Baseball, which has been around since the end of the 1800’s was always a game deep in tradition. There were changes that happened like integration when Jackie Robinson debuted in 1947 or free agency in the 1970’s, but the game itself never changed, that is until a pandemic and a shortened 2020 season.
Commissioner Rob Manfred who many claim is the worst commissioner in all of sports had to help find a compromise between the players union and ownership and get a product on the field. The product, at which the commissioner put together, has changed the game and taken down a dark twisted alley like he is a Villian in Adam West’s Batman, seven inning double headers, three batter minimum for relievers, and let’s create ghost runners in extra innings to save pitching staffs during a shortened season.
The seven innings disappeared but a universal DH is now in effect and the ghost runner is running rampant in a game that is slowly losing its soul. Manfred has long felt that shortening game times was the key to saving baseball from the downward spiral, but baseball is suffering from greater self-inflicted wounds. With some of the best young stars in the game in decades, MLB has done a horrible job promoting their young superstars and the sport has found itself ranked number three in Major Sports leagues in America.
The game itself has now become a home run/strikeout fest. There is the shift and analytics, the double switch is dead and the beauty that was once a game you can debate the managers moves with your dad or friends has become a three-hour snooze fest of strikeouts and bad discipline. Long gone is the hitter who can go with a pitch the other way, stolen bases and what ever happened to bunting a runner over. Batting averages have plummeted, strikeouts are up, and natural beauty of the game that we grew up loving and that was America’s Pastime is now a glorified HR Derby with no soul and if the game is tied and we have extra’s look for school yard phantom runners.
J.B. Ellis
Sideline Sports
@jb_theprogram
