You know, as a sports fan, I have always yelled and screamed at those in authority over sports leagues about everything from rules to rulings; from playoffs to pay scales. It got me to wondering what would happen if I were to clone myself (good thing for you ladies, everyone else not so much) 3 times and run the four major sports. Over the next month (hiatus pending), I will give you my take on how I would run the four major sports. I'll kick things off with America's Pastime. With the young talent we have in the game today, its a shame that we got a patsy running it all in Bud Selig. He doesn't know what to do about Pete Rose, can't figure out how to end an All-Star game, and is so scared of steroids, he has to turn to a disgruntled Senator from Pennsylvaniato help him out. Well, move over Selig, Commissioner Vincent Fay Anderson is here to save the day with my 8 Baseball Amendments.
1) Thou Shalt Move The Brewers Back to the AL and send the Royals to the AL West
I compare inter-league play to a high school dance, except this dance has too many boys and not enough girls. We all know what happens in the end, the two dudes who got the shaft sit and chat about what's wrong with the world. That's how it is with Inter-league play. The NL Central always ends up with one of their teams playing someone within the league while everyone else sees new stars and stadiums. By sending the Brew Crew back to their AL roots, you have balanced divisions which will lead to balanced scheduling (more on that later). But I know you're thinking, you got the Brewers in AL, but where do they play and who goes out west. Well, the Royals makes the most geographical sense (other than Houston) plus they deserve a chance to win so we ship them out west and plug the Brewers in their place in the AL Central
2) Thou Shalt Have Balanced Scheduling
The saying goes "So easy, even a caveman can do it." Well, send the caveman this formula and we'll talk.
16 Games vs Division Opponent (4 Teams=64 Total)
8 Games vs Other Teams in League (10 Teams=80 Total)
18 Inter-league Games (12/15 vs Selected Division, 3/6 vs Natural Rival)=162 Games
3) Thou Shall Not Have All-Star Game Decide Home-Field in World Series
No alternating hosting between the leagues either. If you have the best record at the end of the season, you EARN the right to have home-field through the World Series. If we're gonna put some much emphasis on the regular season, then stop deciding home-field for a Game 7 in an glorified exhibition game.
3) Thou Shall Have A Salary Cap....
Could you imagine if the Royals or Marlins had a payroll like the Yankees??? Yes, it's a crazy idea, but if other leagues can have a salary cap, what makes baseball above it? It's simple, start it off with each team having a $120 million dollar cap and then you increase it (or decrease it) each season based on a series of factors. You go over the cap, you get docked 10 percent of your teams total cap amount. No need for Steinbrenner to spend his money on all the overrated superstars.
4) Thou Shall Start Opening Day on the Same Day
5 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Tyler Heun about 1 year ago
Loved the article Might be my favorite article so far I've read on this site. I agree with everything you have said, unfortunately for me you beat me to the punch as I was going to write an article like this in the next week!
Only disagreemet (kind of) is on replay. You can't have replay on every play. Or else you'd argue strikes, balls, out at first vs safe, etc... I think replay should be only allowed on home runs, plays at the plate, or balls hit down the line with runners on base. That's it. This would be maybe one replay per game on average, vs 10 if you could argue everything.
Best point you made: GET MILWAUKEE OUT OF THE NL CENTRAL!!! It isn't fair on the NL central to have that many teams.
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Victor Anderson about 1 year ago
I will address that in due time, but to give you my general thoughts on it. Replay would be limited to the following: Home Runs, Catches in the outfield, Fair/Four plays down the like. THAT'S IT!!! You don't want to give too much power to the booth yet you don't want to make the umpires have to worry about more than they have to deal with. I do appreciate the complement about this being one of your favorite articles you've read so far. I'll revamp my MLB thoughts within the next week or so.
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Greg Adams about 1 year ago
Commissioner Anderson: Any thoughts on expanding to 32 teams or contracting to 28? Fifteen teams in each league means an AL team vs. NL team every series throughout the year.
Regardless of what you say, you're still doing a whole heckuva a lot better than the last clown we had...
Another quick question, Commish: Let's use the DH in both leagues or not at all. I'm personally not a fan of the DH, but would rather both leagues use it than just one. I actually think it creates an unfair advantage in the World Series, slight as the advantage may be. AL teams have to sit a productive hitter on the road and NL teams aren't constructed to use one the whole year except for a couple interleague series.
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Victor Anderson about 1 year ago
Thanks for the reply Greg!!! To be honest, when I thought about moving the Brewers, the fact that we would have interleague every week didn't cross my mind so thanks for mentioning that. Right now, I would be leaning towards contraction with the Rays being fused with the Marlins and ending the Nationals. I'll post more about that when I revamp my article next week. The DH is something that I will strongly think about this weekend and I'll get back to you on that as well. Again, thanks for the support
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Michael Brown about 1 year ago
Greg's right- 15 in each league leaves out an odd team every series, thus interleague play would have to happen continuously throughout the season.
Also, FOX is network TV, and they have a game every Saturday afternoon at 4 eastern. TBS (not network, but is included in most basic cable packages) has a game every Sunday. ESPN (again, not network, but millions of viewers) shows at least three games a week.
Finally, a salary cap hasn't prevented owners with fat wallets from spending in the NBA. When the Celtics beefed up their roster with Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, they went over the cap by $6 million. The result? They happily write the NBA a $6 million luxury tax check, and precede to win at least the Eastern Conference. The other problem with a salary cap- if owners don't spend their money on players, then they make ridiculous profits and keep them. Henry, Lucchino, and Werner (Sox owners) would be a hell of a lot richer if they couldn't re-invest profit in talent. With a salary cap, they won't charge less for tickets; they'll make more money for themselves. Plenty of teams with low payrolls experience success (Rockies anyone?, or half of the Twins teams from the last decade? what about the '97 and '03 Marlins? The Indians, who tied for baseball's best record last year?). Besides, who is in last place in the AL East right now? The Yankees! It's June, and the team with the highest payroll is in last in their division.
Drug testing is mandatory. But why are you so quick to ban users from baseball? Hell, if it weren't for steroids, MLB would be in the same spot the NHL is in right now - unimportant. Steroids put sluggers and flame-throwers on the field, which put fans in the stands. If you were commish in the 90's and steroids started to become rampant, you'd be foolish to stop it (from a business perspective). The McGwire/Sosa race made people care again. If I were commish, I'd let it go on, so long as players weren't overdoing it (i.e., Bonds, Giambi, Clemens). It brings excitement to the ballpark.
I'm on the fence about whether or not the ASG should decide home-field; while it is an exhibition, one could argue records are relative. In a given year, the AL could be much stronger than the NL, and 100 wins in the NL could be easier to get than 90 wins in the AL.
On the whole, you bring up good points.
I'm a diehard Pats fan, and I can't wait for the NFL article.
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