"What can I say? I hate baseball."
Baseball And The Oscars Aren't Broken. Our 'Fixes' Are Making Them Worse.
These Are Two Of The Great Achievements Of American Culture
Julia Fisher, Washington Post, March 18, 2022
. . . Major League Baseball [is] doing seemingly everything in [its] power to make [baseball] worse, tinkering in an attempt to appeal to more viewers. It's as if they're ashamed [about one] of the great achievements of American culture.
MLB has long wrestled with concerns about pace of play. Commissioner Rob Manfred is on a crusade to make games shorter, sexier, more appealing to the lay fan who knows next to nothing about the sport. As a result, the new collective bargaining agreement, signed March 12, seems likely to usher in a pitch clock as soon as 2023. . . .
For the last two years, Americans had to watch an absurd charade in which extra innings began with a runner on second base. All of a sudden, extra-inning baseball . . . became, well, not baseball. Runs were scored by runners who had never reached base, wreaking havoc with statistics, threatening aneurysms for anyone trying to keep a scorebook, damaging the integrity of a sport in which, traditionally, every inch on the base paths is earned. It seemed that that abomination would end this season, but as of last Tuesday, talks to keep the ghost runner have resumed. So there will be fewer glorious 18-inning games keeping fans glued to their televisions, in awe of the drama of baseball.
Already gone are the perfunctory balls thrown in an intentional walk, which means that one of baseball's great, rare delights — seeing a batter lean over and hit a lazy pitchout — has disappeared forever. MLB officials have threatened to ban position players from pitching. And they've instituted a rule by which pitchers must face three batters or complete an inning before being removed from a game.
Worst of all, the National League recently adopted the designated hitter. (Never mind that this change is likely to make games longer, not shorter.) . . .
All these rules changes rob baseball of its idiosyncratic joys. Fans who live and breathe the sport, who luxuriate in its weirdness, are seeing an ever more streamlined game — a more boring game. Most of the best things about baseball are unpredictable; its special character lies in its ability to yield, a few times a season, a play or an inning where there's no possible response but to marvel, "Baseball!" But Manfred and his cronies are convinced that a less weird game will appeal more to the non-fans whom they want to fill ballparks (and will protect increasingly fragile players), so we're stuck with the changes. Lovers of the sport will just have history to remember. . . .
Last year's Oscars ceremony — damaged by coronavirus protocols, yes, but mostly by the academy's own obliviousness, its seeming desperation to make the show about anything but movies —was more or less unwatchable. . . .
The far more exciting event on television that night — and playing out live just a few miles away — was a matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. That game, which the Padres won, 8-7, featured a pinch-hitting appearance by the Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw. There were charges of sign-stealing. The game went 11 innings. It was weird baseball, unexpected baseball — beautiful, exciting baseball. It lasted four hours and 59 minutes, and no one glued to the game would have wanted a minute less.
Here's the thing the folks running baseball and the Oscars seem not to understand: Short and bad doesn't help anyone. No one tunes into the Oscars or a baseball game thinking, "Oh, well, at least this will be over soon." If they see the show as something to get over with quickly, they aren't going to watch. . . .
MLB and the Oscars shouldn't be ashamed to produce baseball and movies, in all their fullness, instead of dumbing good things down to attract people who never cared anyway.
That's right. The extra-inning runner, which was set to tossed into the dustbin of history after last season along with seven-inning doubleheader games, may be returning, like a zombie once thought to be dead.
Jayson Stark and Matt Gelb report:
As part of their negotiations on health and safety protocols, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are discussing restoring the rule that placed a runner on second to begin extra innings, sources on both sides told The Athletic on Monday [March 14]. No agreement has been reached. But several players said they expect the rule to be enacted once the protocols are announced in the next 24 to 48 hours. [Although it's now four days later, I have not seen any decision on this issue.] . . .
The rule was supposed to have expired after last season, but commissioner Rob Manfred has endorsed it multiple times, and players generally like it.
Fan reaction, on the other hand, has ranged from lukewarm to indifferent. . . .
Sources said the union surveyed player reps for all 30 teams Sunday to gauge player interest. Early indications are that players heavily support it. But negotiators continued to discuss it Monday, on several levels. . . .
It is possible that, rather than using it in all extra innings, the ghost runner wouldn’t be used until the 11th inning or even the 12th.
Another concern players have voiced is how stats are handled. In 2020 and 2021, pitchers who allowed the ghost runner to score were charged with only an unearned run. But not surprisingly, pitchers aren’t happy about being held responsible for runs scored by players they never put on base . . .
Are they really considering altering the rule to have it take effect in the 11th or 12th? Jesus, it's like we're back in the 1880s when, over a span of only ten years, the number of balls it took for a walk was changed from 9 to 8 to 6 to 7 to 5 to 4.
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