The new Baseball rules

[DeaconKC]

There are a couple new rules the MLB has brought out, one of which is a relief pitcher has to face 3 batters unless the end of the inning. I kinda like it, but last night showed why it should not be mandatory. Genesis Cabrera of the Cardinals hit Bryce Harper in the face with a 97 MPH fastball on his first pitch, then hit the next batter too. The Card's manager said he would have pulled him then if he could and the Phillies manager was ejected. Thankfully Harper is ok.

[Rye Miles #13621]

13 minutes ago, DeaconKC said:

There are a couple new rules the MLB has brought out, one of which is a relief pitcher has to face 3 batters unless the end of the inning. I kinda like it, but last night showed why it should not be mandatory. Genesis Cabrera of the Cardinals hit Bryce Harper in the face with a 97 MPH fastball on his first pitch, then hit the next batter too. The Card's manager said he would have pulled him then if he could and the Phillies manager was ejected. Thankfully Harper is ok.

Yea that's a really stupid rule, I also hate the runner on second base in the 10th inning and beyond. I think they're also one that limits double headers to 7 innings! WTH? Is this Little League!  

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

Whoever thought those up is likely related to the clowns who came up with New Coke... and the Nixon White House Guard uniforms.  (Anyone remember THAT??)

[Sedalia Dave]

23 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Nixon White House Guard uniforms.  (Anyone remember THAT??)

 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

4 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

 

Was this what ya meant to post, Dave...?  

 

 

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

I can see why.

[Subdeacon Joe]

3 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Nixon White House Guard uniforms.  (Anyone remember THAT??)

 

Comic Opera.   Or maybe banana republic.    It was one of the things that got people talking about his imperial presidency. 

 

Lord, but those who atrocious. 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

6 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Comic Opera.   Or maybe banana republic.    It was one of the things that got people talking about his imperial presidency. 

 

Lord, but those who atrocious. 

 

Rumor had it that after the White House staff saw the public's reaction they were collected and sold to some college to be used as marching band uniforms.  

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

Armed Good Humor drivers???

 

LL

 

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

6 minutes ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

Armed Good Humor drivers???

 

LL

 

 

Those poor guys.

[Subdeacon Joe]

A Good Article About changes in baseball.

 

Idjits in the office of the commissioner are trying to make the game faster and higher scoring to, supposedly, make it more exciting.  I find more excitement in a 1-0 no hitter than an entire season of NBA.  Or watching a pitcher take a perfect game into the 9th inning...will he be able to hold it for three more outs?

 

Remember the, I think it was the '04 playoffs between the Red Sox and Yankees?  I was listening to it on the radio on my way home from work, got it on the television when I got home, top of the 8th.    Wife got home a few minutes later, there was a show she wanted to watch coming up in about 45 minutes.  "Look, it's the 8th inning, there are only 9 innings and it looks like the Yankees will put it away."  
Now, she didn't like baseball.  She didn't understand it because no one had taken any time to explain anything about it to her.   She glared at me when the score was tied in the 9th.  "So that's it?"  "Ah, no.  Extra innings."  She glared at me.
She glared at me at the start of the 11th inning, "Only 9 innings you say?"  So I started talking.  About if a runner would try to steal.  What the count was and if I thought the batter would swing or take a pitch and why. In the 12th inning she started getting a little interested.  In the 13th she started making comments and asking questions.  Was a fan by the time it ended after 14.

The next night I got home and was putting my stuff down in the kitchen. She walked in about 30 seconds after I did.  "Why isn't the game on!" she asked.  

I created a monster!

[Subdeacon Joe]

In case that link is behind a pay wall:

 

Quote

BOB PADECKY

FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

April 26, 2021, 10:24PM

So now baseball is paying the price for demanding its participants perform the most difficult, challenging act in all of sports — hitting a pitched baseball. Nothing comes close.

A baseball hitter is a lock for the Hall of Fame if he’s successful 35% of the time (.350 average). Imagine Tom Brady completely only 35% of his passes. Tiger Woods has his golf ball on a tee. The basketball hoop isn’t moving when Steph Curry shoots. The soccer goal and the bowling pins don’t move. The tennis racket in the shape of a waffle iron neatly compensates for the speed of a serve.

 

Swinging a round bat at a round ball and trying to hit it square, then fair, then where no one is standing with a glove to catch it, well, no wonder the batter has three chances every time he’s at the plate.

Thus we have the troubling paradox that baseball is desperately and unsuccessfully trying to overcome. A 90-mile-an-hour fastball travels four-tenths of a second from the pitcher’s arm to the catcher’s mitt. That’s a blink of an eye. Waiting for water to boil holds our gaze longer than watching a pitch or, even, an at-bat.

So when someone yells the game is too slow, it’s actually moving too fast. I’ll let you grab that cup of coffee to ramp up.

Major League Baseball has tried everything except throwing the ball underhanded to create more offense. Well, almost everything.

 

Starting Aug. 3 in the independent Atlantic League — aka MLB’s test kitchen — the pitcher’s mound will be moved back a foot from its 60 feet, 6 inches. Two years ago, MLB thought of moving it 2 feet back, but the bounceback was too loud.

“God! Aw, come on,” said SSU baseball coach John Goelz, when told of the current idea. “Why not raise the hoop in the NBA because the guys are getting taller? Why not lengthen and widen the football field because the game is getting faster?”

 

Create more excitement in a sport? Want to see more offense? The NBA and the NFL don’t have to do the whimsies that Goelz offered. Rather, keep it simple, easy. Put a clock on it, a play clock in the NFL, a shot clock in the NBA. Both leagues responded to complaints their games were too slow.

The NCAA was even forced to do something in 1982. The NBA already had a 24-second shot clock in 1954. The NFL always had been on a clock, but in 1976 the league added a 30-second clock to speed up play.

Baseball’s answer to create more excitement? The designated hitter replaced the pitcher in the batting order. The American League adopted it. In 1973. The National League added the DH in 2020. When it comes to making the game more explosive, baseball acts in inverse proportion to the rest of American pro sports.

“The game has been notoriously slow,” Goelz said. “They did lower the mound in 1968.”

That was after St. Louis’ Bob Gibson looked like King Kong out there. Now everyone looks like King Kong. In 2019, MLB set a record for the 12th consecutive record-breaking year of strikeouts. Last year, strikeouts exceeded hits for the first time in MLB history.

“We got to do something to get more offense in the game,” said Jed Hoyer, the Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations, explaining why the mound is moving back a foot. “I don’t believe rules are written in stone.”

Now THAT is breaking news. Baseball’s rules seem to pre-date The Ten Commandments, which were written on stone. The distance of mound-to-plate was determined (ordered?) in 1893.

The pace of American life has quickened to where it feels like a fire drill. Every major sport has responded by timing its activity, an artificial boost. Basketball doesn’t need to be frenetic, nor does football. But Americans don’t like to take their time. Motion defines American life. Baseball once did.

“I was part of one of the greatest college baseball games ever played,” Goelz said.

That would be on May 26, 2008. It was a Division II NCAA playoff game, SSU versus Central Missouri. Yes, it was a classic. It took 19 innings.

“Every pitch was sudden death,” Goelz said.

That’s from a man who’s been in the game for over 40 years, who appreciates baseball for being complicated, a sport which demands patience. Goelz sat at the edge of his seat through a game that lasted 6 hours and 45 minutes, had 32 hits, 42 strikeouts. There were 149 plate appearances before it was over, almost the same number of the fans who remained in the stands before it was over (201). Yet, Goelz never lost interest.

That day, Goelz saw the clock as an innocent bystander. Had no influence. More of a curiosity, actually. It’s late. Oh well. This wasn’t the NFL or the NBA. He didn’t need a clock to hold his interest.

Goelz didn’t and doesn’t believe the link to excitement in baseball must be a clock, that when all else fails, watch the time, it’ll push an otherwise mediocre game forward with an artificial suspense.

The NFL felt the need to do it. So did the NBA. And soccer and men’s lacrosse and water polo. Heck, the World Series of Poker even has a clock. It’s become such a necessity in sport today that football coaches are judged as brilliant when they exhibit “great clock management.” Which means you’re good at wasting time. When you squeeze the seconds out of a game, when a coach slows the game down like that, it’s permitted. Only then is it acceptable to take your time in a football game.

Otherwise, tick, tick, tick. Push the ball up the court. Throw the pass out of bounds to stop the clock. Time is always the opponent to master.

Therein lies baseball’s challenge. A baseball coach can’t sit on the clock or run out the clock or use the clock to his advantage, because there is no clock. To contemplate? Deliberate? Cogitate? Let’s take a minute. That long? People will fall asleep!

So does all this actually say more about us than the game of baseball itself? That we don’t have time for anything?

 

[Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L]

I was at the Texas Ranger game last night and saw for the first time an intentional walk just happen without any pitches. Did not know the rule had changed so the intentional walk was just done with a notice from the manager.

[Blackwater 53393]

The new rules just plain SUCK!!

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

I did not know people still watched baseball.  In any event as long as we are going down memory lane how many remember the Gerald Ford WIN buttons?  Whip Inflation Now.  We might need to reissue those if Congress keeps spending money it does not have.

 

 

[Cat Brules]

?????  

?????
 

“ I find more excitement in a 1-0 no hitter than an entire season of NBA.”

 

What’s the “NBA”?

    Cat Brules

[John Kloehr]

28 minutes ago, Cat Brules said:

?????  

?????
 

“ I find more excitement in a 1-0 no hitter than an entire season of NBA.”

 

What’s the “NBA”?

    Cat Brules

The NBA is a sport where a team takes a ball and throws it in a basket Then the opposing team does the same thing.

 

Barring errors or misses, which are likely to happen to either team since there are a lot of baskets in a game, the winner is the team that throws the last basket before the clock runs out.

 

To keep it short and productive, watching the last minute or two of a game is the most productive use of time.

 

Having shoes that squeak seems to be an important part of the game though no points are awarded for this costume artifact, it just seems to be part of the tradition.

[Rye Miles #13621]

Man did this go off topic!