This would also eliminate the problem associated with shutting down beer sales after the 7th inning!
fc OT Baseball to change the rules? bat anyone you want in the 9th
- Thread starter sluggo72
- Start date
The only way I am in favor of this is if they put a keg of beer behind second base for the entire game.
Terrible idea, but if they did it, they'd have to add some incentive for the team leading in the ninth.
Losing manager gets to choose (kind of a modified "double switch") -- stick with the regular batting order and get three outs, or send anyone he wants to bat in the ninth, but only get two outs.
As I said, bad idea. In that situation, what happens if a pitcher throws an 8 2/3-inning no-hitter? Does it count as an official no-hitter?
Losing manager gets to choose (kind of a modified "double switch") -- stick with the regular batting order and get three outs, or send anyone he wants to bat in the ninth, but only get two outs.
As I said, bad idea. In that situation, what happens if a pitcher throws an 8 2/3-inning no-hitter? Does it count as an official no-hitter?
And by the way, no one says it, but the DH slows the game down, for sure.
If they want to speed up the game and make it more entertaining they should eliminate the offense/defense switch every half inning. Do it less often.
Visiting team bats to start the game. 3 outs and they take the field and home team bats just like they do now. But....
After 3 outs are made by home team...clear the bases. Visiting team stays on the field. Pitcher stays on the mound. Home team takes their second turn at the plate immediately. Whoever was on deck to end the first inning steps to the plate to start the 2nd inning.
After those 3 outs then switch. Home team takes the field and visiting team takes 2 consecutive 3 out trips to the plate for the bottom of the 2nd inning and top of the 3rd.
We do this in my adult baseball league. Saves so much time warming up the pitcher and fielders.
It's unorthodox but will do more to speed up the game then these silly unenforceable rules they are trying this year.
Visiting team bats to start the game. 3 outs and they take the field and home team bats just like they do now. But....
After 3 outs are made by home team...clear the bases. Visiting team stays on the field. Pitcher stays on the mound. Home team takes their second turn at the plate immediately. Whoever was on deck to end the first inning steps to the plate to start the 2nd inning.
After those 3 outs then switch. Home team takes the field and visiting team takes 2 consecutive 3 out trips to the plate for the bottom of the 2nd inning and top of the 3rd.
We do this in my adult baseball league. Saves so much time warming up the pitcher and fielders.
It's unorthodox but will do more to speed up the game then these silly unenforceable rules they are trying this year.
That's interesting and might be cool in an adult league, but I just think there are a LOT of ways to speed up the game before getting this radical. One major problem you would have with this is a pitcher having to throw too many pitches without a break and then sitting too long and not being warmed up enough when he goes back out.
"Shorten the games to 7 innings since the crowd starts to leave by that point anyway"
What's the rush?
.
If you make this change, you can't call it baseball. Just like Arena "football" is not football. Just because the poor excuse for human beings 18 -35 don't have the patience or attention span to watch real baseball, they want to screw it up for everyone. And by the way, "Get off my lawn!"
I was reminded of Clay Dalrymple...Mario Mendoza may have disproved your statement.
July 19, 1960. My family had just moved from Camp Hill, PA to San Mateo, CA a few months earlier. A classmate of mine asked me to go to a Giant - Phillies game. My Mom sent me off with a blanket as it was a night game in CandleSTINK Park.
Long story short, Clay Dalrymple pinch-hit for the Phillies in the 8th inning and broke up a no-hitter being pitched by Juan Marichal in his MLB debut! He certainly had an outstanding career, winning more games in the 60s than any other pitcher.
lol. A great defensive catcher, but not a great hitter. He threw out 48.8% of the base runners that attempted to steal against him. He led the NL in assists in 3 years, and also set at the time a NL record for consecutive errorless games by a catcher. The pitchers all seemed to think highly of him.
While he wasn't an offensive star, he usually was above the Mendoza line.
Year - BA
1960 - .272
1961 - .220
1962 - .276
1963 - .252
1964 - .238
1965 - .213
1966 - .245
1967 - .172
1968 - .207
1969 - .238
1970 - .219
1971 - .204
AVG - .233
In an era before 24x7 sports, or sports-talk radio, Clay was routinely ripped by fans, especially toward the end of his Phillies career (which ended after the 1968 season). He finally got fed up with it, and asked to be traded. The Phils traded him to the Orioles, which was good timing for him, even if it didn't work out all that well. He was a backup catcher on the Os in 1969, when the Os lost to the Miracle Mets in the WS. In 1970 he broke his ankle, and was still on the DL when the Os won the WS. In 1971 was a backup, and didn't play in any postseason games when the Os lost to the Pirates in the WS.
I have his autograph from a time when I was fairly young and my dad took me down into the bowels of Connie Mack stadium to wait for a chance for autographs. I have him and Ray Herbert and Claude Raymond and Bill Heath of the Astros.
My buddy Joe had a Clay Dalrymple story he told at his dad's funeral. His dad would always talk back at the Phils broadcast with Richie and By--with the standard refrain "Dalrymple, you're a bum". One day they are listening and Clay hits a mammoth HR to win the game. So they were expecting, perhaps, just this once, a kind word from their dad. What they got was: "Dalrymple, you're still a bum!"
lol. Over the years, I've heard a number of stories that fans/families had about Dalrymple. Mine isn't all that nice, but kids will be kids. As I recall, Dalrymple went bald at a very early age. My brother and I liked baseball cards, and while we would trade them with friends, and participate in games with friends where you could win a bunch of cards and lose a bunch a cards, we never traded Phillies cards, or used such cards in any games where you could lose cards. We had several cards of Dalrymple from the early '60s, though I don't recall specifically which years we had. (Years later I gave all my cards to my brother, and he kept them all, so I could check on the specific years.) Anyway, one of Dalrymple's cards was not a good looking picture to kids, especially ones that didn't realize that people didn't have a lot of control over when they went bald, how they looked, etc. We would go through our cards 100s/1,000s of times each season, and each time we would get to that card we would call out UGLY, and break out in laughter. As we got older we added other comments about his appearance. Fortunately for him, Dalrymple never learned how much enjoyment he provided to us during our youth.
To be young again.
Main reason game is too long is way too much time taken by the batter and pitcher between pitches. Comcast plays some old Phillies games from the late 1970's and early 80's on occasion in the summer during a rain delay or when they have no programming left. Amazing how fast the games were. Pitcher pitched the ball, catcher threw back to the pitcher who was standing on the rubber already, pitcher immediately looks for the catcher's sign, goes into wind-up and pitchers, batter never stepped out of box. Just have to get back to that same tempo in the modern game, the pitch clock hopefully will do something to that effect. That and somehow limit the crazy amount of pitching changes late in the game. Maybe a rule where a new pitcher has to pitch to at least two batters, that way the crazy lefty-righty back and forth 5 pitchers in one inning would stop.
