Clearing The Bases

I love the game of baseball and spend most of my days/nights watching as many games as possible.  Over the years I have thought about what I would change if I was the Commissioner and allowed to institute any rules I wish.  So in this column I’ve decided to list the 12 rules that I would change if I had Bud Selig’s job and the unions approval (yeah, like that would ever happen).

• Both leagues must adopt the same rules.  Kind of ridiculous that that National League lets the pitcher hit, while the American League uses a Designated Hitter.  I don’t care which way we go, but this is the same game and should be played under the same rules.  You don’t see the NFL playing 10-10 in the AFC and 11-11 in the NFC or the NHL playing with only one defenseman in the East with two in the West.  Watching a pitcher hit is usually quite painful so the DH does add more offense but there is little doubt that with the pitcher batting, there is more strategy involved, but not that interleague play is so prevalent, let’s adopt the same rules.

• Interleague schedules.  Speaking of interleague play, how about having teams in the same division play close to the same interleague schedule.  Take the American League East for example.  The Yankees play six games versus the Mets and three each versus the Cubs, Reds, Rockies, and Brewers, while the Red Sox play three each versus the Cubs, Padres, Pirates, Phillies, Astros, and Brewers.  I know you can’t play the exact same interleague schedule as the big inter-state rivalries need to play a home and home series and not every team has that rivalry, but to play one team in the East, four in the Central, and one in the East just seems ludicrous and hurts the balanced schedule more than anything else.  Can’t see a reason why you can’t play all your games against one division and just rotate the division each season, while keeping the rivalry series a yearly happening.

• Use QuesTech to call balls and strikes.  In my mind nothing changes the balance of a game like the home plate umpire.  You constantly have to figure out what his strike zone is.  Does he call the low strike, the high strike, does he give you the outside corner, or is his zone the size of a cereal box.  If an ump has a small zone and you have a pitcher who is known to be wild, than it’s going to be a long day.  QuesTech or any computerized zone would make the playing field even for everyone.  It would also stop arguments as there would be no more arguments over balls and strikes.  It’s not like the umpires would lose jobs as you would still them to make calls at the plate, just not balls/strikes anymore.

• While we’re at with using technology for ball/strikes how about more replay.  Seems to me the easiest solution would be to have a fifth umpire at every game.  Just like in the NFL, if that umpire sees a play that was missed he would communicate with the crew chief on the field and the call would be corrected.  Seems to be a pretty easy solution, and once again this would eliminate the need for arguments.  Everyone always states that they like the human element, why?  We have the technology to eliminate mistakes, we should use it.  Everyone loves the human element until your team loses a big game thanks to a blown call by the umpire.

• Balance the leagues.  American League has 14 teams, National League has 16.  I’m not a fan of expansion but perhaps two more teams is the answer, if not move one NL team to the AL.  I know this would force there to be an interleague game each day of the season, so what.  Why does anyone believe that all these games need to be played in the same time period.  There is a fairness involved in this also as the AL West is forced to play around 108 games outside their division while most divisions only play about 90.  This comes into play for the WildCard winner and could even become more prevalent next season if the Mr. Selig decides to add another WildCard to the playoffs.

• Since we’re talking playoffs, can we have a normal schedule please.  I know television decides everything for baseball, but we need to get back to the sanctity of the schedule.  The extra off days that are built into the playoffs certainly benefit the team that may not have the strongest of starting staffs, but do have one or two aces.  Days off should only be for travel, that’s it.

• Allow draft pick trading.  This would make the MLB entry draft much more of an event and facilitate trading which all fans love.  It would also enable lower revenue teams to trade a pick knowing they can’t afford the player, rather than pick a lesser player because he is more signable.  Might also allow poorer teams a way to build up their farm system at a faster pace if they could acquire multiple picks.

• Roster expansion.  I’ve never been a fan of expanding the MLB rosters to 40 in September as to many minor leaguers are deciding pennant races but teams need to reward their players for a good season and calling up these minor leaguers is a good way to see if they might have what is needed to play in the majors.  That being said, how about raising the rosters to 30 in April.  The first month is generally cold and the extra spots could be used for pitchers to prevent overuse and allow managers to take it a little easier on their starters until the season is well underway.

• Suspended players.  When a player is suspended now for any on field transgression they always appeal and delay the process as long as possible this way they can drop their appeal when it’s good for them or they suffer a slight injury that might have forced them to miss those games anyway.  I would have players report to the office on their next off day.  No ifs ands or buts.  If an earlier time was more convenient for both parties, great, but no more delaying the appeal until it best fits the player and team.

• How about a few doubleheaders.  Might be nice to either end the season a little earlier or start it later.  I understand owners are never going to shorten the 162 game season and certainly don’t want to lose revenue so these doubleheaders would have to be of the day/night variety, but it would still be worth it to not be playing in the snow in March.

• Change the way games are scored.  As of now the official scorer for each game is generally someone employed by the team.  This is a joke as they almost always lean towards calling everything a hit unless it’s a play a little leaguer should’ve made.  This certainly skewers statistics and must drive pitchers crazy as it drives up their WHIP and ERA.  How about having that fifth umpire that we want to use for instant replay also be the official scorer for each game.  They are supposed to be impartial after all.

• Balloon chest protectors for the home plate umpires.  I may be dating myself here but back in the day the home plate umpire used to wear balloon chest protectors, sure these were a little unsightly, but it also allowed the ump to stand right over the catcher rather than to one side as we see now.  This allowed for a more accurate strike zone to be called.  Of course if they install my QuesTech strike zone, than this would be unnecessary.