All players—whether after high school or college, or from outside the United States—must go through the draft, giving more than just the rich teams chances to have talented international players.
14. I know teams like to host opening day, but if at all possible, I would restrict opening series from taking place in cold, outdoor stadiums.
15. Out of respect to one of my favorite web sites, firejoemorgan.com, I would have press credentials taken away from any reporter who writes a story about how gritty David Eckstein is, about how tough Darren Erstad is because he punted at Nebraska, or about how someone who knows what OPS means and plays fantasy baseball must live in his parents’ basement.
Not only are all these articles terrible, but they have been written 500 times already.
16. I would fire any umpire who, during an argument with a player or manager, acted in a way to incite the player or manager. I am not a fan of Larry Bowa; in last night’s game he was out of control. But while members of the Dodgers attempted to pull Bowa away and into the dugout, the umpire could be seen trying to get around Joe Torre to get back at Bowa.
This is unacceptable. You can’t touch an umpire, you can’t scream at an umpire. If you do, you will be kicked out of the game and maybe fined and suspended.
The umpires have the power—they shouldn’t also be inciting the situation.
17. I would end the relationship between MLB and Stubhub.com and ban any team from partnering or selling advertising with online ticket brokers. The only way this can happen is if MLB forces these online brokers to limit the amount of money a ticket can sell for (maybe no more than twice face value).
If MLB wanted to, they could do this. The Music Industry pays lawyers to do nothing but monitor TV, radio, and movies to make sure songs are not being used without permission. Baseball and the teams, if they cared, could monitor these web sites to at least try to help average fans get to more games.
18. I’d get rid of the Gold Glove award. It is clear those voting are guessing and voting on nothing more than reputation a majority of the time.
19. Fire any announcer who talks about how much better the old days were when pitchers would throw at batters who watched home runs. Watching a home run may be obnoxious at times, but I’d much rather see that than watch a guy get hit in the head with a fast ball.
20. Lastly—and I hope we can all agree with this one—I would not only kick out any fan talking on a cell phone while waiving wildly when sitting behind home plate, I would ban that person from all future baseball games.
And if I could, I would sentence these people to be my butler.
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