Baseball isn’t broke, Patrick Smith writes, but there is one thing it could do without.
Tom Matlack has some ideas about how to fix baseball.
Do something about those wacky salaries, he says. Then baseball will be interesting again. Tie a player’s paycheck to his performance. And give the World Series champs $1 billion.
Well, OK. But while we’re at it, let’s put a team on the moon. Because that would be A) awesome and B) just about as likely as incentive-based salaries and a ten-figure World Series prize. These fix ideas simply aren’t realistic. How come? Because nobody in baseball wants them.
The players don’t. Their association, which is very much not a union, has leverage like no other players group in sports. Last week, in the going-nowhere NBA labor talks, the commissioner pointed his finger at one of the league’s marquee players, who promptly yelled at him and walked out. Nobody in baseball sneezes without asking the players association.
And the owners don’t want those fixes either. Because baseball ain’t broke. Sure, some of the owners would like to see a salary cap, to save them from themselves. But they keep signing left-handed set-up men to bazillion-dollar deals. If baseball wanted to surpass the NFL in the hearts and wallets of America, it would figure out how to install a salary cap. But it won’t, so let’s not discuss it further.
And anyway, who cares what the players make? You’re not paying them. I mean, sure, a piece of your ticket money and your hat money and your cable TV money winds up with Albert Pujols. But so what? You think your cable bill would be lower if Alex Rodriguez didn’t make $32 million this year?
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The game doesn’t need to be saved. It needs an adjustment.
If there’s anything wrong with baseball, it’s the relentless sameness of the games, night after night. When baseball discovered that television needed more than just sporting events to offer viewers, it jerry-rigged the schedule so that the Yankees would play the Red Sox 19 times a year.
Yep. Nineteen times. Awesome, right? The “unbalanced schedule” meant that each team would play the teams within its own division 19 times per season, cutting down on travel expenses and fostering inter-city rivalries.
Well, for every BOS@NYY on the schedule, there’s a KCR@CLE and a PIT@HOU. And nobody wants to watch the Royals play the Indians or the Pirates play the Astros 19 times in one season.
For that matter, not many people really want to watch Boston and the Yanks that many times. In 2001, Major League Baseball, still high off the fumes of interleague play, instituted the current schedule. And 10 years later, the jury has returned a verdict: it’s boring.
If I wanted to watch the Blue Jays 19 times a year, I’d move to Toronto.
So, even if it comes at the expense of the most holy interleague play, let’s rejigger the schedule and spread things around a little. Broaden those horizons, people!
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Here’s another fix. But if I’m honest with myself, it’s about as likely to happen as Tom Matlack’s ideas. Still, here goes.
No more designated hitter.
Let’s just admit it—the DH is over. Sure, we had some laughs. And we’re grateful for Edgar Martinez and Harold Baines and Vladimir Guererro and Jim Thome. But the DH feels like polyester pants and orange shag carpet: way out of date.
Did you watch game 2 of the Diamondbacks-Brewers American League Division Series on Sunday? I hope you did. With the score tied at 4 in the sixth inning, Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy came to the plate with one out and teammates at first and third.
In the American League, the batter would’ve tried to hit one into the parking lot. Or at least a fly ball long enough to score the runner. What wouldn’t happen in the AL is a squeeze bunt. Bunts are rare in the American League, since each lineup contains an extra slugger.
But Sunday in Milwaukee, Lucroy put down a perfect squeeze bunt to the right side. It was a work of art. Jerry Hairston bolted home from third with the eventual winning run. If you didn’t see it, you really missed something.
More of that, please. As a fan of American League team, it’s a treat to get to watch the management machinations that happen in the late innings of an NL game. Making your pitcher bat affects everything—how long your starting pitcher stays in, where the power hits in the order, who comes up next inning, all of it. It’s why National League managers have to think a couple innings ahead all the time.
Baseball needs to give its fans more credit. Fans don’t need “story lines” and gimmicks. Just give us the game.
Maybe there was a time in life when we only wanted ice cream and candy. But our palates are more refined now. We understand subltelty, beauty. and nuance. Give us organic baseball.
—Photo Flickr/Homini