As the end of the 2023 Major League Baseball season comes to a close, we look back at a season which started under some new rules. The VFTB wishes to share one man’s opinion on some of those changes.

Beginning with the extra inning policy of starting the extra inning with an automatic runner on second, which really began during the pandemic, it was created to save pitching in games that in years past that may have gone into the number of innings going into high teens and occasionally the twenties. It was also created to shorten games which has been the aim of the commissioner of baseball who came in and wielded his rod of power to change as much of baseball as he could, no matter what it did to the game. As you can tell, I’m not a fan of this change in the game, especially since it’s not used in playoffs. It is my contention that you don’t play by one set of rules for regular season, then change them for the playoffs. MLB should have taken a lesson from the NFL, when doing that created problems for them. Perhaps expanding rosters, specifically numbers of pitchers a team can carry, would alleviate the worries of having pitchers forced to go more innings in tied games, due to a shortage of fresher arms.

As far as the shortening of games goes, and the pitch clocks and timed conferences, I am not a fan of those changes either. If I go to a play or a concert, I am not looking at my watch to get out of there at a specific time. If Elton John was playing, or the Eagles, or Billy Joel, or Jimmy Buffett, and they played for four hours, I be there and want more after they ended their shows. When I saw Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables, and Jersey Boys, I didn’t want them to end. If people have had enough of the game after two hours, they can get up and go, the same as they can do at a concert, play, or movie.

The commissioner of baseball, whose name I won’t mention, has also said games become boring to some, especially children. In regards to the children part, first, why isn’t MLB concerned about the children when they schedule All Star Games, and World Series games to begin at 8:20 pm where many kids, and at this stage of my life, sometimes me, are asleep after a couple innings? Also, if adults would spend time at the games, or at home, to talk to their kids about the games, the positioning of the players, explain infield flies, foul tips, interference, or teach them how to keep score, maybe it won’t be so boring to them. I attend many ballgames during the course of a season, and I see it often. Adults talk to each other about whatever, while kids often sit there often with no one explaining the game to them, or teaching them the game.

Going back to the changes, the use of time clocks has shortened the games, just as the commissioner wanted, but it hasn’t made the game better in my mind. That change has taken away some of the cat and mouse strategy between pitcher and hitter, which always increased excitement in the game.

The changing of base size, has also done what the commissioner wanted. Base stealing has increased hugely, more runs are scored, but more than that is a result of what’s not happening on the field to influence the outcome of a game, but is being done in the ivory offices of the commissioner, and his merry men and women that’s influencing outcomes of games. Sports columnist, Red Smith once said, “Ninety feet between the bases is the nearest thing to perfection that man has achieved.” Changing that has affected the game.

The removal of shifts is another rule change that’s been instituted by the tsar of baseball and his cohorts. I found it much more exciting when players beat the shift, because it forced players to adjust and adapt, as what all sports entail. We try to teach kids how to overcome something that it meant to get the better of them and turn the tables to make their opponent have make their own adjustment and/or adaptation. It’s called strategy.

I’m okay with timed mound conferences and a time limit between innings, if all umpires stick to the same time allowed, and I can even accept the three batter rule when pitching changes are made. But back to time, why is it, that teams have only 15 seconds to request a play reviewed, but New York can take up to five minutes to make a decision.

One more thing, please ban the strike zone box shown on TV coverages of games. It serves no purpose in my mind, except to aggravate the fans. I taught my players that an umpire didn’t affect the outcome of a game, and I believed it, but when I see strike three in the box, but not called, and the next pitch hit 420 feet for a go ahead home run, I can’t help but get aggravated.

Stop trying to create a different game. Remember, “The one constant through all the years has been baseball,” so let’s keep it constant. Stop trying to change baseball into something else, which is what I feel is happening now.