With Bud Selig leaving his post as Major League Baseball Commissioner that he’s held for the since ’92 as acting commissioner and ’98 as commissioner, I will be stepping in to replace him. During his tenure he has helped bring about several expansion franchises, two of whom have won a total of 3 world series championships (Marlins 2, Arizona 1), introduced interleague play, realignment of leagues and divisions, the successful transfer of several franchises, was instrumental in starting the World Baseball Classic and even won the inaugural Bud Selig Award. But he also turned a blind eye during the steroid era and the atrocious ruling that the winning league of the all-star game for some reason wins homefield advantage during the world series. So as I enter my first year of being the commissioner of the second greatest sport on earth ( SJP Racing is first) I will be making these changes to the game and don’t give a shit about whether the owners want to or not.
Grant myself full power to make any changes I see fit. The only checks and balance is a three person panel that includes myself, and two people of my choosing.
Get rid of the designated hitter. I know it’s fun watching some bulked up past his prime slugger jack 35 homers, hit .230 and have 170 strikeouts but it’s terrible. American league clubs give long contracts to offensive players and though they are terrible during the end of it, it gives them a huge advantage over the national league when signing a player on the free agent market. A player should not be able to sit on his butt and every 3 innings get up swing the bat and than sit back down. Every other position player plays both sides…a DH should too.
Expand the strike zone, it should be from the knees to the top of the stomach. I'm over these strike zones that expand in the later innings, shrink in the first few and are called so tight a pitch a belt high fastball down in the middle of the plate is considered high.
Limit the trips to the mound. A catcher gets 3 visits to the mound and a coach gets 2 before a pitcher is done for the night. A catcher just goes out there to change signs, go over scenarios, calm the pitcher down etc etc. Dude, you are a professional baseball player, you can figure out that you need to back up home with a running on base and a ball hit to the outfield. Coaches just do pep talks, after 2 you’re night is done son!
Give fans the ability to upgrade their seats for a charge of 15-20 bucks after the 7th inning. You’ll get a couple hundred thousand in extra revenue (that’s my guess) because you know after the 7th half the fans leave and if it goes into extra innings. Just let them go watch the game. You want to beat traffic, well I’m going to be a true fan and stay still this is over jerk.
Get over the steroid era. It happened. We know a small percentage of the people that were caught, and a large chunk weren’t. Those players were the best of the era. The pitched against steroid users and they batted against steroid users. After the ’94 strike mlb attendance was extremely low, the fans weren’t excited…than a little something called the home run race between mcgwire and sosa lighted a fire back and really got people excited again. The fans knew something was up when a dudes forearms had 26 inch circumference. MLB has let players into the h.o.f that played when the league was segregated, the spit ball era, amphetamines, higher pitching mounds and there were no fences.
On that note- Mr. Pete Rose you are in the hall of fame.
Expand reply to involve calls on the bases and don’t limit it to coaches challenging 2 a game.
Any fan who runs onto the field gets a minimum 10 year ban from the ballpark, except after the game when he gets to clean the bathrooms
Players, get over some of these unwritten rules, it’s a little stupid. Except you rodriguez, everything you do is terrible.
Lastly hold umps accountable for personal grudges and egos they have. Don’t toss a coach or player for arguing one of your many terrible calls. Don’t get in THEIR face.
That’ll be it. Go Giants!! I mean go baseball!
I disagree about the DH. My issue with it is that yes, it gives AL teams an advantage in signing aging players because they know they can get some value out of the bat past the point where the guy is viable in the field, or when he needs to platoon, so they can offer more years than NL teams--thus the moves like Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols over the last few years. But I like watching professional hitters hit (who doesn't/didn't want David Ortiz and Edgar Martinez around?), and I like the wrinkle that differentiates leagues. I'm still not sure how I feel about the implications of interleague play, though--that may erode the distinctions enough that the DH makes less sense anyway, though I like watching AL pitchers try to hit, and love that half the time the NL has a potential advantage in that spot in the lineup. I would keep the DH.
ReplyDeleteJason, sorry, but I agree with Brennan. Get rid of the DH. Professional hitters were playing in the MLB long before the DH rule. They hit professionally and they played middling to crappy defense. It makes the game so much more complex. I like to see pitchers hit. I remember Ramon Martinez getting a hit when I was a kid, and thinking it was a bonus because he was a pitcher! And stop before you spew the Dodgers jokes.
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