Since my favorite MLB baseball team is doing so badly this year, I’ve started to lose interest in watching professional baseball. It’s not fun to watch your team lose. As a result, I’ve brainstormed some ideas to make the game better.
The season is too long! 162 regular season games per team is just too much. Sure, it makes for better statistics, but modern man/woman doesn’t have the attention span for it anymore.
- Get rid of inter-league play. This is debatable because I like inter-league play, but it seems unnecessary. Let each league fight it out against each other and then the best team from each league can play for the championship.
- Have one 3 game series against each team in your league per season. That reduces the number of games to 45 (for the NL) and the best teams will still float to the top.
- Shorten the playoffs. There are up to 19 games played per team in the playoffs (including the World Series). Why not let a 3 game series determine each playoff round? That seems sufficient enough to me to determine who should move on.
- Shorten the World Series to 3 games, or maybe 5. The Superbowl is so popular because it’s one game on one specific day each year. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s ridiculous that a champion is determined by a single game, but a 7 game series drags on and you don’t know what day the winner will be determined.
How about if we stray from tradition to make the game more interesting?
- NL: Either teach pitchers how to hit or use the DH. I tend to fast forward when a pitcher bats.
- Change up the pitching rotation. What’s so great about having 5 starters, 3-4 middle relievers, and a closer? Why not have 10 pitchers who throw 2-3 innings each when appropriate?
- Change up the batting order. I don’t have a suggestion here, but the batting order across all teams seems set in stone. Power hitters at the 3-4-5 spot, weak hitters in the 7-8 spot, pitcher in the 9 spot, etc. I’m not convinced that this is always the best way.
- Don’t even think about instant replay. The human factor is one thing that baseball has going for it. There are bad calls here and there, but it all works out in the end. Who doesn’t enjoy watching a manager get ejected over a bad call?
- Promote the players more. Why wasn’t Lance Berkman or Chipper Jones all over the front page during their amazing hitting streaks? Bret Favre is a superstar because he’s a good quarterback. Everyday people should be excited about the prospect of seeing Chase Utley or Hanley Ramirez play baseball.
That’s all I’ve got. Baseball is still the greatest sport on earth, but I fear that non-hardcore fans will eventually lose interest in the new, fast moving world.
