Defining How the Game Should Be Tinkered With

[JustaFan]

The Baseball Commissioner wants to change the post-season to increase interest

The Reds have a pitcher who doesn't seem to agree

ESPN's article on the revitalized Maddon is one I personally agree with

"I think somebody's got to stand up for our game and the way it is and it should be played, and what should be tinkered with and what should not," Maddon said. "My conclusion is analytics and technology are slightly responsible for putting the game in a position where it's not as attractive to fans."



As a related sports entertainment aside - At the same time we are reading about the new quasi-football league designed to attract fans who like to bet. Imagine putting money down on a team where the quarterbacks are making only $5000 a game, and backing comes from Las Vegas Casinos. Wonder if the coaches and players are allowed to bet.

[TNRED]

I know I am getting old but I think maybe there might be too much effort into making the game more exciting and in the process you lose the charm of the game. In this day and age we are overwhelmed with sports. The seasons are too long in all professional sports. Every game is televised and streamed. Hundreds of sports talk shows and even more forums. Starting the MLB season in March is grating on me. A shorter season might be an improvement. Fewer games that mean more. I know it will never come back but I miss the beauty of a complete game. I don't enjoy seeing massive long term contracts that become boat anchors. I don't like pitching staffs with 12 or 13 pitchers. I know the game changes for good or bad and I also know there is nothing I can do about it other than turn the tv off.

[allpurpose]

I know I am getting old but I think maybe there might be too much effort into making the game more exciting and in the process you lose the charm of the game. In this day and age we are overwhelmed with sports. The seasons are too long in all professional sports. Every game is televised and streamed. Hundreds of sports talk shows and even more forums. Starting the MLB season in March is grating on me. A shorter season might be an improvement. Fewer games that mean more. I know it will never come back but I miss the beauty of a complete game. I don't enjoy seeing massive long term contracts that become boat anchors. I don't like pitching staffs with 12 or 13 pitchers. I know the game changes for good or bad and I also know there is nothing I can do about it other than turn the tv off.

Your only option when it pertains to aging is to either get old or die. To my current understanding of how age works you really don't not get older. Calendars kind of work that way. but yeah..I agree..I'm not all that interested in people tinkering with baseball to the point that the only people who care about baseball are all too old to play the game anymore.

[Shoeless Jeff]

I know I am getting old but I think maybe there might be too much effort into making the game more exciting and in the process you lose the charm of the game. In this day and age we are overwhelmed with sports. The seasons are too long in all professional sports. Every game is televised and streamed. Hundreds of sports talk shows and even more forums. Starting the MLB season in March is grating on me. A shorter season might be an improvement. Fewer games that mean more. I know it will never come back but I miss the beauty of a complete game. I don't enjoy seeing massive long term contracts that become boat anchors. I don't like pitching staffs with 12 or 13 pitchers. I know the game changes for good or bad and I also know there is nothing I can do about it other than turn the tv off.

I have been watching the 1976 World Series on DVD again and it is so refreshing to see so much more action in the games than there is today. There are so many more balls in play, much more defense and definitely lots more strategy. It was just so much more fun to watch than todays K/BB/HR game with thousands of pitches a game (or at least so it seems).

Heck, if we are going to change the game, lets add three more rules. If a pitcher throws a pitch over 95, it is automatically called a ball. Conversely, if a batter hits a ball more than 425 feet, it is automatically called an out (kind of like right field growing up when we didn't have enough kids).

Damn I'm showing my age!

[stein1214]

Major League Baseball continues to completely ignore their biggest failing, which is the complete lack of marketing of their star players, in favor of all of this tinkering and making changes to the game that we all love. NFL and NBA players are everywhere on TV. I think I might have seen Mike Trout in a Subway commercial once several years ago. Other than that...if it's not on MLB Network or maybe occasionally ESPN, you never see baseball players on national TV ads. The only time baseball gets any attention in the national media is when they have a nightmare like this Astros scandal.

Manfred needs to concentrate on fixing the real problem and stop trying to fix something that isn't broken.

[klw]

I think they should consider moving the pitching rubber back to 60' 8".

[WrongVerb]

I think they should consider moving the pitching rubber back to 60' 8".

There could be reason to do this: The speed of pitching is such that the time it takes for the synapses that fire in the brain of the hitter to register the pitch and plot his swing could be exceeded. If it takes 0.4sec to react to a pitch that takes 0.35sec to reach home plate, that would end the game right there. Lengthening the distance to the batter would bring that back into some kind of equilibrium.

That said, I don't think we're at that point yet.