MLB has officially jumped the shark

[conor912]

WTF is this BS? I couldn't even get through half of it and my eyes glazed over.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...edium=referral

[packs]

I can't think of a guy who hates baseball more than the commissioner of it! What is he thinking with this crap? If he wants to make the postseason more exciting and generate more revenue, why on earth would he not do the obvious: make the wild card series a best of 3 and make the division round a best of 7?

[jgannon]

This is one of the reasons why I collect baseball cards: to remember a time when baseball was played the way it was supposed to be. This is not to denigrate some of the great play you can still see in the game, like the amazing speed you see when infielders turn plays. But as to the rest of it...

[doug.goodman]

Might as well just put everybody in the playoffs, and cut the regular season down to a few weeks.

My favorite line in that story "The NFL has unquestionably eclipsed MLB as America's top sport." which links to a story containing a bar graph showing the 33% of people say football is their favorite sport, while 16% say it's baseball.

I would have liked to see a graph showing the 68,500,000 people who bought MLB tickets last year and the 17,000,000 who bought NFL tickets.

Face it, we "old" guys are not their market anymore, they are chasing the kidz, at least they think they are, unfortunately the post season games are all scheduled for us old guys to stay up all night to watch, while the kidz have to go to bed before some games are even starting.

Good thing for all of them that most of us old guys will still be watching baseball when all the kidz that they have alienated with their scheduling, or failed to entice with the "boring" game that we all love, have moved on to other "more exciting" sports.

At least impending NL DH will slow down the exodus of youth for a couple years, while pushing many of us away.

Doug

[buymycards]

Originally Posted by packs

I can't think of a guy who hates baseball more than the commissioner of it! What is he thinking with this crap? If he wants to make the postseason more exciting and generate more revenue, why on earth would he not do the obvious: make the wild card series a best of 3 and make the division round a best of 7?

I disagree. This would make a tedious playoff season even more tedious. 1 game for the wild card, 3 games for the division, 5 games for the World Series.

The NFL only plays one game in each round, why do we need to drag out the MLB play offs until Thanksgiving?

[packs]

I mean, you understand why the NFL only plays one game right? I don't really see any connection between the MLB and NFL structures. And if you don't like baseball, don't watch it. People who like baseball aren't going to complain they get to see more playoff games. Playing 162 games (that are ALL played as part of a series) only to then play a one game playoff to get into the postseason has always seemed pretty weird to me.

[buymycards]

Originally Posted by packs

I mean, you understand why the NFL only plays one game right? I don't really see any connection between the MLB and NFL structures. And if you don't like baseball, don't watch it. People who like baseball aren't going to complain they get to see more playoff games. Playing 162 games (that are ALL played as part of a series) only to then play a one game playoff to get into the postseason has always seemed pretty weird to me.

I do enjoy watching baseball, but the game seems to have slowed down and become more tedious.

I remember sitting in my back yard listening to the Milwaukee Braves on the radio, and I watch nearly every Milwaukee Brewers game, so it isn't that I don't like baseball. I just wish there would be some rule changes to move it along a little quicker. Watching a batter take 90 seconds in between pitches to tighten up his gloves, scratch his balls, spit on the bat, etc., doesn't contribute to the quality and enjoyment of the game.

[packs]

I agree that some things can be improved "in game" but this is the playoffs we're talking about. You play all season just to get there and I don't think it does anyone any favors to introduce gimmicks at that point in the season.

[Cmount76]

No comment of the MLB changing the postseason, but I LOVE the decision that MLB made today by implementing a rule stating that a pitcher must face a three batter minimum.

Everyone talks about the pace of play - and nothing is more annoying than a pitching change, followed by two pitches, and another pitching change.

This is good one!

[The-Cardfather]

Originally Posted by cmount76

...................... I LOVE the decision that mlb made today by implementing a rule stating that a pitcher must face a three batter minimum.

Everyone talks about the pace of play - and nothing is more annoying than a pitching change, followed by two pitches, and another pitching change.

This is good one!

+1.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by buymycards

I do enjoy watching baseball, but the game seems to have slowed down and become more tedious.

I remember sitting in my back yard listening to the Milwaukee Braves on the radio, and I watch nearly every Milwaukee Brewers game, so it isn't that I don't like baseball. I just wish there would be some rule changes to move it along a little quicker. Watching a batter take 90 seconds in between pitches to tighten up his gloves, scratch his balls, spit on the bat, etc., doesn't contribute to the quality and enjoyment of the game.

I think every player should be made to sit down and watch a couple of the old games they have on tape: like the 7th game of the 1960 World Series, or one of those old, rare 50's World Series game, to see how the game should be played!

The game was less neurotic then. All this delay now, stepping out of the batter's box, adjusting gloves, etc. But I can't stand the new rules from the pitcher having to face 3 batters, to batters just taking their base on an intentional base-on-balls. I don't think these rule changes are good for the game, and aren't the way to shorten it. I think the way to do that is to keep batters in the box, and probably shorten the number of commercials in between innings. Also very importantly, I think the strike zone should be enlarged, and pitchers should be allowed to brush back batters. Shorter at bats.

While baseball has definitely slowed down, I think another problem that feeds into the issue of trying to keep people engaged in the game is a faster paced and more impatient society, with instant information, cell phones, highlight reels, and the like. There isn't an epic moment every moment of the game. You also have so many distractions now at the ballpark from games and commercials on the scoreboard, instant replays, T-shirts being shot up into the stands, fireworks, and music for each batter as they come to the plate. It's like the ball clubs are afraid of any "dead" time so they fill it up with anything they can think of. This further weakens attention spans which then creates the dread that they better have more distractions. The game itself used to be enough.

[commishbob]

I still enjoy the 'idea' of baseball more than actually watching the games themselves. They just drag on so. This is where I always jump into conversations and mention that Game Four of the 1966 World Series lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes.

To the topic at hand...
I have no problem with expanding the playoffs. Adding a team to each league's qualifiers would still be in line with the rate of teams in the other major sports. Nothing wrong with that. But I hate the gimmick of a team picking their opponent on a live TV show. What a carnival act.

And while I'm playing commish...let's shorten the season a bit, maybe back to 154 games so the WS isn't pushing past Halloween and can we take some of the 'juice' out of the baseball?

[jgannon]

Yes, let's shorten the season and de-juice the ball.

Regarding the playoffs, I never liked them. Back in the day teams really tried to capture the pennant, with the 8 team, and later 10 team leagues, and then face off in the World Series. Those were real pennant races. Teams fought to win. The teams that won the most games went to the World Series. The best vs. the best. There was no sidetrack of who was battling it out for second, with the chance that a second place team could actually win the World Series.

I know it would never be adopted, but maybe each league could back to having the two divisions again, this time with 8 and 7 teams each (maybe they could even get rid of one team and make it 7 and 7) and both divisions would only play each other during the regular season, without any interleague play. Or hell, let's have 14 team leagues! (I know, I know...)

[conor912]

MLB is lost. They have no idea what they’re doing and throwing everything at the wall that they think will stick. Meanwhile, America has no attention span anymore and only wants reality tv/death matches/Hunger Games. The whole thing is embarrassing.

[tha-rock]

I don't like it. The season is too long, but they won't shorten it for the sake of players records. Adding a scheme at the end to bring more teams into the playoffs just seems bizarre. Don't get me wrong- I enjoy watching playoff baseball. There are times when I wish the season would go away and we could just watch the postseason. It's exciting when everything is on the line. About the season, Sparky Anderson said, "Everyone is going to win 50 games, and everyone is going to lose 50 games. It's what you do with the other 62 games that counts."

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by packs

I mean, you understand why the NFL only plays one game right? I don't really see any connection between the MLB and NFL structures. And if you don't like baseball, don't watch it. People who like baseball aren't going to complain they get to see more playoff games. Playing 162 games (that are ALL played as part of a series) only to then play a one game playoff to get into the postseason has always seemed pretty weird to me.

I love baseball, and I don't want more playoff games.

[packs]

I'm sure you would have liked to see the Brewers play more than one game last year.

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by Cmount76

No comment of the MLB changing the postseason, but I LOVE the decision that MLB made today by implementing a rule stating that a pitcher must face a three batter minimum.

Everyone talks about the pace of play - and nothing is more annoying than a pitching change, followed by two pitches, and another pitching change.

This is good one!

I couldn't disagree more. It's called strategy. Yes, the pitching change takes a few minutes. But that pitcher can't be used again. What slows the game up are the challenges that take 10 minutes. Somehow baseball survived and flourished for over a century without someone calling replay on foul balls, strikes and balls, etc.

Baseball is a stately game. It has no time constraints-no clock-for a reason. Two teams can play forever until one vanquishes the other. I much prefer a longer game than a silly one, and the suggested changes from the Commish are ridiculous.

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by packs

I'm sure you would have liked to see the Brewers play more than one game last year.

They did. They played 162. If they didn't want to get into a one game sudden death playoff, they should have won more games during the regular season before Christian Yelich broke his knee. I can't tell you how many times one of is on the Brewers forum I frequent said, "that dumb play, and subsequent loss is going to come back to bite us in the ass."

[tschock]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

I couldn't disagree more. It's called strategy. Yes, the pitching change takes a few minutes. But that pitcher can't be used again.

A pitcher required to face at least 3 batters doesn't eliminate strategy. Do I put in Joe who owns the current batter but has mixed success with the next 2? Or do I put in Bob who might have trouble with the current guy but owns the next 2? And what if I put in Bob and the manager of the other team decides to pinch hit the next 2? It just changes the strategy.

Personally, my bigger gripes are expanded playoffs, how the season drags into the cold of the year, the late start times for playoffs/world series. And the DH, of course.

[steve B]

While I'm mostly ok with more playoff games - after all, Mr October is taken, so we need more so there can eventually be a Mr November..

I don't think more playoff teams will make it better.
In fact, like most sports, it makes the playoffs less special and worth watching.
Like the NBA, where more than half the teams make the playoffs. It's just silly having .500 teams in the playoffs. It's bad enough having a division champion at .512.
Half the teams get in in the NHL as well, and with breaks the playoffs feel more like a second season.

[packs]

If they aren't going to expand the wild card series I hope they eliminate the second wild card team instead. The one game playoff is such a bum game for the teams to be forced to play. It doesn't really make a lot of sense for the second best second best team to have a path into the playoffs anyway.

[bobcatfunds]

What's next? Multi ball! Multi Ball! Multi Ball!

Winning the division should be the goal...not grabbing the 13th Wild Card slot.

[Chris Counts]

How long will it be before a pitcher hurts his arm and is forced to pitch to another batter? Or somebody claims they are hurt so another pitcher can be brought in? I think the new rule was made with good intentions, but I believe it's flawed.

If I could make one change in baseball, I would let the fans or the players choose the next commissioner. He should be someone who has at least some respect among both, not some stooge for the owners like so many have been. I've long said baseball is successful not because of the owners, but in spite of them.