Wednesday, July 14, 2010

What's wrong with baseball? Summed up in eight letters

Bud Selig
Yes, the commissioner of Major League Baseball has single handedly hurt the game.
One of the main roles of the commissioner is to maintain the integrity of the sport. Selig has done the opposite.

First, we can start with the All-Star game, which the National League won 3-1.
Selig has made the All-Star game into something it shouldn't be: a game that matters. It's fun...it's exciting to see some of the best players from both leagues compete against one another but it shouldn't count.
Stop using it to decide who gets home advantage in the World Series.
Solution: Go back to an alternating yearly home field. One year, the NL team gets home field, the next year the AL team and so on.

Second,
Selig ignored the obvious signs of steriod use back when it was first happening and has allowed players who have cheated to keep their accomplishments. For example, the major league leader in HRs in Selig's baseball world is a cheater named Barry Bonds...in the real world it should still be Hank Aaron followed by the Babe.

Solution: Remove the cheaters from the record books and develop a test using blood to catch those who continue to mask their HGH and other steroid use.

Third,
Inter-league play should not be continued. Major League Baseball was the only sport of the four major sports (Baseball, Football, Hockey and Basketball)where the two divisions did not play one another except during spring training. The World Series was the first time the National and American League teams met to decide the champion.
With the addition of inter-league play, the World Series is not that special anymore and each league is robbed of more games against teams within their league. So teams play only four to seven games against teams in the other two divisions of their respective leagues. That's wrong.

Solution: Save inter-league play for the World Series!!!!

Finally,
The World Baseball Classic was created and played during the time when teams are supposed to be in spring training. Enough with this national pride nonesense. Who cares if you're from Canada, US, Mexico or one of the many Central American and/or Caribbean island countries???
If you play baseball your team is the one who you play for during the 162 game season.
If it's so important to have this WBC, then play the games after the season.
Notice that soccer has its World Cup during the summer months..not in the beginning or middle of the Premier League, the Spanish League, Serie A etc...
The WBC forces teams who do allow their players to participate to miss time with their MLB clubs and it squeezes a lot of games into a small window period of time.
It's wrong, it's not necessary and it occurs too often: Every other year.

Solution: Short of eliminating this tournament, it should be moved into the winter and played in warmer climate countries and should be held once every three or four years.

It's time the owners fired Selig and found a person who has no connection with ownership so the new commmissioner can truly be a guardian of this game and help to maintain its integrity and tradition.

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