Ten Ideas to Fix Baseball

I’ve been a baseball fan since the age of eight. I used to watch ballgames all the time, but I don’t as much anymore. When I do have a game on, it’s often background noise while I’m doing something else. It’s sad. I’m one fan, but the data shows baseball is in trouble with more than just me. Per Gallup, it’s dropped to third in popularity among U.S. sports fans. What’s worse is this Sports Business Journal report showing the average age of a baseball fan is fifty-seven. Basketball and soccer fans are on average in their early forties. Baseball needs to evolve to attract new and younger fans. I have ten ideas to fix baseball’s problems. Some of these will fail. It doesn’t matter. Evolution requires testing many different changes to see what works best. The first fix makes so much sense it should be in place today.

Fix 1: Pitch Clock

I caught a Phillies-Blue Jays Grapefruit League game this spring. Bryce Harper hit two homers, and nearly all nineteen runs came off the long ball. It should have been exciting. Instead, by the third inning the game was going so slowly I had to fight off boredom. Between pitches, batters fidgeted like a four-year-old sitting through a sermon and pitchers had all the urgency of a sloth at the DMV. It’s mind-boggling that this easy fix is still being debated. Twenty seconds between pitches is plenty. The average time it took to play nine innings last year was three hours. Checking out the always interesting Baseball Reference, that’s a full half hour longer than when Gallup last polled baseball as being more popular than football. Naysayers complain a pitch clock will only save ten minutes on average. Even those minutes are important, but increasing the action on the field is more so.

Fix 2: Time Outs

Rule changes implemented last year limited a manager to six mound visits without changing a pitcher per game. The Baseball Reference data shows the time of a nine-inning game went down by five minutes. I can’t find any definitive studies, but I’m guessing this rule helped. It needs to go further. Teams should be given a set number of time outs a game for pitching visits. These should include when a catcher strolls out to the mound for a chat. Perhaps there should be two classes of time out, like the NBA having a full and twenty-second variety. Stopping the action should come with a cost. Players won’t like it. Tough. I don’t like the fact I can’t stay awake to watch post-season games. Fixing what ails baseball will naturally ruffle feathers, but change always does.

Fix 3: Challenges for Balls & Strikes

Honestly, there’s no reason for a human umpire to call balls and strikes anymore. Umpire robots would do just fine. TV broadcasts display how a pitch should be called in real time. I am not in favor of removing the human element from the game though. Sports are about people, and humans need to be in charge. But teams should be given a small number of challenges per game for balls and strikes. Tennis is a good model. A player can challenge an in or out ruling five times a set. Fans in the stands get excited to see if the call was right or wrong as the replay shows on the jumbotron. Baseball can do something similar. Challenges just need to be quick. A few seconds and they are done. Five per game seem reasonable. When to use them will become a big part of a manager’s strategy.

Fix 4: Shorten the Season

Baseball in the snow should be a novelty. With the playoffs extending into late October and the season starting in March, it’s all too common. Worse for the league is that when football begins, their TV ratings can’t compete. 162 regular season games make it too easy to ignore many of them. Shortening the season will improve baseball’s relationship with their fans. Until 1962, the regular season was 154 games. It makes sense to at least go back to something like that. I also think teams need to schedule some doubleheaders. A two for one day is a good deal for the fans and serves to reduce the season calendar as well. I doubt that owners and players will get behind this due to lost revenue and lowered salaries, but keeping the game relevant serves their longer-term interests more.

Fix 5: Allow Ties in the Regular Season

Baseball is the only sport where fans will regularly leave when the game is still competitive. This is crazy. Fans should want to stay until the end, but when it’s not clear if the game will last another few minutes or a few hours, it’s hard to blame them for bolting. To their credit, baseball is at least trying a fix in the minors by starting the tenth with a runner on second base. I’m not a fan of the idea since it changes the fundamentals of the game too much. Personally, I think baseball just needs to come to grips with the fact that ties are fine. The regular season is long. Grinding out games is needless. Institute a points system like hockey or soccer to deal with the standings. Allow one extra inning to see if the game can be decided. If not, everyone can go home.

Fix 6: All Teams Play Each Other

Nearly half a team’s games are played within their division. The MLB loves the Yankees and Red Sox playing nineteen times a season, but having nineteen Orioles-Blue Jays matchups is the definition of “meh.” Interleague games are also a mess. Teams competing for a division title should have common opponents. Some teams have “natural rivals” they always play. This year the Yankees get to beat up on the hapless Mets for six games while the Red Sox have to face the newly loaded Phillies. The barrier between the two leagues was torn long ago. To fix the game, let’s take it down completely. Creating a schedule that works isn’t hard. Using a hypothetically shortened season:

Play each team in your division twelve times: 4 teams x 12 games = 48

Play the other teams in your league six times: 10 teams x 6 games = 60

Play each team in the other league three times: 15 teams x 3 games = 45

This plan still gives ESPN & FOX the chance to show Yankees-Red Sox games four or five times a season, which is more than enough for most of us in flyover country.

Fix 7: Create a Wild Card Series

Expanding the Wild Card to include two teams was a good idea. It keeps more teams in contention longer and gives fans Cinderella Stories to root for. The one game playoff needs to be revised though. Baseball is made for a series of games, and the Wild Card round should be a short one. I would make it a three-game series at the home park of the team with the better record. The first two games would be a doubleheader with a third the next day if needed. This scenario would be unfair to the team that wins since their next round opponent will be fresher. That opponent would be a division winner though, and playing a more balanced schedule makes them more deserving of the honor and the rest. I would be open to allowing ties during the first two games of the Wild Card and letting a team advance if it “wins” the double-header via a win and a tie. This would somewhat reduce the chance of a third game.

Fix 8: Focused Expansion

The NHL is expanding to thirty-two teams. It’s time for the MLB to do the same. They just need to be very picky about the towns that get them. Franchises can’t simply go to the new owner with the deepest pockets. Certainly, areas that are growing both in population and economically should be given preference, but as the MLB’s troubles in Florida have shown, chasing where people are moving is not enough. Other considerations about how baseball will be received are needed. Innovative ideas like putting a third team in New York ought to be explored. Thirty-two teams seem like an ideal number for the MLB to stick with for decades to come. Correctly placing the last two clubs is critical.

Fix 9: Publicize the Players

Kyler Murray was drafted in the first round by the Oakland A’s last year. He has the potential to be a great baseball star for a decade or more. Instead, he will likely be the first player drafted by the NFL this year. The choice probably wasn’t a hard one for him. The money he could make in both sports is likely equivalent, but the opportunities he will have to market himself as a starting quarterback are enormous. It’s hard to see how baseball can offer the same. Case in point is Mike Trout, who just signed a $430 million contract. In one recent poll, he was as recognizable to Americans as a reserve NBA forward. This is a massive problem. Trout himself is partially to blame. He avoids the spotlight and consciously doesn’t care about having his own brand. The league cannot use this as an excuse. They have to find a way to market him anyway. The NFL and NBA both have several household names. There’s no reason for the MLB not to as well.

Fix 10: Be Like the Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays are the most innovative team in baseball. Their opener strategy of starting a reliever in the first inning in many games shocked pundits with its success. The Rays also pioneered the defensive shift where fielders overwhelm the right side of the field when a left-handed hitter is up. Super-agent Scott Boras has complained that the shift unfair to his clients. The commissioner is talking about banning it. Boo-hoo. It’s a legitimate strategy. Try to beat it, don’t just legislate it away. Sadly though, most teams are afraid to try something different. The Rays with their small salaries have to do it to survive. They are changing the game while doing so. To fix baseball, the MLB needs to think the same way if they want to stay relevant in the years to come. If they don’t, I will weep the day the World Series shows up on ESPN 8 (The Ocho!).