. Finish the inning. If you don’t finish the inning you have to go on the three day DL. If you get rocked, too bad. Which brings me to the next rule.
If a team is down 10 runs we go home. That’s it. The WBC, which is growing the sport internationally, has mercy rules so let’s bring it to the US and Canada. Nobody wants to watch an 11-1 game. Yes every 150 years someone will come back from ten runs down but that’s the price we pay.
No throws to first, no leads -foot on the bag. We’re gonna speed things up 4th grader style. Foot on the bag kids. No throws to first (or second or third)
Three Swings. Softball style. Put it in play or its strike.
