This interesting post from @Red(s)HawksFan in the Spring Training thread got me thinking.
I personally hate most of the proposed rules changes that are supposed to make baseball more interesting to the modern fan. That’s because I don’t think things like the length of game actually address baseball’s challenges in connecting with today’s audiences. Someone who finds three and a half hours of baseball boring is simply not going to find two hours and forty-five minutes of baseball exciting. Society has changed, most likely because of smartphones, but also because society changes and popularity comes and goes. After all, horse racing and boxing…blah blah blah.
Having said all that, I am quite intrigued by the Ohtani rule because I think it actually DOES address one of baseball’s challenges in the marketplace. From a NY Post article linked to in the other thread: “This rule is for the life of the new CBA, not just for 2022 and the hope is to promote more two-way players.”
Turn on a Lakers game and you can watch LeBron for two-thirds of the game or more. Watch a Chiefs game and you can see Mahomes for half the game. But in baseball, star players appear for just a fraction of the broadcast. This new rule is an opportunity to better showcase a superstar, and that strikes me as exactly what baseball should be doing. Who knows if we’ll truly get more two-way star players, but I think its possible, and if we do, baseball should be looking to celebrate them in this way—not just because of their talent but because of the very fact that they are different and new. I remember years ago when the Sox had the middling ambidextrous pitcher Greg Harris and he had a special glove that allowed it to be worn on either hand. He always said he wanted to pitch with different hands in the same outing but if I recall correctly, baseball had some rule stipulating that whatever hand you threw with to start an appearance you had to stick with. Boooo!
I REALLY don’t like the expanded playoffs. Baseball is the only sport where the regular season is at least as important as the playoffs. (I suppose the NFL comes close.) But I am now persuaded that baseball needs to find ways to appeal to new fans, and if that is the goal, expanded playoffs probably do help. Playoff races truly do hook casual, gettable fans, and it stands to reason that more playoff spots increases the potential for playoff races in more markets.
Along these lines, I am now reluctantly in favor of the ghost runner in extra innings. I personally hate this rule, but it does inject additional excitement into games in a way that I think actually has a chance to connect with new fans. (I recognize that you have to have made it through nine innings to experience this excitement, which may tend to mitigate its potential.)
Another rule that I’m bullish on is the bigger bases. They’ve gone from 15 square inches to 18 square inches. That doesn’t sound like much but it’s startling when you see it.
View: https://twitter.com/DanClarkSports/status/1501309257496489984/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1501309257496489984%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.audacy.com%2Fsports%2Fmlb%2Flook-new-mlb-base-sizes-are-remarkably-bigger
This rule change is meant to promote safety, giving fielders more room to make plays while staying out of the way of runners, but it’s also meant to promote more aggressive base running, which is one of the most exciting elements of baseball.
So what do you think? Can baseball win new fans by changing its rules? And how do you feel about some of the new rules that have been enacted? And what other new rules would you like to see? Or is all of this unnecessary because baseball is doing just fine? Or, worse, is all of this destined to crash and burn by alienating existing fans while failing to attract new ones?
What does SOSH have to say?
The Ohtani rule, just agreed to as part of the new CBA is a permanent new rule that allows a pitcher who starts the game as the DH to remain at DH for the rest of the game even after being removed as a pitcher. Let me start by acknowledging the hyperbole of the thread title. Baseball, judged by attendance figures, local television ratings, and broadcast revenues, does not need saving. It may no longer be the national pastime but it certainly appears to have settled into something that looks to be stable for the medium to long term. Still, there’s no doubt that the game seems to appeal these days to an older, and probably whiter, audience, and even within the game itself you hear a lot of talk about needing to address the challenges of remaining relevant in the marketplace. This effort, of course, has led to a spate of rules changes designed to boost baseball’s appeal. Can this approach work?The Ohtani rule is an interesting one. I'm sure I might be missing something, but has there ever been another rule that realistically only affects/benefits one player in the entire league?
I personally hate most of the proposed rules changes that are supposed to make baseball more interesting to the modern fan. That’s because I don’t think things like the length of game actually address baseball’s challenges in connecting with today’s audiences. Someone who finds three and a half hours of baseball boring is simply not going to find two hours and forty-five minutes of baseball exciting. Society has changed, most likely because of smartphones, but also because society changes and popularity comes and goes. After all, horse racing and boxing…blah blah blah.
Having said all that, I am quite intrigued by the Ohtani rule because I think it actually DOES address one of baseball’s challenges in the marketplace. From a NY Post article linked to in the other thread: “This rule is for the life of the new CBA, not just for 2022 and the hope is to promote more two-way players.”
Turn on a Lakers game and you can watch LeBron for two-thirds of the game or more. Watch a Chiefs game and you can see Mahomes for half the game. But in baseball, star players appear for just a fraction of the broadcast. This new rule is an opportunity to better showcase a superstar, and that strikes me as exactly what baseball should be doing. Who knows if we’ll truly get more two-way star players, but I think its possible, and if we do, baseball should be looking to celebrate them in this way—not just because of their talent but because of the very fact that they are different and new. I remember years ago when the Sox had the middling ambidextrous pitcher Greg Harris and he had a special glove that allowed it to be worn on either hand. He always said he wanted to pitch with different hands in the same outing but if I recall correctly, baseball had some rule stipulating that whatever hand you threw with to start an appearance you had to stick with. Boooo!
I REALLY don’t like the expanded playoffs. Baseball is the only sport where the regular season is at least as important as the playoffs. (I suppose the NFL comes close.) But I am now persuaded that baseball needs to find ways to appeal to new fans, and if that is the goal, expanded playoffs probably do help. Playoff races truly do hook casual, gettable fans, and it stands to reason that more playoff spots increases the potential for playoff races in more markets.
Along these lines, I am now reluctantly in favor of the ghost runner in extra innings. I personally hate this rule, but it does inject additional excitement into games in a way that I think actually has a chance to connect with new fans. (I recognize that you have to have made it through nine innings to experience this excitement, which may tend to mitigate its potential.)
Another rule that I’m bullish on is the bigger bases. They’ve gone from 15 square inches to 18 square inches. That doesn’t sound like much but it’s startling when you see it.
View: https://twitter.com/DanClarkSports/status/1501309257496489984/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1501309257496489984%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.audacy.com%2Fsports%2Fmlb%2Flook-new-mlb-base-sizes-are-remarkably-bigger
This rule change is meant to promote safety, giving fielders more room to make plays while staying out of the way of runners, but it’s also meant to promote more aggressive base running, which is one of the most exciting elements of baseball.
So what do you think? Can baseball win new fans by changing its rules? And how do you feel about some of the new rules that have been enacted? And what other new rules would you like to see? Or is all of this unnecessary because baseball is doing just fine? Or, worse, is all of this destined to crash and burn by alienating existing fans while failing to attract new ones?
What does SOSH have to say?