Just when it seemed all was back to normal in the baseball world, Major League Baseball drops the bomb of possibly reinstating a runner on second to start extra innings.
This is possibly the worst idea in all of baseball. Why not just let the home team start up 1-0? Or every batter starts the count 2-1, for that matter?
The beauty of extra innings is it’s a do or die; you simply never know when it’s going to end, type of game. As a child, a highlight of my 2009 summer was watching the Yankees and Red Sox battle it out for 15 innings until the game was ended by an Alex Rodriguez two-run home run. That game was a 0-0 back and forth battle; a duel of dire proportions. Implementing this runner on second removes the excitement, and the ability for the next generation of fans to acquire similar memories while staying up late for “never-enders.”
With the current policy in place, teams will sacrifice bunt, hit a fly ball and, like that, a runner has scored after only moving 180 feet. And with the opponent pulling off the same in the bottom half, you’re going back and forth anyway, essentially trading unearned run after unearned run with the eventual victor exhibiting less pride than they typically would.
Baseball, by design, is a tough sport because you really do have to earn every inch; none of the bases are free. Even a “free pass” has to be earned; you don’t just lock into earning a base on balls.
Justifications that this will protect pitchers’ arms amid the shortened Spring Training even come off as sarcastic in nature, considering the lack of a remedy that’s been found for any pitcher in recent decades. One way or another, they’re going to get hurt and there’s no stopping it so long as pitching velocities continue to increase. So why must we insist on hiding behind yet another in a series of convenient excuses to change the game on a fundamental level, and at the highest level, no less?
The real problem begins far before any player sets foot on a Major League mound. The MLB talks about “growing the game.” Here is your chance: teach kids how to throw the proper way, and not just the way of the radar gun.
Don’t lose touch with your roots, and what’s made you successful the whole time. It’s the word thing the league could possibly do. If key cogs in the core fan-base are lost, there goes the casual fan too. Not to mention, the yet-converted kids who are looking for a game to fall in love with; don’t give them a reason not to.
