Game 7 of the 2016 World Series was one of the most exciting baseball games in Major League history. Some in the league offices hope something like that never happens again.
Major League Baseball is testing a new extra inning rule that would put a runner on second at the start of extra innings in its rookie league games. The measure is designed to shorten marathon extra innings games because nothing should be fun, and MLB hates #weirdbaseball. Via Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports:
While the specifics of the rule are not final, the current plan is to start with a runner on second base in the 10th and every inning thereafter. As baseball grapples with ways to increase action in a game with a record-low rate of balls in play, changing its extra-innings rules emerged as a solution with multiple potential benefits.
In addition to the increase in action a forced runner would create, so too would a philosophical element enter the game: to bunt or not to bunt.
A version of the rule has been used in international baseball, and you’ll see it at the World Baseball Classic in a few months. Still, it just feels like most teams will just bunt a guy over to third base, and then every extra inning is a battle to see if a player can get a fly ball into the outfield. Not exactly the height of drama, especially if teams just sacrifice fly over and over to keep extending the game.
MLB officials, however, seem pretty jazzed about seeing how this whole thing shakes out. Joe Torre basically suggested adding college football overtime rules to America’s pastime creates a more pure version of baseball. Here’s what he told Yahoo Sports:
“Let’s see what it looks like,” said Joe Torre, the longtime major league manager who’s now MLB’s Chief Baseball Officer and a strong proponent of the testing. “It’s not fun to watch when you go through your whole pitching staff and wind up bringing a utility infielder in to pitch. As much as it’s nice to talk about being at an 18-inning game, it takes time.
“It’s baseball. I’m just trying to get back to that, where this is the game that people come to watch. It doesn’t mean you’re going to score. You’re just trying to play baseball.”
Baseball, I’d argue, is the game they’re currently playing without the experimental rules. If the game is tied at the end of an inning, you just keep going. I understand the benefits to rate of play and young arms and ease of travel and all that. It makes sense, but why does it seem like every major sports league borrows exactly the wrong concepts from other sports leagues?
Just stick with the pitch clock, cut down on mound visits, and learn to love low-scoring baseball games. Maybe keep some ice cream in the freezer if the game goes past midnight. It’s more fun that way.
(via Yahoo Sports)
