The Commissioner made his annual statement this week. Some excerpts... and annotations.
"Major League Baseball’s 2022 season will be remembered forever."
Huh? Yeah, Aaron Judge's HR record will be remembered, until the next guy. But... forever? Gulp. That's Kardashian-level hubris. Quickly, Ozymandius, who won the NL Central this season?
"A record 11 Clubs hosted playoff action with exhilaration, tension and an unpredictability that is unique to baseball."
They simply added a new tier to the playoffs, and seasons that used to end before Halloween can now finish after election day. As for unpredictability? Houston swept Seattle and the Yankees, and they're poised to roll over Philly.
"The skill of our players and the success of the new playoff format are also good for business. This season we will approach $11 billion in league revenues, surpassing pre-pandemic levels."
There it is: The money line. Remember how the poormouthing owners locked out spring training this year, forcing opening day to be delayed? They're rolling in it - billionaires, several times over - and yet some are still holding their cities hostage, demanding new stadiums.
"Next year, pitch timers will facilitate a pace of play that an overwhelming number of our fans want. Shift restrictions will restore more traditional positioning of defensive players, resulting in more action from balls in play. And larger bases will keep players healthier on the field, with the added benefit of a slight incentive to be more aggressive on the base paths."
For all its illustrious history, MLB next year will change fundamental distances between bases - literally, the cornerstones of the game. Is this wise? And banning the over-shift will affect the real plague facing the sport: the overwhelming numbers of strikeouts and walks. In fact, the ban might free up sluggers to swing away with even more abandon, thus striking out more often.
The simple truth is that the owners have no idea how all these changes, adopted simultaneously, will affect the game. Will somebody hit 70 HRs? Will somebody bat .400? After 120 years of basic stability, they are riding blind and changing the rules every season.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't make a bit of difference what changes "the fans" overwhelmingly want to see. What's important is that sweet, sweet stream of advertising revenue.
I was out hiking the other day, trying to keep my mind occupied thinking about the playoffs this year and just who played who, and it took way longer than it should have to piece things together, and still I'm not sure who the Phillies played or who the Cleves played in the first round/wildcard round/elimination round, whatever the fuck it's called this year. But I believe the St. Louis Cardinals won the NL Central. I believe that's who did that. So yeah, 2022 was certainly memorable to me for being the first season I had absolutely no idea what teams were in the playoffs, how they got there, who they had to play, and what the best-ofs were.
There's two dark clouds over my living room and they're in the shape of Donaldson and that Stopgap fellow, and I swear to all that is holy and all that is unholy if those two chuckle-fucks are the left side of the 2023 infield I will vehemently root against the New York CashmanBoones next season. And the worst part is I know that's what's coming. Silver lining? I have four months to develop a good seethe.
Aside from Judge and Oz I and II, this year basically turned out to be nothing for me. And now the lords are going to continue to fuck up the game, which started with the expansion of 1961, lowering of the mound, the DH, divisions, playoffs upon playoffs, more expansion, turning a blind eye to PEDs, statistical abuse, babying of infielders and batters, bigger bases, slide mittens (a minor transgression), overshifts, banning of overshifts, pitch clocks, batter step-out limits, launch angles...
ReplyDeleteNot all necessarily bad, but they almost all end up bad in practice. Modern pro sports are simply ridiculous. Too many franchises, too many rules, too many playoffs. All in all, just too much, period. Overtweaked, just like a lot of the players.
Manfred is full of what comes out of our collective asses.
ReplyDeleteand here i was thinking it couldn't get worse after bud selig left town
ReplyDeleteno point listening to any of it. Just more BS and disinformation.
ReplyDeleteAs long as the money rolls in, nothing will change.
The changes that they should have made are: (1) lowering the mound height by half (2) limiting the number of pitchers on the roster to 11 total (3) moving the fences back by requiring the outfield to be at least 15% bigger for all stadiums.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the idea of banning the shifts. Too much potential for selective enforcement and too difficult to enforce. What are they going to do when there is an argument over a defender's positioning? Are they going to break out surveying equipment and measure angles? Draw lines using protractors?
Brilliant analysis, Duque, and I could not agree more, JM. To reiterate, NO club started from 1961 on has a winning record.
ReplyDeleteOne caveat: I would say the slide started with letting two beloved—and highly profitable—clubs from New York go west. Idiotic.
I know, I know—going waaaaay back now. But the motivating factor is always the same: thoughtless, immediate, runaway greed, with not a thought about the long-term future of the game.
And yes, as some of you stated here, there are much better, organic solutions to the game:
ReplyDelete—Teach guys to hit to the opposite field again.
—Teach pitchers to pitch to contact. Again.
—Sliding mittens? How about sliding feet first again?
And on and on. But you get the picture...
Baseball should be Old School. That should be its brand—which I say because these idiots have to justify everything in that way.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way it can possibly compete being just like football and basketball. Those sports have become plenty boring in their own right, but they are much more action-oriented and play many fewer games.
Baseball needed to stress:
—Affordable seats, day-of-game seats for everyone (no luxury boxes, for starters).
—Affordable TV packages. Maybe all free, again.
—Emphasis on winning the Long Season, with the playoffs just a nice bonus at the end.
—Ballparks where you can talk to the people you came with—such as your son/daughter/father/best friend.
It won't ever do those things, but we can dream. Maybe when it all melts down, and the losses get out of control...
Jon Heyman reporting that the Yanks are the real frontrunner for Judge, but that they have an "uneasy" feeling about getting him back.
ReplyDeleteMore setting us up for disappointment?
How about running everything out as hard as possible? Looking at you Josh "I'll celebrate and then get tagged out at first" Donaldson. Other players as well, but my anger at Josh makes me begin with him.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I disagree with anything posted here.
ReplyDeleteThe loud mouthed cyber idiots have ruined the game, and the pencil necked billionaires (not that there's anything wrong with that except I forgot to buy a powerball ticket today) who believe their horseshit don't care about anything but reliable profitability. That leads to being able to say "we're in the pennant chase", when that chase is to be named the second undersecretary to the assistant deputy director of the department of ancillary functions (it's about rings assholes, not we were so close!). They fucking hate baseball as much as they love money. Fuck em all.
Commentary tonight in the Series, when a Phillies almost homered:
ReplyDelete"This collective crowd held its breath."
Yes, crowds usually are collective.
https://twitter.com/KNBR/status/1584631628084572161/photo/1strikeouts%2F
ReplyDeleteAre they still playing the World Series? I thought November was for football?
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ReplyDeleteThe team with a slugger who bunts with two strikes in the late innings deserves to lose.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, another snore of a World Series. Two fairly competitive games, most of the rest was just waiting around for the big home run. Be interesting to see what the TV ratings are.
ReplyDelete