Major League Baseball: 6 Changes That Need to Be Made

America's pastime is no longer America's favorite sport. The NFL has taken over that role thanks to concussion causing hits, high powered offenses and a regular season where Week 1 is just as important as Week 17.  And if the NBA can ever figure out how to run their business, they have enough young superstars and story lines to give Bud Selig and the rest of Major League Baseball a serious run for their money.

Now that the World Series is over, Major League Baseball needs to take action. They need to build on the momentum from the Fall Classic while baseball is still fresh in the fans' minds.  They need to think big. Drastic changes need to take place for the brand to begin to flourish once again.  The MLB is losing the casual fan while interest in the grand ol' game is weening and money is being lost. 

Each of the following six changes could stand on its own to improve the game.  They are needed for a multitude of reasons and would help make baseball more enjoyable. 

Some of the changes are predicated on the MLB admitting mistakes while others would be an overall improvement to the game. 

Limit the Number of Mound Visits from Players and Coaches During an Inning

Nothing slows down the pace of a game than a catcher coming out to talk his pitcher after every batter.  Baseball is a slow moving game that relies on a certain rhythm for pitchers, hitters and fielders. 

There are times when a mound visit is necessary.  They can be used to set a defense for a bunt play, change the indicator when there is a runner on second base, calm down the pitcher, buy extra time for the bullpen to finish getting ready and when the battery cannot agree on what pitch to throw.  All of these are perfectly valid reasons for the catcher or a coach to visit the mound, but they need to be capped.

Unless the manager is coming out to make a pitching change, mound visits from players and coaches need to be limited to one per inning.  Every team has a non-verbal sign that they can use to set their defense in a bunt situation or to set the indicator for the pitch. These things are worked on in spring training and should be reviewed before each game by the players and coaches. 

Limiting the number of trips to the mound will help increase how quickly innings will be played.  It keeps the natural flow of the game in tact which allows players to stay mentally active and not rest on the heels.   

Institute a Challenge System for Instant Replay

Sometimes the best way to make a change is to borrow an idea from someone else and make it your own.  With the growing number of inaccurate calls by baseball umpires, and the available technology to get the calls right, Major League Baseball needs to expound on their current instant replay system.

The NFL has a great model for MLB to follow in terms of setting up a system for instant replay.  Currently umpires can only review home run calls but home runs are not the only determining factors in games.

What Major League Baseball should do is something similar to the NFL.  For each game there should be an umpire in a booth/locker room in charge of reviewing all home runs.  That umpire should then relay to the crew chief whether the ball was fair/foul or over the wall/in play.  This could all be done by the time the batter circles the bases or the pitcher is ready to receive the sign from his catcher. 

The next step would be to give each manager a certain number of challenges to be used throughout the game.  These challenges would not be able to be used on balls and strikes.  They can be used to determine safe or out calls at all bases, whether a ball was fair or foul and whether a batter was hit by a pitch or not. 

Each manager would be allowed two challenges for a nine inning game.  For any extra inning games, the managers would receive one challenge to use regardless of how long the game lasts.  They would not be allowed to carry over any challenges. 

I understand that any changes that could possibly make a Major League Baseball game any longer in time will make most people cringe.  Baseball is a game that cannot be rushed.  One of the beauties of the game is the varying length of time it takes to play a game.

Instituting a replay system would increase the length of time of most games.  But what matters is not getting out of the game in under three hours, it's making sure that the right calls were made. 

Instant replay wouldn't be taking the human element out of the game, but would be improving it by allowing them to be human, admit a mistake and correct before it is too late... I think Armando Galarraga would agree.

Change the All-Star Game Back to an Exhibition

One of the worst decisions in the history of baseball was to make the All-Star game determine home-field advantage in the World Series. 

The decision to make this change came on the heels of the debacle in Milwaukee when the All-Star game ended in a tie.  In an attempt to garner favor with fans again, Major League Baseball and Fox put this gimmick in play with the marketing campaign "This time it counts." 

Commissioner Selig needs to realize he was wrong with this decision, admit his mistake and change this immediately.  Let the team with the better record have home field advantage during the World Series.  It should be their reward for being the better team over the grind of a 162 game season.

The All-Star game is already suffering in popularity due to interleague play and free agency.  The allure of seeing the best players from the other league has been erased by both and will never again be the same.  Trying to force it to be something that it should never be is not going to fix the problem. 

Today's players are not taking the game as serious as they should.  They would rather take the three days off to recoup from injury, rest and spend time with their families.  More and more baseball players are choosing not to play in the game, whether they were voted in by the fans or not, leaving less deserving and talented players the job of deciding which team will have an advantage in October. 

By continuing to let the winner of the All-Star game determine home field for the World Series, Major League Baseball is opening itself up to more criticism and reasons for doubt that the Commissioner's office is truly acting in the best interest of the game.

Get Rid of Interleague Play

Interleague play has been around since 1997 and will be year-round once the Houston Astros move to the American League in 2013.  The right move would be to get rid of interleague play altogether. 

When it was first introduced, interleague play was intriguing and exciting for fans.  It provided chances for fans to see teams in person that they might not ever be able to see.  Stadiums were sold out and the teams all made more money during those games. 

Two of the unexpected drawbacks to interleague play is the negative effect it has had on both the All-Star game and World Series.  One of the reasons the All-Star game was so special was because it gave fans a chance to see the star players from the opposing league in their ballpark. 

It used to be that American Leaguers like Cal Ripken, Jr. and George Brett and Kirby Puckett could only be seen by National League fans if their teams squared off in the World Series or through the All-Star game.  Now every Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres fan has had a chance to see Derek Jeter, Evan Longoria and Alex Rodriguez play thanks to interleague play. 

The World Series has also been hurt by interleague play for the same logic that has hurt the All-Star game.  Not counting spring training (because spring training games are useless for comparison), there is a chance that the two teams battling for the championship would have already played each other during the regular season, taking most of the excitement out of the series.

The World Series is meant to crown the champion of the long and arduous baseball season.  Part of the mystique surrounding the World Series is playing against a team and cheering against a fan base that you are not familiar with.  Once the anonymity of your opponent is gone the excitement surrounding the games suffers.

Ending interleague play would help restore the excitement and allure of both the All-Star game and World Series...something they both need and deserve.

Contraction

If Major League Baseball ever wants to start a fight with the player's union all they'll have to do is say one word: contraction.

The ugliest and most controversial word in the baseball vernacular isn't a foreign topic to the sport.  In 2002 the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos were all but gone until a Minnesota court injunction saved the day.  Montreal was eventually bought by Major League Baseball and moved to Washington D.C. and the Twins got a brand new stadium and have been a perennial AL Central contender.

One advantage of contraction by two teams would be an increase in talent on the field which would lead to better games being played.  Pitching has become watered down and defensive fundamentals are vanishing quicker than the Cardinals chances of resigning Albert Pujols.

By removing two teams from the mix you would then be able to have an even number of teams in each league.  This would eliminate the need for an unbalanced schedule and year-round interleague play (starting in 2013 when the Astros move to the American League).

The hardest decision when talking about contraction is which teams to choose.  You will anger and alienate an entire fan base and also will have to deal with which ever team's history you decide to contract. 

Below are a few teams that should be looked at for contraction with a brief explanation why:

Toronto Blue Jays: The only reason I can come up with for them to stick around is because they are the only team left in Canada.  Then again, because they are the only team in Canada is a good reason to contract them.  They also have not been a contender since they won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992-93 and have drawn just over 25 million fans since 2000. 

Oakland A's: About the only thing saving the A's from possible contraction is their possible move to a new stadium in San Jose.  Of course the Giants would have to sell their territorial rights to the land for that to happen. Since 2000 they have drawn just under 24 million and are best known for their "Moneyball" years which failed to produce a World Series winner. 

Tampa Bay Rays: This is the most deserving of any team in the history of sports to be contracted.  Despite being a yearly contender in the toughest division in baseball while never topping $72 million in payroll, they are consistently at the bottom of the sport in attendance.  They have drawn just over 19 million fans since 2000 and had to give away over 30 thousand tickets a couple seasons ago for their division clinching game.  The only teams with worse attendance numbers since 2000 are the Washington Nationals (too new to contract) and Florida Marlins (moving to a new stadium in 2012). 

Get a New Commissioner

Bud Selig was the acting commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1992-1998 and was formally named commissioner in 1998.  A lot has happened during Selig's 19-year reign over the game, with some of the events leaving a deep or permanent scar on the game.

The deepest and most hurtful event under Selig's watch was the explosion of steroid use throughout the game and an entire era being referred to as "The Steroid Era."  While his office was never officially connected to steroid use, it isn't hard to draw the parallel connecting the two. 

There was also the 1994-95 strike that saw the cancellation of the World Series for the first time since 1904 and made Major League Baseball the first professional sport to lose its entire postseason to a labor dispute. 

Some other black eyes during Selig's tenure as commissioner include the 2002 All-Star Game ending in a tie, changing the all-star game from an exhibition to the determining factor for home-field advantage during the World Series and the introduction of interleague play. 

For all of Bud Selig's poor decisions he did bring some good to the game.  The wild card and mixing up of divisions has made each season more exciting and he has introduced instant replay into the game.  These were much needed changes that came about on Selig's watch and the game is better for them.

However, despite these good ideas, Bud Selig has been left in power for too long.  Major League Baseball needs new leadership; someone with fresh thoughts and a new way of thinking to bring back fans and keep the game evolving. 

In order for baseball to experience this positive growth, Bud Selig needs to retire from his post as commissioner and allow baseball the chance to succeed by putting someone in charge that is more forward thinking.