C'mon Commish! It's Time To Make The Rules Match
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Mark [email protected]
I’m thinking of sending a beef jerky bouquet to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, and here’s what I’d put on the card.
“Dear Commissioner Manfred,
Fix it so the designated hitter is in the National League. Please.
Your friend,
Mark”
He doesn’t really need my last name; it’s on the restraining order.
Since 1973, the two major baseball leagues have had a different rule, and altering games because of it. Not just more regular season games now than ever, but important, big money games.
I’d consider myself a moderate baseball purist. I go kicking and screaming into the future and see many things that need to happen to pass the game I love most into the next generations.
I dislike instant replay, and I prefer “instant displays” the arguments from players, managers and coaches that leave Vince McMahon taking notes. I think professional wrestlers can learn a lot from videos of Earl Weaver, Sparky Anderson, and even Lou Piniella.
But, it is better that the umpires have the chance to get the call right. It’s now a part of American sport society, and paying customers of the present and future expect the service, whether in the living room or they used a ticket to get in.
I wasn’t a huge fan of interleague play. But it’s been around so long it allows for two balanced leagues on an everyday basis, and it’s here to stay.
The designated hitter is never going to go away. It’s been in the American League so long that Hall-Of-Famers have completed on-the-field careers with it. The players union knows it helps older, more experienced players perform longer, and that in turn brings contracts (wages) up, and thus the union will never permit it to go away.
The DH exists in some form in virtually every level of professional and amateur baseball, and even in recreational slow-pitch softball.
Yes, I’d rather see the pitchers hit, but to be honest I think the last significant batch of good hitting pitchers has come and gone. Sure, there’s a couple out there, but way more often than not, a pitcher at the plate is overwhelmed.
And frankly, I don’t see the fans of tomorrow caring if the pitcher hits. Action sells tickets, and if that’s what the customer wants, they’d better get it. Baseball charges too much to tick off its paying customers.
So please, Mr. Manfred. One set of rules for the game of baseball. Bring the DH to the NL. And if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I feel as if I need to brush my teeth after putting such a statement in print.
One quick thought on interleague scheduling: if they’re going to do it, why not have teams come in and play the Yankees and Mets in the same week? Likewise in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco/Oakland area. I’d think, with proper marketing, that baseball could put together vacation packages that rival Disney if visiting teams could hang around in a city for a week or more. Three of the above mentioned markets have a third team within a four-hour drive that could be a nice add-on.
Next, let’s talk about the surprises of this baseball season. Houston’s 10-game winning streak was snapped Monday night, but they are perched in first place in the American League West, a solid seven games out front of the LA Angels, who had the best record in baseball last season.
Yeah, it’s May. I know there’s plenty of time to come back to reality. And the reality is it’s been a while since the Astros were any good. But they put together a plan similar to the Cubs, took a bunch of lumps over the last five years, and seeing a bit of a payoff now.
It seems unlikely they’ll continue to lead the American League in home runs and stolen bases. If they do, look out world!
And just to say so, I’m still not used to the Astros being an AL team. Just now getting used to the Brewers being in the National League.
Speaking of Milwaukee, it’s not a huge surprise to me they changed managers in the first weekend of May; I’ve not been keen on them for a while now. I recall meeting a fellow Cardinal fan on a Sunday afternoon about a year ago at a Detroit Street restaurant, and the gentleman expressed concern the Brewers were going to run away and hide with the NL Central.
I assured him they’d collapse, and while it took longer that I expected, the tanking was much worse than i anticipated.
I was not shocked at all to see the Brew Crew get out of the gate so slowly in 2015. And even Ron Roenicke would have told you in spring training; if a team is 10 games back by the end of April, the manager is going to get canned.
The White Sox need to right their ship in the next week or two to keep an offseason of promise fizzling into a summer of discontent. While conceding the last week has been especially difficult, with the week that was in Baltimore and getting swept in Minnesota, they need to get a few wins right now. I’m not saying they need to rip off 10 in a row, they just need to get back to .500 and go from there.
Lastly, is there any more proof needed than the fanless game in Baltimore last week to prove Major League Baseball is flush with cash? I imagine Bill Veeck, Walter O’Malley and Charles Commiskey, among others, were rolling over in their graves at the mere thought of a game without gate receipts, concession and parking income and souvenir sales. I’ve a feeling, whether we can prove it or not, that when it’s time to negotiate a new contract between the league and its players, the subject will come up again.[[In-content Ad]]
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I’m thinking of sending a beef jerky bouquet to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, and here’s what I’d put on the card.
“Dear Commissioner Manfred,
Fix it so the designated hitter is in the National League. Please.
Your friend,
Mark”
He doesn’t really need my last name; it’s on the restraining order.
Since 1973, the two major baseball leagues have had a different rule, and altering games because of it. Not just more regular season games now than ever, but important, big money games.
I’d consider myself a moderate baseball purist. I go kicking and screaming into the future and see many things that need to happen to pass the game I love most into the next generations.
I dislike instant replay, and I prefer “instant displays” the arguments from players, managers and coaches that leave Vince McMahon taking notes. I think professional wrestlers can learn a lot from videos of Earl Weaver, Sparky Anderson, and even Lou Piniella.
But, it is better that the umpires have the chance to get the call right. It’s now a part of American sport society, and paying customers of the present and future expect the service, whether in the living room or they used a ticket to get in.
I wasn’t a huge fan of interleague play. But it’s been around so long it allows for two balanced leagues on an everyday basis, and it’s here to stay.
The designated hitter is never going to go away. It’s been in the American League so long that Hall-Of-Famers have completed on-the-field careers with it. The players union knows it helps older, more experienced players perform longer, and that in turn brings contracts (wages) up, and thus the union will never permit it to go away.
The DH exists in some form in virtually every level of professional and amateur baseball, and even in recreational slow-pitch softball.
Yes, I’d rather see the pitchers hit, but to be honest I think the last significant batch of good hitting pitchers has come and gone. Sure, there’s a couple out there, but way more often than not, a pitcher at the plate is overwhelmed.
And frankly, I don’t see the fans of tomorrow caring if the pitcher hits. Action sells tickets, and if that’s what the customer wants, they’d better get it. Baseball charges too much to tick off its paying customers.
So please, Mr. Manfred. One set of rules for the game of baseball. Bring the DH to the NL. And if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I feel as if I need to brush my teeth after putting such a statement in print.
One quick thought on interleague scheduling: if they’re going to do it, why not have teams come in and play the Yankees and Mets in the same week? Likewise in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco/Oakland area. I’d think, with proper marketing, that baseball could put together vacation packages that rival Disney if visiting teams could hang around in a city for a week or more. Three of the above mentioned markets have a third team within a four-hour drive that could be a nice add-on.
Next, let’s talk about the surprises of this baseball season. Houston’s 10-game winning streak was snapped Monday night, but they are perched in first place in the American League West, a solid seven games out front of the LA Angels, who had the best record in baseball last season.
Yeah, it’s May. I know there’s plenty of time to come back to reality. And the reality is it’s been a while since the Astros were any good. But they put together a plan similar to the Cubs, took a bunch of lumps over the last five years, and seeing a bit of a payoff now.
It seems unlikely they’ll continue to lead the American League in home runs and stolen bases. If they do, look out world!
And just to say so, I’m still not used to the Astros being an AL team. Just now getting used to the Brewers being in the National League.
Speaking of Milwaukee, it’s not a huge surprise to me they changed managers in the first weekend of May; I’ve not been keen on them for a while now. I recall meeting a fellow Cardinal fan on a Sunday afternoon about a year ago at a Detroit Street restaurant, and the gentleman expressed concern the Brewers were going to run away and hide with the NL Central.
I assured him they’d collapse, and while it took longer that I expected, the tanking was much worse than i anticipated.
I was not shocked at all to see the Brew Crew get out of the gate so slowly in 2015. And even Ron Roenicke would have told you in spring training; if a team is 10 games back by the end of April, the manager is going to get canned.
The White Sox need to right their ship in the next week or two to keep an offseason of promise fizzling into a summer of discontent. While conceding the last week has been especially difficult, with the week that was in Baltimore and getting swept in Minnesota, they need to get a few wins right now. I’m not saying they need to rip off 10 in a row, they just need to get back to .500 and go from there.
Lastly, is there any more proof needed than the fanless game in Baltimore last week to prove Major League Baseball is flush with cash? I imagine Bill Veeck, Walter O’Malley and Charles Commiskey, among others, were rolling over in their graves at the mere thought of a game without gate receipts, concession and parking income and souvenir sales. I’ve a feeling, whether we can prove it or not, that when it’s time to negotiate a new contract between the league and its players, the subject will come up again.[[In-content Ad]]
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