My New Rules for Baseball

9 January 2024

By Frank Scoblete

I like the new rules in major league baseball such as the pitching clock that reduces the amount of time the pitcher can fiddle with the ball before throwing it; the batting clock which makes the player have to stay in the batters box without allowing step outs where the batter can fiddle with his batting gloves, wraps and the like for seemingly endless amounts of time, and the bigger bases which can add some runs to the game and no more than two throws to first base with a runner on base.

Over one single season baseball games were shortened markedly and that was a good thing. Spending three and more hours watching a baseball game is the equivalent of having a part-time job. It’s often taxing.

The fans seem to agree with me. At least the fans I talked to about this.

Baseball fans want to see action. They want to see balls being hit, bases being occupied with runners, games with scores.

Hitting in baseball rules. Totally.

Oh, yes, a great pitcher (or any pitcher actually) pitching a great game, okay that can be exciting. I’ll pay to see Sandy Koufax pitch a no-hitter. But if you knew that every game from this point on, and forever more, would be a one-nothing game would you be that anxious to attend them? I think not.

Baseball isn’t soccer or hockey because at soccer there is a lot of running, jumping and almost scoring and at hockey the lightning-fast-skating players are dazzling. Baseball players run (sometimes) and jump (occasionally) but mostly they stand around waiting for something to happen – as do the fans.

I want something to happen.

I am a fan and have been since I met the Yankee Clipper Joe DiMaggio some years after he retired. Where I lived in New York City, Joe DiMaggio was considered a god. Hey, when you meet a god you get hooked. I got hooked on the Yankees. Have been ever since.

Over the decades I’ve met many of the greatest baseball players of all time – meaning “all time” when they were alive in my time: Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris and many, many others right up to now.

I don’t have a single memory of any of the all-time greats just standing around doing nothing waiting for something to happen. Sadly, that is what baseball actually became – the greatest contemporary players just standing around waiting for someone to hit the ball or throw the ball to them. The game became just too slow. More time was spent on fixing batting gloves and pitchers fiddling with the ball before throwing the darn thing.

Take a look at any of the baseball’s filmed and videoed retrospectives. What do you see? Players hitting, running, catching, throwing – you see the action of the game but you really don’t see the pace of the game. The pace? Yuck. The action? Great!

One last thing and I will relent. Get rid of the designated hitter. Go to eight batters in a game, not nine. There is no law of nature that stipulates nine hitters have to hit in a baseball game. The pitcher doesn’t have to hit and we don’t need the ninth hitter either.

Seriously, most of the designated hitters don’t hit like Mike Trout or Aaron Judge do they? With eight hitters, the chances of seeing another at bat by the stars is much, much greater. So, no designated hitters. They are a waste of time.

On this you can bet that I am right.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Frank Scoblete’s web site is www.frankscoblete.com. His books are available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, e-books, libraries and bookstores.