MLB has officially jumped the shark

jgannon · #1 02-16-2020, 09:47 AM

Quote:

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 · #2 02-16-2020, 10:28 AM

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 · #3 02-16-2020, 11:04 AM

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 · #4 02-17-2020, 12:28 AM

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 · #5 02-25-2020, 02:24 PM

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."

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