Three Original Ideas for Making Baseball the National Pastime Again

Ground-rule triples, bunt doubles, and foul-ball singles

Baseball is a great game as it is, but these three ideas would make it even better. (Photo by Lesly Juarez on Unsplash)

It’s World Series time again, so that means not just televised baseball in late October that could possibly run into November, it also means all manner of weird, wild and — hopefully — wonderful speculation about the game itself and how to make it better.

Major League Baseball, it seems, is always tinkering with the rules. Over the past half-century or so, major changes to baseball rules include:

• Lowering the mound in 1969 after “the Year of the Pitcher” in 1968
• American League adopting the designated hitter rule in 1973
• Implementation of the three-batter minimum rule, 2021

As with most baseball topics, these rules changes generated no small amount of discussion among fans, with passionate opinions across the spectrum.

With that in mind, here are three more ideas that could increase interest in the National Pastime (or what used to be the National Pastime) while rewarding good play — albeit in different ways than we’re used to seeing it rewarded. The goal of all three rules changes would be the same: Adding excitement . . . with a bent toward increasing offense.