The Selig Fault: The Many Issues of Baseball

A Quick Note

It has been an extremely long time since I have posted anything to this blog and I have good reason for that. I was in a very serious car accident about 3 1/2 months ago and have been focused on rehab from that. I am focused on getting this blog back running. Enjoy! 

A Pastime, That's All It Is

If you read my stuff before my accident, you know I love bashing baseball. If you didn't, today you'll learn that I love bashing it. 

Over the past several weeks and months, I've had some free time on my hands when not in rehab. In that time, I've tuned into way too much baseball. It did it's job. It passed the time for me. That's what baseball does. In my neck of the woods, the Pirates had their first positive season since I was 2 years old. That was nice for people who remember the 1970 Pirates who were successful. I've said for years that Pittsburgh shouldn't have a baseball team so I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat hoping the Buccos would win but I did tune into a lot of baseball this season. 

In my time of watching baseball I have seen many things that absolutely perplex me. Baseball is the only sport where a fan can interfere with the game and get away with it. It just happened the other night. J.J. Reddick, Josh Reddick (sorry nobody knows the names of the Oakland players) tried to rob a home run in game 4 of the ALDS against Detroit and some goofball reached over the fence and tried to grab the ball. Now the evidence was inconclusive if Reddick would have actually been able to rob the ball, but it really looked like he had a chance to bring it back. 

On top of that MLB has an antiquated officiating system, extremely slow play and a plethora of other problems. Today I want to look at some of these issues and how silly they would be if they were in a different sport.

Slow Play, But It's Okay

Baseball is the only sport that doesn't have a game clock or set pace of play to it. You constantly see these batters put their hand up and step back after walking into the batter's box. Once you step into the batter's box you should have to stay there and bat. You shouldn't be allowed to walk around after every pitch, readjust your batting gloves, send a text message, etc. It's ridiculous. The pitcher does the same thing too, though. It adds so much time to the game. If baseball truly wanted to make their games quicker and more excited then this would be a rule. Once you're in the box you have to stay there the whole at-bat. Also, pitcher's can only toss the ball to a base twice without throwing a pitch to the plate. 

But Tim...that gives an unfair advantage to guys trying to steal.

No it doesn't. You don't need to throw the ball over to first base to stop a guy from stealing. Do it once if the guy is really lagging off the bag and you think you can get him. If not, throw to the batter and rely on your catcher to make a good throw. If you're that worried a guy is going to steal, pitch out to the catcher and have him toss it to the bag. You shouldn't get free roam of tossing it to your first baseman over and over. You should have to throw a ball to the batter and if the base runner presents that much of a threat. 

If you got the next batter up to the plate quicker, kept the pitches coming quicker and didn't have all of these extracurriculars going on after every pitch you could cut 30 minutes off a game. 

Other Sports Keep it Moving

NFL: Imagine if there wasn't a play clock in football. They could just mosey up to the line and a defensive player could just call infinite timeouts to adjust his cleats before Peyton Manning snapped the ball. 

NBA: How about we get rid of the five second inbound clock. Maybe we should allow players to hold the ball in the back court as long as they want. Shot clock? We don't need one of those. I want to see Miami beat Oklahoma City 21-15 and watch Russell Westbrook dribble for 22 minutes. Then we can start keeping pointless statistics like dribbles per half (DPH) time spent with the ball in your own backcourt (BCTPH) and a bunch of other great acronyms that the people in the stands sit there and keep track of with their kids. 

Let The Fans be More Involved

This is my favorite part of the MLB experience. If you are an outfielder chasing down a ball near the fence at most stadiums, you'll probably have some yahoo reaching over the fence to try to interfere with you. It should be interference but the rule is so ambiguous that even when we think it was broken, the umps don't know how to actually call it. I don't think I need to go on and on ranting about why Joe Schmo in the first row down the third baseline shouldn't be able to interfere with a player trying to catch a foul ball. Or do you not see a problem with that? Do I need to go on?

It's part of the game, Tim. The fans pay for those seats and they can't actually interfere with the athlete, they can just stand in his way and try to snatch the ball.

Oh yeah, there's nothing wrong with the fans interfering with games. Let's see what it would be like if they could interfere with other sports. 

NFL: I propose we start to allow fans to bring in kites, remote controlled helicopters and any other flying objects that could block a pass or kick. Yes, that sounds preposterous because the NFL doesn't give many opportunities for the fans to interfere with the game play.

NBA: Same thing goes for the projectiles in the stadiums. You want some pressure on that free throw. How about 150 fans are allowed to toss a football at the hoop at the same time you're shooting the FT? I'm fine with it. Maybe we promote the sideline fans to play defense occasionally. If you can intercept a pass with at least one foot out of bounds and you don't touch a player while you're defending it, it's a fair play. 

Soccer: Doesn't it make you laugh when that random streaker runs through a game over in Spain? I say we promote that. If you streak during a soccer game and can get the ball within 5 minutes of running onto the pitch, you get a penalty kick for whichever team you'd like. (Yes, I said pitch. I know soccer terminology.) 

Do I need to continue? I think you understand the point i'm making about these issues with baseball. The game is antiquated. It takes too long for a 9 inning game to be played. Several ALDS games went over 4 hours. None of which were extra inning games. They were 9 innings and over 4 hours. That's a half hour or more per inning. 

Along with this extremely long and boring process we call a baseball game is the fact that the audience can reach over the fence and touch a ball and get away with it. Add to that the fact that baseball doesn't know how to promote their stars. 

I enjoy baseball in small doses. I have to have something else to watch on another channel to flip back and forth because I don't want to see someone standing there for 8 minutes adjusting their gloves after every pitch. 

So, the reason I called this the Selig Fault is because he is old and out of touch. But, there is hope baseball. Selig announced that he is retiring after the 2014 season. To all of the people who are in control of choosing his replacement, please find someone hip and connected. Take someone who works under Roger Goodell or David Stern. Find a guy who will use technology like instant replay properly, someone who will take measures to speed up the game and make it more exciting, and someone who knows how to promote Yasiel Puig properly. That's what is needed baseball. That's what you must do. I wish you the best of luck!