5 Ideas to Improve Major League Baseball
Baseball is America's National Pastime.
It's the only sport known by the quote "The Boys of Summer." Bull Durham was voted by Sports Illustrated as the greatest sports movie ever. The Bad News Bears, Mantle and Maris, Babe Ruth, "we need a pitcher not an underwear snitcher", and "Take me out to the ball game", are all traditions of baseball in some way or another.
From the movies to the game itself, America's fascination with baseball has never waivered.
In the movie Major League with Charlie "Tiger Blood" Sheen, his bullpen intro to "Wild Thing" changed the game of baseball forever. From then on, all closing pitchers entered to their own theme music.
Recently, ESPN reported that Major League Baseball was considering realigning the teams and possibly getting rid of the division race in favor of just the pennant race. 15 teams all fighting for four or five postseason spots.
The move has been met with both criticism and optimism. As a baseball fan, I have my own set of ideas for improving the game I love so much.
No. 5: Shortening the World Baseball Classic from Four Years to Two Years
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The World Baseball Classic has become the World Cup for the game of baseball.
Nations become united and unknown players have made names for themselves on the national stage. Daisuke Matsuzaka helped lead Japan to the inaugural championship in 2005 and soon after, was highly courted by teams like the New York Yankees, New York Mets, and Texas Rangers, eventually signing with the Boston Red Sox.
The WBC has seen upsets like the Netherlands defeating the major league heavy roster of the Dominican Republic and Team USA coming back from 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth to defeat Puerto Rico.
Along the way, Japan has dominated the last two Baseball Classic, defeating rival Korea back in 2009, in a classic game ending in extra innings, with Ichiro coming through in the clutch.
The Baseball Classic has also given American fans a taste of just how celebrated the game of baseball is in other nations. The party-like atmosphere with the beating drums resemble more a soccer game than a baseball game, and it's refreshing to see the passion of fellow baseball fans.
No. 4: Change Up the All-Star Game Festivities
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Because of the way Major League Baseball has their 162 game schedule, most teams have scheduled off days on Monday and Thursdays, hence the short game schedule on those two days.
The All-Star festival usually begins on a Monday with the Home Run Derby, Celebrity All-Star game, the Futures game (Prospects), and on Tuesday, the All-Star game itself. A day off and the season kicks into high gear by Thursday.
A proposed change I would like to see Major League Baseball adopt is to allow for a longer break and more festivities during All-Star week.
Introducing a Rookies vs. Sophomore's game like in the NBA, would allow for lesser known rookies and upcoming players currently in the league to play on a national stage.
A shorter home run derby that featured 8-12 players with only 1 single elimination round followed by a title round would not only shorten the derby, but also allow hitters to remain fresh rather than tire out from three rounds.
Adding a skills set like hockey does would allow for more individual attention to be paid. A competition to see who can run a double the fastest or who can throw a baseball more accurately from the outfield to home plate could intrigue the baseball public.
No. 3: Shorten Season from 162 Games to 157 Games
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From 1920 to 1960, teams in the American League played in 154 baseball games. In the memorable 1961 season, the league approved a change to 162 games.
The following season, the National League moved to the 162-game season and this has been the norm for all Major League Baseball ever since.
The reason for the addition in games from 154 to 162 between 1961 and 1962 was that Major League Baseball added four new teams to the mix, the Twins, Colt .45s (Astros), Mets and Angels.
With the 162-game schedule change, every team played each other in their own division a total of 18 times a year.
The schedule and divisions were even, and the best team always won.
Instead now, the schedule is division heavy with teams meeting 18 times a year. Interleague play allows for AL teams (14 total teams) to play 18 interleague games while in the NL (16 total teams), five teams can play 18 games, ten teams can play 15, and one team can play only 12 interleague games.
In the end, you are left with a completely unbalanced schedule.
If baseball were adopt a plan similar to that of the NHL and NBA which allowed for every single team to play each other, then you would end up with the No. 2 reason.
No. 2: Realignment of the Divisions
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Recently there has been a strong push for realignment in baseball. Most critics, writers, and baseball fans alike agree that something must be done.
Take for example the AL West and NL Central.
In the AL West, there are only four teams, the Mariners, Angels, Rangers and A's. In the NL Central, there are six squads, the most of any division in Major League Baseball.
Despite having 30 total squads in the game today, the reason for the 14 teams in the American League and 16 in the National League is to allow for all the teams to play on a single day.
A squad like the Astros have to out-duel five other teams, the Rangers have to be better than only three.
The simplest way to realign the divisions would be to go to 5 teams per division and a 15-15 total for teams in both the AL and NL. Common sense and geography says to move the Astros to the AL West, being that their fellow interstate rival, the Rangers play in Dallas and also play in the AL West.
To solve the issue of having odd numbered teams not being able to play due to lack of interleague schedule, this too can be solved in a very simple way.
No. 1: Full Time Interleague Play
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Opening Day is probably the most iconic and memorable sports event in the game today.
It is the symbol of a new season, a new hope, and is considered to be a national holiday to baseball fans, and what better way to celebrate Opening Day with interleague rivals.
Rather than seeing the Yankees open the new season facing the Indians or Royals, why not allow for a New York-New York opening day matchup? Or how about Oakland and San Francisco, St. Louis and Kansas City, Texas and Houston, or Chicago vs. Chicago.
Opening Day is memorable, so why not allow it to become legendary with interleague that pit geographical teams against each other?
Furthermore, full time interleague evens out the schedule to my proposal of shortening the season to 157 games instead of the 162 currently played.
Here's how interleague along with division realignment (Astros to the AL West) play factors in:
Take the Boston Red Sox for example. Shorten their 18-game series against their own division to 13 games good for 52 total games. Boston would then play the remaining 10 teams in the American League a total of 60 games (each team six times, three at home, three on the road).
Boston now has played 112 total games against their own League. The remaining 45 games would then be split with one three-game series against the entire National League.
The plan would allow for every single team to play each other every year, with NL and AL teams alternating yearly between home and road.
In the end, five less games to the current schedule would allow for more parity in the game of baseball and would allow for fairness across the board regarding some teams playing more or less interleague games.
