ESPN: Feedback on MLB-changing proposals

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7505635/feedback-mlb-changing-proposals

Articles like this can sometimes provide a few nuggets of interesting discussion, but for the most-part they're simply a complete time-suck. Something I typically read during my lunch hour as I huddle over a pile of leftovers at my desk.

How to improve the game of Major League Baseball? Well, geeze, there are a couple that I can completely understand implementing.

More instant replay is bandied about more often than most things when it comes to suggesting changes for MLB, but I'd argue more for implementing challenges for each Manager, akin to those used in the NFL.

Instant replay beyond its current form in MLB would open a whole can of worms. Maybe it's a total cop-out and completely lazy to say, "leave it the way it is, it's tradition," but instant replay's use is a slippery slope. Where would it stop? If there's one thing MLB is guilty of more than any other sport, it's the amount of subjective interpretation that it's chock full of. Are we going to replay every call the home plate ump makes? Hell, no. And having the element of human error enter into the mix only adds to the drama. Especially when they pop-on the silly television broadcast strike zone boxes with the color-coded pitch-by-pitch splatter chart. TV loves that stuff. They're not going to drop it.

But I'm all for each manager receiving the right to challenge one or two plays a game. But no silly red streamers that they tuck in their stripped socks. They have to throw their ball cap down on the diamond. Or break a bat over their knee. Then they take a look at the replay in the booth.

The other thing that I can see doing away with is the mandatory throwing of pitches during an intentional walk. That's just silly. I've never understood it. Yeah, perhaps there's the off-chance that the pitcher completely miffs it and sends one to the backstop, bringing in a runner. But I thought that was lame, too. You're deciding to take a pass on the hitter, but could then get boned another way? Just simplify the process: 1) let the home ump know you want to take the intentional walk and 2) batter takes first base. Done.

And it has nothing to do with saving time for me. It's that it's stupid. Why have to go through the motions? Pitch counts? Who cares? Dudes left and right were juiced on 'roids for the better part of two decades. I think that trumps many things.

More than any performance enhanced shenanigans, the one thing that seems to catch more ire from media types is the sheer length of ball games. Who cares? What else do you have to do? If you don't like it, go back to the episodes of "The Bachelorette" on your DVR.

Most of the time-saving suggestions in the article link above seem to me like proposals put forward simply for the thrill of garnering knee-jerk reactions.

Dropping an inning and ending at 8? Whatever. Do you want to drop an entire quarter from NBA games? Or how about no half-times or period intermissions? Those seem like a colossal wastes of time in comparison. Nine innings are part of the game. What a silly suggestion.

How about the suggestion for a minimum amount of batters that a relief pitcher must face? Um, guess we should just throw in that anyone in the starting line-up should also have a minimum amount of at-bats prior to a pinch hitter, too. What's the use of strategy? Why don't we also make running backs and wide receivers stay in for every down, too? Lame suggestion.

Overall, most of the suggestions to change the game seem to circle back to the running time of MLB games.  A Google search just now tells me that the average length of a game clocks in at just under three hours. Really, three hours is too long for you? That's less time than most NFL games, which Google also says is just over three hours.

I just don't get the reasoning behind it. Is it the result of our Tivo-driven expectations that everything should be instantaneous? That anything worth our attention should be over in thrity-second increments?

If you don't like the running time, put something else on your TV. If you don't like it when watching it in-person, why are you there?