How To Fix Baseball

Baseball has never been more popular, if you measure it by gross revenues. Local TV revenues are soaring, and teams are flush with cash. Nevertheless, there are trouble signs on the horizon. Games are interminably long, there are too many home runs and strike outs, and not enough base-running. Relief pitchers are beginning to dominate the game. Fewer young people are watching, the game is boring in the age of exploding entertainment options.

So, I have a few modest proposals for how to fix baseball. I doubt the powers that be would consider many of them, but they should! Here they are:

1.     Move the fences back. There are too many home runs and not enough doubles and triples. Do it now where possible, and create bigger parks over time.
2.    Go to electronic pitch calling behind the plate. The modern pitch tracking technology is very accurate. I’ll bet the umps miss at least 15% of ball/strike calls. The systems would not replace the umpires, who would still be needed to manage the game and call plays on the field. They would be given a buzzer to signal the pitch call, which they would call out as usual. There would be much resistance to this, but it would really enhance the integrity of the game. Missed ball/strike calls are a huge factor that is rarely given the attention it deserves.
3.    Limit rosters to 11 (or 10) pitchers. This would be one way to reduce the increasing dominance of relief pitchers. Test a rule that an incoming pitcher has to face at least 2 (or 3) batters.
4.    Limit the number of times the batter can step out of the box to two. If necessary, put the pitchers on a pitch clock. The game has to be played faster; go back and watch a game from the 60’s, it is clear that it is a much more entertaining game when it is played faster.
5.  Get rid of the designated hitter. It was a bad rule when it was created, and it’s no better now. The game is better when there is strategy around having a pitcher in the line-up. And players should have to play if they are going to hit.
6.    If a game goes into extra innings, go to 3 balls and 2 strikes per batter. This would speed up the games and create an interesting experiment to see how it would work for entire games.
7.    Get rid of the infield fly rule. It’s sort of an artificial element, and having teams try to turn double plays, or avoid double plays, is fun to watch.
8.    With the late season call-ups, limit rosters to 28 players. Going to 40 players is a complete distortion of the game from the rules of the regular season.
9.    Phase out artificial turf. It’s an abomination.
10.   Shorten the season, make the wild card play-offs three games. Play fewer intra-division games (19 is too many), and more intra-league games.