Here's the article:

http://dailysignal.com/2014/07/20/save-baseball-extinction/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

I don't really agree with all of his suggestions, but I do think there are some fundamental changes that need to be made to the game, even at the pro level. Obviously not everyone is going to agree with all suggestions (not to mention the premise that baseball may have dark days ahead), but out of, say, 250-odd possibilities, there should be a few ideas with merit.

I'll list my ideas later, but am interested in hearing from you guys on this.

One huge thing not mentioned in the article, is that kids are specializing in single sports before they leave elementary school. Used to be that kids played whatever sport was in season. Now, if your kid isn't playing "select" ball, he/she quickly sees no future and loses interest. Also "select" ball equals big financial commitment, thus not as many kids can afford to play.

A few changes I would make to the game itself: batter can't step out of box or touch his batting gloves in between pitches, pitcher can't leave mound between pitches, no mound visits, no base coaches, and maybe a moat instead of a warning track.

I don't think we've begun to see the impact of Select\Tournament play.

It is sad, IMO.

At 6, my boy oldest played on a team that was VERY intense... 6... he wanted to "play" while some of the others were ready to win the WS.

It really turned him off baseball. That expanded to team sports in general. He wanted to enjoy them... not necessarily compete.

If a kid waits until 11...12 years old to really become competitive as many of us were at 12... it is increasingly hard to find a team or league to play off.

The problems include... many of these kids peak at 13. By 18, they no longer want to play. Especially if they've been pushed by their parents.

These kids never grew up "loving" the sport they "play" and when they realized they can't all be MLB MVPs... the fun part of the game is not something they can rely on.

Also, where I follow almost every sport because I've played many of them... I don't see these kids growing up with the cross sport interest.

My son is 7 and there is some interest from a local team that wants him to play with them. He really wants to do it and he has really gotten into baseball the last 12-18 months.

One problem with that is that he really wants to play soccer this fall. The two overlap during the week and I'm not going to have my 7 year old with a game or practice every night of the week starting in the second grade.

Makes it tough for a kid that wants to play it all. I'd much rather him play as many sports now and get a feel for what he enjoys most as he gets older. Of course we live in a small town and once in high school he will have the opportunity to play 4-6 sports a year so focusing on one now seems a little silly.

The whole playing select/travel thing prior to double-digit age is not near as important as many will have you believe.

It is no secret that the key is good coaching regardless of venue. My son played city league ball until the summer after he turned 10. He then played on a team that was put together specifically to travel to Cooperstown, NY when they were 12.

He just wrapped up his spring season with the Austin Wings and will move into playing football, basketball, and track for his school this fall and spring respectively.

They can still play multiple sports, you just have to make it a priority.

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3. Get rid of practice between innings. The players should rush on to the field and be ready to go. The pitcher should be ready to pitch. He can warm up on the sidelines when his team is at bat. Play ball. No warm-ups for relief pitchers unless the pitcher gets injured.

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I agree 100% with this. Baseball really starts dragging in the late innings once managers start changing pitchers for every batter. It's usually when people turn it off or start to leave.

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6. Get rid of all domed stadiums and retractable roofs. This is obvious. Baseball (and football) should be played outdoors, always and everywhere. I’m biased; I grew up in Wrigley Field.

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He's obviously never spent a summer in Houston. A/C is wonderful at this time of year.

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3. Get rid of practice between innings. The players should rush on to the field and be ready to go. The pitcher should be ready to pitch. He can warm up on the sidelines when his team is at bat. Play ball. No warm-ups for relief pitchers unless the pitcher gets injured.

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Never heard of this. This is an excellent suggestion.

Regarding select baseball...

I've read a lot of negative posts about select baseball. My son just finished a fall and spring season playing for Twelve Baseball as a nine year old (he turned ten last month). We're very new to all of this.

Twelve Baseball ENCOURAGES participation in other sports. Many kids play basketball in the winter. Some run track in the summer. We have not had one practice or game since before Memorial Day and won't commence fall practice until late August or early September I think. That's a solid three months of summer fun for my boy. When fall season starts, we'll practice two nights a week. What's the big deal?

We love select baseball. My son gets to compete against kids with similar talent and dedication. We left Little League because we felt like there were too many moms forcing uninterested sons to play ball. You know...mom drops Johnny off at practice then bails.

tl;dr - The "he only gets to play one sport" claim is BS for my son's select team.

[This message has been edited by Corporal Punishment (edited 7/21/2014 9:28a).]

This is a two-prong issue: first, kids aren't playing/enjoying baseball like many of us did. I think the article made a very good point when it talked about young adults playing softball. They didn't know you had to tag up on a fly, etc. The second thing is that MLB is BORING as hell for many, if not most, people.

They need to do at least these things:

1. Shorten the season to 120 games. 154, then 162 was designed for an era without playoffs. The season should get real hot in late August, not late September when many are now watching football. I know we've seen teams come alive in September (Cardinals a few years ago, e.g.) but if went to 180 games, the same thing would happen.

2. I know baseball purists are going to hate this, but the NL must go to the DH. NOBODY wants to see a pitcher bat. Careers of players that people do want to see are extended by having 15 -20 more slots open. To compensate for this, baseball should also expand the strike zone by having umpires actually call the high strike a strike. Hitters like it -- they swing at it and often hit it out of the park. Why call a clearly hittable pitch a ball?

I would agree with shortening the season. It's a real bad idea (that gets worse every year) to go up against the NFL in September and October.

another rule change that needs to be made to hopefully address the absurd one-batter pitching changes in the late innings (and speed up the game)...require any pitcher that comes in...to face at least 2 hitters of record. Instead of one. (unless the inning ends before facing the second hitter of record)

also make catcher visits to the mound count as 'pitching change' visits.

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baseball should also expand the strike zone by having umpires actually call the high strike a strike

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Do you mean RAISE the strike zone?

Expanding the strike zone would be a huge advantage for MLB pitchers. Run scoring would decrease and make for more boring baseball to those that like to see a lot of runs.

I agree with your other points, though. I like W's suggestion of counting a catcher visit to the mound as an official visit.

A lot of good ideas here.

The comment about MLB going up against football is an interesting one. So many sports had their seasons traditionally defined by the weather and seasons. Baseball could not start until spring. Yet most cold-weather area teams are now playing in dome/retractable roof stadiums.

It would be an interesting idea for baseball to explore moving up its season a month. Have "spring" training in February and start the season the first week of March. Either make the regular season end in August (or more radically shorten the season so that the playoffs are in August).

Most sports fans go into depression after the Super Bowl, so I wonder if baseball could benefit by moving its season up and lessening its conflict with football.

My last comment sounds like old man yelling at cloud, but here goes. MLB is starting to suffer from the extent of free agency. Not only do even star players switch teams too often, but coupled with the number of players who burn brightly for 2-3 years and then flame out, there is a real identity crisis with teams. There aren't any team/player combos that stand out. The Yankees used to be the team you love or hate and either way you knew the faces. The Cardinals had Pujols until they didn't. Most of these team rosters lack identity now, which makes it hard to care as much. It used to be that good teams dug in their trenches and then pennant races were decided by that one star player who would get traded. Now it has become a market free for all of players who get overpayed in free agency, which then of course results in that team looking to trade them as soon as they can find a taker for a bloated contract.

When you couple this issue with the the image problem after PED crisis, I think this is MLB's biggest problem - team identity.

The problem of youth inattentiveness, the need for instant gratification, etc. - this isn't a baseball problem but a societal problem that will affect all sports and even entertainment forms.

There would some issues with snow if you started in early March for some northern teams. Baseball is such a numbers game that shortening the season will really bother purists with all the records. I think you can keep the season the same length, just speed up the individual games.

Another thing: Why does the manager need to walk to the mound to change pitchers? He can make the move from his phone in the dugout.

The focus should be to keep the game moving. There will always be dead time between pitches. But you can eliminate all the other time-killers where we have to watch the kiss cam to keep our attention.

good point about team identities lost due to free agency. Take the astros...Craig Biggio retired in 2007. It's been 7 years and the franchise has not replaced him from a team identity or fan favorite standpoint. Maybe Springer can be the guy or Altuve with a couple of more great seasons.

it will be interesting to see how long it takes the yankees to find a Jeter replacement.

another key point from the article is the growing number of Latin American ballplayers. In part due to the language barrier, many of these players are not marketable. Very quiet and/or stoic in personality. Need some Pedro Martinez or Sammy Sosa-types (w/o the 'roids I guess)

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Three balls and take your base, two strikes and you’re out.

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Too radical for me...

Does anyone here support this one?

I don't think 2 strikes and you're out would work. Major league pitchers are too good. A starting pitcher would only need 2 pitches: fastball & curve ball or fastball & change-up.

throw the fastball for strike 1...and then everything else is offspeed

I don't like the 3/2 at the higher levels of baseball, but it is a GREAT ideas at the lower levels.

Perhaps from 11-12 down where control isn't always the best.

I think you'll find a lot of good coaches will institute this very thing (batter starts with a 1-1 count) in practice games or inner squad scrimmages at the high school level.

here's an article from last week from CNN/Mike Downey:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/15/opinion/downey-baseball-drop-off/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

excerpt:

"So, where'd everybody go?

Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies' attendance is down 8,290 per home game from a year ago. Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers, each down more than 4,000. Minnesota Twins, more than 3,000. Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, 2,000-plus.

Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays .... down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down."

After watching some of the World Cup soccer, I don't know how baseball can be called a slow sport.

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Rotate the pitcher every inning so every kid has a chance to take the mound and be the center of the action.

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Whoa, that would be a nightmare; at least in my Little League days. From what I remember, each team only had 4-5 kids that could consistently throw strikes and the kids a year behind me went to Williamsport.

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There would some issues with snow if you started in early March for some northern teams.

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Would there really be issues? I suppose there might be in Denver and a couple of spots (the same places that occasionally have games snowed out in April), but places like Minnesota, Milwaukee, etc. all play indoors now. And Spring Training is in Arizona and Florida anyways.

Minnesota is outdoors now.

So is Boston, NY, Pittsburgh, NYM, Philly, Detroit, Chicago WS, Chicago C, etc.

Why maximize time between pitches to 45 seconds when the current rule in MLB is 20 seconds

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The problem of youth inattentiveness, the need for instant gratification, etc. - this isn't a baseball problem but a societal problem that will affect all sports and even entertainment forms.

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This!

Also, I would like to see an expanded playoff like hockey or basketball. There are way to many teams out of it by the ASB. As a Ranger fan, unless you are a baseball purist, there is no reason to watch.

[This message has been edited by HaveGoodGetGive (edited 7/22/2014 11:31a).]

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He just wrapped up his spring season with the Austin Wings and will move into playing football, basketball, and track for his school this fall and spring respectively.

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Would that school be Hyde Park?

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He just wrapped up his spring season with the Austin Wings and will move into playing football, basketball, and track for his school this fall and spring respectively.

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Would that school be Hyde Park?

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No, not dropping that much coin. He is roughing it in the public schools of Georgetown!

The average temperature in Boston in March is 38. That's in contrast to October, where we've seen some pretty cold playoff games, where the avg temp is 54. Most of those northeastern cities (Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, etc) are at those same temps. For a game that involves 3 hours of standing around with a few bursts of full speed mixed in, along with needing players to actually be able to feel their fingertips, that's just too damn cold to count on getting nearly a month full of games in.

[This message has been edited by DannyDuberstein (edited 7/23/2014 8:18a).]

ML Baseball isn't on free TV. I don't want to watch hockey or soccer or tennis or golf or x- games or car racing, or horse racing, or cycling. I would watch ML Baseball, it's just rare for a game to be broadcast on free TV, in Austin.

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ML Baseball isn't on free TV.

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This is becoming a huge problem with sports. Football is the only sport that still has a lot of coverage on network TV. Baseball and basketball are on exclusive networks that only people that are already fans will want. They won't pick up new fans by being on these networks.

Out of sight, out of mind. That is most of America's feeling towards baseball. MLB executives don't care because these cable networks are paying them stupid money right now. That will stop when they realize most fan-bases don't care enough to demand these networks.

J_R I'll be really interested to know how much those changes shorten the games.

Some pretty good ideas in there.

[This message has been edited by Corporal Punishment (edited 7/28/2014 1:10p).]

definitely agree with limiting the "on-field conferences" when the catcher, or even worse first baseman or shortstop trot into talk to pitcher

Teams won't want to start in March because half of them play in outdoor stadiums where getting games in even in April can be a hassle.

Teams don't want to shorten a schedule and remove home games off their schedule.

Networks won't want to vastly shorten time between innings because they'd lose chances to show and profit off of advertising.

A lot of those teams are losing attendance because they're terrible.

An average football game is 3 hrs 12 minutes. A baseball game, 2 hrs 50 minutes. A basketball game, 2 hours 30 minutes. And people will stand in the freezing cold to watch an NFL team and never complain about the length of a game, but they can't wait for a game to end where they can lounge in the bleachers in shorts drinking a beer? Or have on the radio or TV in the background while you work on something else?

They're just different games. The NFL has a lot of advantages based on when people watch their games and how many of them there are to see. The Super Bowl champ likely plays less games to win it all than the World Series champ plays in their first series.

I think it's notable that MLB is willing to look at making changes (replay, was that mentioned in the shortening the games argument?) and that they've noticed that youth participation in the sport fell since the Mid-90s and are trying to address that.

But I read an article in a Sports Illustrated when I was probably 9 years old about the same subject. It made similar arguments...baseball was dying, less kids were playing it, basketball was set to become the new king and hockey would replace baseball by the time current kids were adults. It quoted some kid talking about how boring baseball was and how great hockey was.

And now those kids are adults and baseball is doing fine. MLB is still 2nd to the NFL. Auto racing is claimed to be more people's favorite "sport" than the NBA. I'm not against the stay in the box, on the mound kind of rules, but constantly altering your sport in hopes of grabbing the currently anti-baseball contingent seems like a mainly fruitless exercise to me.

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After watching some of the World Cup soccer, I don't know how baseball can be called a slow sport.

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This is rich.

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An average football game is 3 hrs 12 minutes. A baseball game, 2 hrs 50 minutes. A basketball game, 2 hours 30 minutes. And people will stand in the freezing cold to watch an NFL team and never complain about the length of a game, but they can't wait for a game to end where they can lounge in the bleachers in shorts drinking a beer? Or have on the radio or TV in the background while you work on something else?

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The end of a typical NFL game is usually fast-paced if the game is close. In baseball the managers start switching out pitchers in the late innings which slows the game down immensely. They often lose me when the game is most critical. Apples and oranges I guess. But I think the NFL has done a good job tweaking the game to make it faster. I think baseball would be wise to speed up the end of these games.

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An average football game is 3 hrs 12 minutes. A baseball game, 2 hrs 50 minutes. A basketball game, 2 hours 30 minutes. And people will stand in the freezing cold to watch an NFL team and never complain about the length of a game, but they can't wait for a game to end where they can lounge in the bleachers in shorts drinking a beer? Or have on the radio or TV in the background while you work on something else?


The end of a typical NFL game is usually fast-paced if the game is close. In baseball the managers start switching out pitchers in the late innings which slows the game down immensely. They often lose me when the game is most critical. Apples and oranges I guess. But I think the NFL has done a good job tweaking the game to make it faster. I think baseball would be wise to speed up the end of these games.

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The end of MLB games can be painful at times (and I'm a pretty big baseball fan), but so can NBA games with all the fouling and free throws and time outs. I think the MLB could learn something from the NFL and try to pick up the pace of games late. The suggestion up above to make pitchers face at least two batters is interesting. I don't like the ever increasing use of the situational "one batter" pitchers. Make them stay in the game a bit, which will pick up the pace of the game a bit in the late innings.