What have they done to the game?

The game is baseball.

I don't profess to be a die-hard baseball fan. I rarely, if ever, watch a whole game on TV.

I've only been to a couple games in person.

But I have always liked to catch a few innings here and there. A few more innings during the playoffs and even a few more during the World Series.

I like to sort of keep track of my favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals, although I can't really recite the whole roster or anything like that.

So, frankly, I have little baseball knowledge. But I know one thing.

Baseball players are hitting lots more home runs these days than ever before.

And I know something else.

I don't like it.

It used to be part of the allure of the game. Getting to see a home run was a big deal.

Now, it's a big deal to see a game without a few of them.

I think they have changed the balls. I think the balls have a hotter core or a livelier cover or are stitched more tightly.

I think Major League Baseball is in collusion with the baseball manufacturer.

I think MLB thinks that high-scoring games are what the sport needs to attract more fans and make the game more financially viable.

Of course, MLB and the baseball manufacturers completely deny all this. MLB even says it will investigate and test the balls. But I am skeptical.

And if my theory is true, I think they underestimate baseball fans.

I believe true baseball fans are turned off by the sudden influx of excessive offense on the baseball field.

Remember the phrase "pitching duel?" It has disappeared from baseball.

Remember the drama of a couple pitchers dueling it out into late innings in a 1-0, or 0-0 game, only to have some guy hitting in the eight spot drive in a winning or tying run?

You better have a memory like that etched in your mind because you won't see it much anymore.

The home run used to be a dramatic event in baseball in and of itself. That was largely because it was relatively rare.

It is no longer rare at all.

Mark McGwire - a Cardinal, by the way - broke the home run record with 70 in one season in 1998. The previous record of 61 hit by Roger Maris stood for 37 years.

McGwire's record so far has stood for one full season. But my guess is it won't stand much longer than that. It may even fall this season.

The homers are a-flyin', people.

The Elias Sports Bureau keeps track of such things. It reports that there were 931 home runs in the big leagues during April. That's a record for the first month of any baseball season. Next comes May. The all-time home run record for May is 980. That record was set last May. It will probably fall this May, based on the rate that balls are exiting the playing field.

Elias reports that an average of 2.56 dingers per game were launched in April. Certain parks averaged much higher than that. Houston averaged 3.83. Denver averaged 3.10.

Have you watched ESPN's Sportscenter lately? It's homer after homer after homer.

I'm sorry, folks. There are just too many homers.

Now, you can say the players are better, the parks are smaller and the strike zone is smaller, but I just don't buy it.

I think they juiced up the balls to make the game more interesting for the "fans."

There's another evolution in big league ball that bugs me.

It's the propensity for bench-clearing brawls to erupt over a hit batsman.

I understand that it probably is not very comfortable being struck by a baseball traveling in excess of 90 mph.

But I don't really think every time a batter gets hit it is intentional.

Pitchers are good, but they aren't perfect. Once in awhile one is going to get away from them. But apparently there's no accommodation for that in baseball anymore.

If you get hit, somebody else must get hit. There are no more accidents or mistakes.

And isn't it ironic that MLB picked Frank Robinson to oversee the rough stuff in the league?

He was one of the league's tough guys in his day. Kind of like the fox guarding the henhouse.

Maybe they want to make baseball like hockey, where fighting becomes part of the game. That would probably attract more fans, eh?

Maybe homers and fights will draw more fans and maybe they won't.

But to me, the fighting makes baseball players - noted for their grace, agility and civility - look like thugs.

The cheap home runs cheapen the accomplishments of the early big hitters in the game.

And the frequency at which balls leave the yard has turned the home run into one of the most boring highlights in sports. [[In-content Ad]]