(Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on rekindling interest in baseball.)
In last week’s column, we laid out some of the big problems facing major league baseball, and its fans: 1) Games take too long, and 2) players keep jumping from team to team so it is hard to know who is on a roster from year-to-year and root for the team (and individual players). This week, we touch on some simple solutions.
To keep players from jumping ship (whether being pushed or pulled) is the harder problem to solve because the model in almost all pro sports has become “win yesterday” and “money makes it happen.” Not really.
Championships come about through a combination of factors, particularly team chemistry. The support managers show for players who slump and the ways that the members pick each other up, play jokes and challenge their teammates to excel all combine into a winning equation. Culture makes that happen, just like in corporations, and it doesn’t happen overnight.
It takes years to build, with leadership from the top, and engagement from the bottom, and the right incentives. Maybe, just maybe some of the financial incentives for players should be tied to sacrifice bunts, double plays turned and bases backed up to prevent over-throws – all of which demonstrate that little extra something you give for your team.
Those are simplistic examples, certainly, but I’m confident a supremely intelligent General Manager could figure out appropriate ways to drive culture through a combination of financial incentives and “team” goals rather than just individual ones. That would help keep people around because they’d “want” to play for your franchise rather than solely seeking out the highest pay or biggest market, like New York.
It would not be perfect because no system ever is, but you’re starting to see teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles achieve success by building up their farm systems and keeping their players more connected as a unit to each other. The extra time makes payoff more sweet.
Game length and dead zones within each contest are a bigger issue though. Games take too long. And, within the game, there are too many moments of dawdling and delays that lead to distraction. Case in point is a batter stepping out of the box repeatedly, or the pitcher shaking off signals from the catcher, or throwing to first base three consecutive times. Each of these activities bore us. They don’t add anything to the game.
Beyond that, we have managers setting “matchups,” bringing in a left-handed pitcher to face a lefty batter, a right-hander to face a righty, sometimes making several moves an inning. Each relief pitcher has to come in from the bullpen, warm up, and then have a nice little chat with the pitching coach and his infield before he hurls the first pill. It’s ridiculous. So here’s what to do:
1. For any given batter, a pitcher can only throw to first base once; every other time is an automatic “ball” for the batter.
2. Play six outs per inning so there is less time transitioning the players on the field.
3. A batter may step out of the box once during any given “at bat.” After that, any time he does that, it’s an automatic strike on him.
4. From the time the pitcher gets the ball from the catcher he has xxxx (Major League Baseball can fill in this number) seconds to pitch or it is an automatic “ball.”
5. Home run derby for tie games. Think of the excitement.
6. A relief pitcher must face at least three batters once he enters the game.
Forward this column to the Major League Baseball Commissioner. All these changes are simple and easily implemented. Then we can move onto the next issues of the season being too long and the games on late at night, so our kids can’t watch them. That will take some more thinking.
In last week’s column, we laid out some of the big problems facing major league baseball, and its fans: 1) Games take too long, and 2) players keep jumping from team to team so it is hard to know who is on a roster from year-to-year and root for the team (and individual players). This week, we touch on some simple solutions.
To keep players from jumping ship (whether being pushed or pulled) is the harder problem to solve because the model in almost all pro sports has become “win yesterday” and “money makes it happen.” Not really.
Championships come about through a combination of factors, particularly team chemistry. The support managers show for players who slump and the ways that the members pick each other up, play jokes and challenge their teammates to excel all combine into a winning equation. Culture makes that happen, just like in corporations, and it doesn’t happen overnight.
It takes years to build, with leadership from the top, and engagement from the bottom, and the right incentives. Maybe, just maybe some of the financial incentives for players should be tied to sacrifice bunts, double plays turned and bases backed up to prevent over-throws – all of which demonstrate that little extra something you give for your team.
Those are simplistic examples, certainly, but I’m confident a supremely intelligent General Manager could figure out appropriate ways to drive culture through a combination of financial incentives and “team” goals rather than just individual ones. That would help keep people around because they’d “want” to play for your franchise rather than solely seeking out the highest pay or biggest market, like New York.
It would not be perfect because no system ever is, but you’re starting to see teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles achieve success by building up their farm systems and keeping their players more connected as a unit to each other. The extra time makes payoff more sweet.
Game length and dead zones within each contest are a bigger issue though. Games take too long. And, within the game, there are too many moments of dawdling and delays that lead to distraction. Case in point is a batter stepping out of the box repeatedly, or the pitcher shaking off signals from the catcher, or throwing to first base three consecutive times. Each of these activities bore us. They don’t add anything to the game.
Beyond that, we have managers setting “matchups,” bringing in a left-handed pitcher to face a lefty batter, a right-hander to face a righty, sometimes making several moves an inning. Each relief pitcher has to come in from the bullpen, warm up, and then have a nice little chat with the pitching coach and his infield before he hurls the first pill. It’s ridiculous. So here’s what to do:
1. For any given batter, a pitcher can only throw to first base once; every other time is an automatic “ball” for the batter.
2. Play six outs per inning so there is less time transitioning the players on the field.
3. A batter may step out of the box once during any given “at bat.” After that, any time he does that, it’s an automatic strike on him.
4. From the time the pitcher gets the ball from the catcher he has xxxx (Major League Baseball can fill in this number) seconds to pitch or it is an automatic “ball.”
5. Home run derby for tie games. Think of the excitement.
6. A relief pitcher must face at least three batters once he enters the game.
Forward this column to the Major League Baseball Commissioner. All these changes are simple and easily implemented. Then we can move onto the next issues of the season being too long and the games on late at night, so our kids can’t watch them. That will take some more thinking.