How to fix baseball

Baseball was once known as America's favorite pastime, but those days are long gone.  Attendance and revenue numbers may be up again this year, but the popularity of the sport has been dwindling compared to previous generations.  Last year's World Series between the Rangers and Giants had one of the lowest TV ratings numbers in league history.  You can't blame that all on the Yankees and Red Sox being absent from the event, as Dallas and San Francisco rank as the 5th and 6th largest TV markets in the country.  Add in the fact that the country has a much higher population and many more households that own television sets compared to previous generations, and it's mind boggling that these numbers are not higher. 

There are things that MLB can do to improve it's product and help increase it's popularity.  There are many ideas out there on how to improve the game, some of which could work, others of which may not.  Here are a few ideas that could help the game of baseball.

1. Shorten the regular season to 148 games
Part of what separates baseball from other sports is that teams play far more games in a season.  The grueling 162 game schedule isn't just tough on the players, it's tough on the fans.  By the end of the season, many casual fans have tuned the game out due to the fatigue of following their favorite team on a nightly basis for the better part of 6 months.  By the time the postseason rolls around, many people have had enough.  If their favorite team isn't still contending in October then many fans have turned away from watching baseball.  With the NFL season in full swing by then, there are other alternatives to occupy their time instead. 

The solution is to chop off the last two weeks of the season, allowing the postseason to begin in mid-September instead of October.  A 148 game season is more bearable for fans, as well as players.  Most players don't play in every game as it is.  Even if they are able to avoid major injuries, the wear and tear of the long season often forces managers to give players an extra day off once in a while.  The impact will also be felt by pitchers, who won't need to throw quite as many innings over the course of a season.  This will benefit them in the long run, keeping them fresher and helping to avoid injury, while potentially extending their careers.

2. Make every playoff round a best of 5 series
The divisional round is already a best of 5 series, so why not make every round the same?  Five games is enough to determine a winner.  The World Series rarely goes to a 7th game anyway, so it wouldn't be as drastic a change as you might think.


Teams should fear having to
face Verlander twice in a series

The best part about this change is that it allows teams to use their best pitchers in more important games.  Teams dread having to face a team like the Tigers in the opening round because they fear having to face an ace like Justin Verlander twice in a short series.  That should be the case in every series.  Most teams don't have rotations that go deeper than three quality starters, but in a 5 game series, all you need is three.  That means more of these playoff games will be started by the team's best pitchers rather than relying on the bottom of their rotation in key games.  Teams would then also have the luxury of using the back end of their rotation to strengthen their bullpen.

In this scenario, every game would count even more, with even less margin for error.  It also prevents a series from lasting nearly two weeks, if it were to go to a 7th game.  There's no reason why any series should be dragged out for over a week.  Even with travel days built in, a 5 game series allows for the series to last no more than a week.  It also may allow teams an extra day or two to rest before their next series, allowing them to reset their rotation to ensure their best pitchers can still pitch twice in the next series, even if they were forced to use them in a deciding Game 5. 

3. Re-alignment
This may seem like a radical idea, but keep in mind that many people inside MLB have already been discussing it.  There are multiple variations of how this could work, but this is the one that I think works best:

While the AL and NL leagues would remain intact, we would do away with divisions in each of those leagues.  This would allow for a more balanced schedule, with every team playing relatively the same schedule as the other teams in their league (aside from factoring in Inter-league play, which is another scheduling mess that would need to be worked out separately).  The top four teams in each league would advance to the postseason and be seeded according to their regular season record.

It makes no sense that a team like the Rangers advances to the playoffs by virtue of winning a weak division where they got to beat up on the likes of the A's and Mariners, yet the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays all have to battle each other.  Those teams should all face each other the same number of games.

This scenario would also eliminate the concern that small market teams have against competing against the big spenders, especially in the AL East.  Teams like Baltimore and Toronto have almost no shot at the playoffs every year because of the expected success of the other teams in their division.  In this format, they wouldn't necessarily have to beat the Yankees and Red Sox, they just need to finish in the top four in the AL to advance to the postseason, a goal that is much more obtainable.  Plus, in recent years, you could easily make the case that three of the top four teams in the AL all came from the East division, yet under the current format, one of those teams has been left out.  The best teams should advance, regardless of where they are geographically located.

4. Use the DH in both leagues

Big Papi holds up the #1 to
show the number of leagues
he can consider as a free agent.

This is long overdue in my view.  It makes no sense that two leagues in the same sport play under different rules.  While some of the old school NL fans will scoff at this idea, the DH is better for the game of baseball.  While there are those that enjoy the strategy involved with managing in the NL, the fact is that most fans aren't paying to buy a ticket to watch a manager's strategy or to watch a pitcher try to hit.  The use of a DH adds offense to the game, which has proven to add excitement and fan interest. 

This rule would benefit the players as well.  Defensively challenged players would now have more teams interested in them if they didn't have to worry about them them being a liability with the glove.  This is especially important for older players, who may have declining range in the field and also need more rest over the course of the season.  This could help extend the careers of many players that are still capable of hitting, but can no longer take the strain of playing in the field on an everyday basis. 

5. Games need to be shorter
Unlike other sports, which rely on a game clock to enforce a general time limit, baseball games can often drag on well past the three hour mark.  Most people just don't have the time or attention span for it.  We know that when teams like the Red Sox and Yankees get together and grind out at bats against each other the games can reach the four hour time frame, without even going to extra innings.


Papelbon has taken some heat for
taking too long between pitches.

For the most part, there isn't much they can do about this, aside from playing less than 9 innings (not going to happen).  However, there are a few things MLB can do, such as enforcing the time limit between pitches.  Most people don't realize this, but the rule book actually does state that pitchers have only 12 seconds to make their pitch from the time they receive the ball.  If a pitcher stalls longer than that the umpire is allowed to call an automatic ball (or a balk if there is a runner on base).  The problem is, the rule is not enforced and is rarely, if ever, seen called.  It should be, complete with a clock counting down the seconds between each pitch to ensure it is fairly called.  The clock would also reset after pick off attempts of course, since we can't take away a pitcher's ability to try to control the running game.  Pitchers will argue that in certain stressful situations they need the extra time to focus on making the precise pitch, but baseball is a game of adjustments.  These pitchers will need to adjust.

The rule should also limit the amount of times a batter would need to step out of the box.  Time should not be granted to hitters without legitimate reasons (i.e. they just fouled a ball of their leg).  These changes may not seem like huge difference makers, but even if it shortens each at-bat by a few seconds, that adds up over the course of the game.

6. Expand Instant Replay

Instant Replay wouldn't take up any
more time than what is wasted on
managers getting ejected for arguing calls.

This may seem contradictory to the previous point about shortening the game, but would instant reply really add much more time?  If an umpire were already sitting in the booth during the game, ready to review the play when called upon, then it shouldn't take more than a minute or so to confirm or reverse the call.  How is that any more time consuming than a manager racing on to the field to argue every close call?  Managers would be limited on the number of challenges they are allowed per game, similar to how it's done in the NFL.  Let's say they are only allowed one per game, but if they get that one correct they are awarded an extra challenge.  Teams would not be allowed more than two per game.  Any play would be allowed to be challenged, except for balls and strikes.  That adds an extra bit of strategy for managers, while also ensuring that more of the borderline plays are called correctly. 

7. Get rid of the rule that awards home field advantage to the league that wins the All-Star Game.
This rule was created as nothing more than a marketing ploy to increase interest in the Mid-Summer Classic, while also covering for the embarrassment of the 2002 All-Star Game, which ended in a tie.  It hasn't proven to be effective in boosting fan interest and it's a poor determining factor for awarding home field advantage for the most important games of the season.  The team with the best record in the regular season should get home field.

These may seem like drastic changes, but each of them would help to improve the product and increase fan interest.  There's plenty more that could be done, but this would be a great start.  Baseball is a game that has evolved countless times in the century plus that it has existed.  In order to flourish, the game will need to evolve again to meet the demands of a new generation of fans.  Eventually MLB will make some changes, and I'm willing to bet that at least a few of the ideas on this list will be among those changes.