It’s Opening Day for Major League Baseball and it is about time.
The season is a little late this year because the players held the league hostage with a labor strike. Their union, made of millionaires who individually negotiate their own individual contracts, collectively held out for more money. You know they have chefs in the clubhouse who cook for those guys, right? Were the choices at the omelet bar too few?
Anyways, that’s in the past. Now they are playing what is left of the game of baseball. The National League has now added the Designated Hitter to their lineups. That’s too bad. Of course, there is no excuse for why pitchers have become automated outs at the plate, but losing this aspect of the game is bad for baseball.
Shohei Ohtani is a wonderful exception. He’s like the best 12 year old on his Little League team. A lot of players came up playing more than one position, but as they grew they specialized into one position, which is bad for the athlete. Craig Biggio was another exception to today’s players. He played nearly every position in the Majors; that’s something I would like to see again.
Today, the players learn a hard, compact, uppercut swing that will either knock the ball out of the park, pull the ball to an expected defender, or result in a strikeout. So teams created “the shift,” a reasonable response to poor hitting. But now the league is likely to restrict defensive shifting, which is stupid. “The shift” leaves a portion of the field open for at least a push bunt. If a hitter knew how to use the entire field, then “the shift” would outlaw itself.
The pace of play a big concern for today’s league. The odd thing about that is baseball is a slow game. It takes time. There is no clock and it is the only sport where the offense does not relinquish possession after scoring. In baseball after one guy hits a grand slam, the next guy could very well knock the next pitch out of the park. No other sport has that dynamic.
The game slowed when starting pitchers could not make it into the 5th inning and every team now has a dozen relief pitchers. Constant pitching changes, higher scores, more homeruns, are going to make the game longer. If baseball wants to shorten the time length, then they need to look at the specific aspects that have made the game longer. Longer outings for starters, less relievers, more groundball outs, will shorten the game’s time.
The intentional walk rule is an embarrassment. Allowing a batter to have First Base on an intentional walk without throwing a single pitch is too Busch League for me to handle. I should never watch baseball again just because of that dumb rule. Every time a pitch is thrown the ball is put into play and therefore the task has to be performed. Just waving the guy to First does not put the ball in play. Basketball has a foul shot or “free throw,” but the player still has to make the shot. There are no gimmies in pro sports, except for pro baseball’s intentional walk rule. How sad is that? And watching an umpire inspect a pitcher after an inning is also an embarrassment. That needs to stop.
Hopefully this is just a bad phase. I seriously doubt the players union will ever give up the Designated Hitter because it keeps immobile players who can still hit employed, but maybe the other stuff will change. Today’s game ain’t the same. I suppose every generation makes a similar complaint, but no generation has seen this much change in the rules. I prefer day games, no DH, low scoring, great defense, and a long game. That’s baseball. MLB, please bring that back.
