Baseball needs to relax with pace-of-play
It’s almost here.
The 2018 Major League Baseball regular season begins exactly one week from today, and I could not be more excited.
This winter was an interesting one to say the least, especially considering how long it took for many big-name free agents to sign contracts. However, one thing that really stood out to me this off-season was the MLB continuing its obsession with pace-of-play.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for simple rules to speed up the game for the entertainment of fans, but let’s not get carried away and turn baseball into some kind of gimmick.
One big change for in the 2018 season will be a limit on the number of mound visits a team has per game. Each team will have a maximum of six, not including pitching changes, plus one for each extra inning played. Okay, fine. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with this, given that pitchers and catchers may get out of sync throughout the game, but whatever.
The rule change that really caught my attention only applies to Minor League Baseball, but the fact this rule even exists and could someday be implemented in the major leagues infuriates me.
As the MILB announced last week, starting in the tenth inning, the hitting team will have to place the batter who made the last out in the previous frame on second base to start the inning. In other words, for each extra inning played, the hitting team will start the frame with a runner in scoring position.
Hold on…we are talking about baseball, correct? A sport that has been played for well over a century, and now we are trying to change its integrity?! Talk about March Madness…
I’m sorry, but this is absolutely absurd. I’ve been around this sport since I started playing as a four-year-old, and that is not how I learned to play. If the game goes to extra innings, you keep playing until one team scores and the other does not. Simple. But baseball executives are under this delusion that placing a runner at second base in extras will actually be a good thing for the sport.
Let’s be realistic. Of all the games played by a throughout the season, what percentage of them go to extra innings? If someone pays to go to a baseball game, and it lasts more than nine innings, they can choose to leave at their own leisure. Heck, they can leave before the ninth inning if they wanted. No one is forcing the fans to stay.
And what about the pitchers? These minor league players are trying to make good impressions and work their way up to the majors.
Picture this: in the bottom of the tenth inning, the game is tied. A pitcher comes in with no outs and a runner on second. Not one pitch has been thrown. First pitch, the batter hits a single up the middle, and the runner scores to win the game. MILB says the pitcher’s ERA would not be affected, but does he get credited with a loss? It’s not his fault a runner was on base…it was just some silly rule change. You may as well take all extra inning statistics in history and throw them into a bonfire. They no longer matter, at least not at the minor league level.
Could you imagine if this happened in the MLB? I would like to believe it won’t, but I don’t think MILB would make this rule if the MLB was not considering it. This already happens in the World Baseball Classic. Who’s to say it will never become a regulation?
All I’m saying is Major League Baseball better be careful. I know they want to speed up the game to attract younger fans, but don’t be stupid about it. Whatever happened to that pitch clock in between pitches?
Just be smart, MLB. Fans like myself want to see the sport grow, but not at the cost of changing how the game is played.
