MLB: Proposed Rules Changes Could be a Mistake
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Major League Baseball has proposed possible rule changes to the game. As usual, this is another concerted effort to quicken the pace-of-play of MLB games.
Major League Baseball has proposed a few different changes recently, all likely to be tested in the minor leagues at some point. The first thing is raising the strike zone up from the bottom of a hitter’s knee to the top of their knees. Second is to eradicate the need to throw four balls when issuing an intentional walk. Rather, pitchers and/or managers would simply be able to signal to the home plate umpire their intention to walk a batter. And lastly, maybe the most radical, a proposal to start off extra innings with a runner already on second base.
The idea of a slightly smaller strike zone doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea. In fact, I’m not sure it would really have much of an impact. It could result in slightly more offense, but I can’t imagine people would be upset about that. Whether or not MLB actually enacts this at some point, the umpires are still human, and they all tend to call balls and strikes differently. You might see it in effect at times, but umpires will always remain subjective with their calls. It’s hard to see the pace-of-play speeding up as a direct result of this change.
The proposed intentional walk change is not really all that new. The MLB toyed with this idea last summer as well. About eight months ago, when this was previously proposed, I wrote that implementing this rule probably wouldn’t significantly speed up play. The average number of intentional walks per game in 2015 was 0.19. Let’s say issuing an intentional walk takes around 90 seconds to complete. This means you’re only shaving about two minutes, give or take, per week off the run time for any given team. Not per game, per week. So, is this really necessary?
Starting extra innings with a runner on second? MLB has proposed a good number of head-scratching changes in the past, but this is one so asinine I can’t even begin to fathom it. The idea that baseball should be turned into some cheap novelty experience is not only ridiculous, but also a slap in the face to MLB’s already-dedicated fan base.
You hear the “baseball is dying” narrative all the time, but if you take a look, viewership has actually been fairly strong lately, especially in the playoffs. MLB’s primary goal here isn’t just to boost viewership, but rather to get younger people watching. Baseball’s age demographic of viewers is quite a bit older than that of the NBA and NFL.
MLB’s newfound desire to fundamentally change the game is predicated on the notion that cutting 10–15 minutes off the running time will all-of-a-sudden bring in hoards of young new fans. The truth is, people who aren’t watching right now are also not pleading for reasons to try and enjoy the sport. They’re perfectly content to watch other sports, which is fine. Have a discussion with someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy watching baseball. Do you think they’re going to tell you, “well, gee, if baseball games were about 10 minutes shorter, I’d be all in!”? Nonsense. Plain and simple, people who don’t like baseball aren’t going to watch baseball. No amount of revised rules will ever change that.
All of this goes back to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. Ever since he took over the commissioner’s role, Manfred has been adamant about solving baseball’s pace-of-play problems. But the best way to do that may not be by isolating the devoted fans of the game. If such drastic changes were made, Manfred would risk losing the core audience baseball already has. All while attempting to reel in a crowd that may not come. This may be a bit over-reactionary at this stage, but there are only so many radical changes you can make to the game before it starts turning into a different game. The state of the MLB isn’t perfect, but it’s not broken either.
One can only hope that Major League Baseball doesn’t make the crucial mistake of altering the fundamental structure of this more than century-old game just to try and attract an audience that never wanted to be there in the first place.
