…but 1st please make these 5 changes!

Like many Toronto and Canadian sports fans, I have caught Blue Jay fever. I’ve always been a baseball fan. Grew up cheering for both the Expos and Blue Jays and even played Little League for a couple of years, but I was an awful baseball player, couldn’t hit. I was a much better soccer player:)!

In the past couple of months with the Blue Jays being in first place, I thought that I had to do more than just watch the highlights of the previous night’s game. I had to start watching some games. This was easier said than done since I don’t have cable. Ah yes, cable TV, the last bastion of stupidity for media consumers! Let’s face it, if it weren’t for live sports, cable TV would have been dead a long time ago.

I discovered though that if I purchased a subscription to MLB.tv, I could circumvent cable and watch blue jay games direct from the internet. So far, I’ve seen 2 full games and it has been fun! I can’t remember the last time I watched a full baseball game from beginning to end – it might be as much as 10-15 years ago. I think it’s because of this extended layoff that I have noticed some things that annoy me about the game and I’m so confused why MLB has not made these changes…

1. Get rid of the umpire behind the plate. A computer can call balls and strikes and get it right every time. I’m dumbfounded that the baseball purists have no reasonable argument for that umpire to keep his job. They’re human, they’re inconsistent and incorrect often (according to the TV coverage’s little batter box on the screen). Why should batters and pitchers need to get used to a particular umpire’s strike zone? Is the game about featuring the players or the umpires?

2. Ban visits by the catcher, pitching coach, and/or manager to the pitcher within an inning. Or at least give them just one to have within a game, like the 1-timeout rule in hockey.

3. Put a timer on the max. amount of time the pitcher has to throw a pitch. Should it really take 10-15 seconds to throw a pitch? 5 seconds is plenty. Put a time limit on them (like in curling) and if they go over it, then treat it like a balk rule…runner get’s to advance to the next base.

4. If you do #3, then the batter should never be allowed to call time and step out of the batter’s box.

5. Pitchers coming in from the bullpen need a time limit and they only need 3 pitches max. warmup to get used to the new mound. They’ve only been in the bullpen warming up for the last 15 minutes beforehand!

I’m sure there’s more they could do but this would be a good start. Don’t get me wrong, I love baseball’s unique character. I’m confident these changes wouldn’t effect that. And meanwhile, it would allow us people with a life to still enjoy the game in a timely fashion.

photo taken by Arturo Pardavila III [cropped]