It's easy if you try
No Vazquez breaking his finger
No DL for Stro's George Springer . . .
They've padded the walls, they've improved helmet technology, players wear all sorts of armor on their elbows, shins, and feet to protect themselves from balls, and yet Base Technology hasn't changed in more than 50 years.
Watching the Sox game last night and seeing Nunez dive into First Base (AGAIN!! STOP IT!!) and getting up slowly I asked myself why MLB still needs bases at 1st, 2nd and 3rd? So many broken and jammed fingers there, not to mention twisted ankles and wrenched knees and who knows what else?
Base Pluses:
1) Those 2 ground balls each year that hit the base and take a hilarious bounce
2) The first baseman (or pitcher covering) can feel for the base to make the putout.
Base Minuses:
1) See above about fingers and legs
Solution:
Replace the bases with something else. Have you ever felt a major league base? It is a pretty damn hard piece of equipment. If you jump on it it can compress a tiny bit, but on a scale of "soft pillow = 1" to "cinderblock = 10", a major league base is about an 8.5
Solution: Something softer, if you want to keep the ability for the pitcher/first baseman to be able to feel for the bag, or just go to a similar built in structure like home plate. Yes, you'll have to equip the other 3 umpires with brushes, but that's a helluva cheaper than a broken finger!
Happy to discuss other solutions. I'm sure there's something safer out there that will solve all these issues.
Sorry, Hollywood Jack Corbett!
Edit: I see this is mentioned in the August Game thread, and having a base makes it easier to stop a slide than not having a base. Excellent point, but a softer base would also allow that.
I think this needs it's own thread.
No Vazquez breaking his finger
No DL for Stro's George Springer . . .
They've padded the walls, they've improved helmet technology, players wear all sorts of armor on their elbows, shins, and feet to protect themselves from balls, and yet Base Technology hasn't changed in more than 50 years.
Watching the Sox game last night and seeing Nunez dive into First Base (AGAIN!! STOP IT!!) and getting up slowly I asked myself why MLB still needs bases at 1st, 2nd and 3rd? So many broken and jammed fingers there, not to mention twisted ankles and wrenched knees and who knows what else?
Base Pluses:
1) Those 2 ground balls each year that hit the base and take a hilarious bounce
2) The first baseman (or pitcher covering) can feel for the base to make the putout.
Base Minuses:
1) See above about fingers and legs
Solution:
Replace the bases with something else. Have you ever felt a major league base? It is a pretty damn hard piece of equipment. If you jump on it it can compress a tiny bit, but on a scale of "soft pillow = 1" to "cinderblock = 10", a major league base is about an 8.5
Solution: Something softer, if you want to keep the ability for the pitcher/first baseman to be able to feel for the bag, or just go to a similar built in structure like home plate. Yes, you'll have to equip the other 3 umpires with brushes, but that's a helluva cheaper than a broken finger!
Happy to discuss other solutions. I'm sure there's something safer out there that will solve all these issues.
Sorry, Hollywood Jack Corbett!
Edit: I see this is mentioned in the August Game thread, and having a base makes it easier to stop a slide than not having a base. Excellent point, but a softer base would also allow that.
I think this needs it's own thread.
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