How I Would Change Baseball

Baseball season is now underway. Watching a number of different games over the past few days got me thinking about what would happen if I were in charge (and of course if there were no Players’ Union, owners, or TV Networks to stop me).

Here is a list, in no particular order, of 20 things I would change about the sport.

1. I read the story about how the Yankees have three players who make almost as much money, if not more, than the entire Florida Marlins team. This is where I would start.

A few years back, MLB put in a salary cap of sorts with penalties for teams that go over it, however this has not slowed down spending at all.  I would increase the penalty for going over the cap, although keep it reasonable.

I believe in competitive balance, but also think that if teams want to invest their money in major league players, they should not be completely restricted from doing so.

2. I also acknowledge that it isn’t fair for the big market teams to basically pay for teams that are not even trying to spend money. I would therefore put in a minimum amount teams need to spend.  If teams wanted to spend less, that is fine, but the difference would come out of the money that teams receive in revenue sharing.

For example, if the minimum was $40 million and the Marlins decided to only spend $35 million on salary, and revenue sharing was $10 million per team, then the Marlins would only receive $5 million in revenue sharing.

3. It drives me crazy when I watch a National League game, and I see a team string together a few hits, only to see the other team pitch around the eighth batter, get to the pitcher, and then end the rally.

Sorry to the so-called purists who hate the DH, but I would have the DH in both leagues.

4. I don’t hate inter-league play, but there is way too much of it. Right now teams play six inter-league series per season. I would cut that down to four (for a total of 12 instead of 18 games).

I understand Yankees-Mets, Cubs-White Sox, Angels-Dodgers, Giants-A’s are all natural rivalries, but we would stop calling series such as Rockies-Twins natural rivalries.

5. I know this time it counts, but I have a crazy idea for how to determine home field in the World Series: best record.

6. I would ban the hockey-style catcher mask. For no other reason than I hate hockey.

7. Watching last night's Red Sox-A’s game, Jason Varitek hit a ball that appeared to be a home run, but none of the umpires saw where the ball hit the wall. Instead of guessing on home run calls, I would institute replay (and thinking about last year’s Rockies-Padres playoff game, for plays at the plate).

I hate the argument that this will slow down the game—it can’t take any more time than a manager arguing, umpires huddling and explaining to one manager what they are doing, then walking across the field and explaining to the other manager what happened.

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