MLB Needs A Change
There are many issues in the world of Major League Baseball. One of them are there are too many divisional games. No one needs to see Yankees and Red Sox 20 times a year, which is still one of the better matchups compared to others. It just gets old after a while even for a huge fan of baseball.
How about those amazing matchups between the Yankees and the Orioles? Yep, they still face one another just as much as the Yankees and the Red Sox do. Absolutely unnecessary. What is MLB and it’s teams expecting to gain from this? Do we really need to have divisional games at this rate to prove who the best truly is? Won’t a record show that? A variety of matchups would be something that would be welcomed by all.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred doesn’t seem to care about baseballs ‘traditions,’ and sometimes that can be a good thing. For example, he put a limit on how many mound visits a pitching coach can have with his pitchers in a game. He also allowed there to be a time limit during those visits. He has played around in the minor leagues with starting a runner on second base in extra innings to help games end faster.
Most of the issues Rob Manfred has addressed have been pace of play problems. Some argue that baseball is just a slow sport regardless, so he is addressing the wrong issues. The things that many, including myself, believe are that most of the issues have to do with schedule, amount of games, and who they are actually playing. There are 162 games in a MLB season. Yet we have to get 20 games of Royals and Tigers a year rather than having AL and NL teams play each other every year. That’s right, if you want to see Yankees and Dodgers, you better catch them when they play this season because they won’t be playing next season.
There are 162 games and we can’t have at least one series a year where each team can play one another? NBA and NHL each play a home game and an away game at least once with every team. Granted, to do this, they would have to cut down the divisional games a bit. Isn’t playing 12 games against your divisional rivals enough, though? Why do we need 18–20? There are so many teams who never get to see the great players of the other side of the MLB. And don’t give me the whole ‘traveling’ excuse. Did anyone see the plane that the Boston Red Sox took to the London Series? Yeah, I think they’ll be okay.
Since baseball is such a regional sport, we only see who our local teams play. For instance, my home team is the Detroit Tigers; for your casual fan to know who Nolan Arenado is, they have to happen to catch a game every other year or so. Imagine if you were only able to see LeBron James play your local team every other year if your team was in the East, for instance.
This would help with branding, as well. Most people wouldn’t know Mike Trout if he delivered a pizza to your doorstep and he is the best player in the league, and one of the greatest of all time already.
To be able to show off your superstars to every market in the MLB would be a huge plus for Rob Manfred and the baseball community. They need to get the youth involved in baseball soon, otherwise there will be a huge problem going forward. According to the Sports Business Journal, the average age of an MLB fan is 53, and it is seemingly getting worse. Kids these days are fans of players, not so much teams. That is a conversation in itself, but for the MLB, they need to market these players as much as possible so that the kids have a reason to go to the ballpark. Based on the eye test, a lot of ballparks are quite empty so they could use all the help they can get.
Having all the teams play one another would help with ratings, both regional and national, and it would help the ballpark numbers. Regardless if Blue Jays fans were to see the Rockies every year, it would still be a bigger spectacle every time an NL team came to town due to it being only once a year. Or, if they don’t want to have interleague play as much, just lower the amount of games. 162 is absurd when playing the same teams over and over again.
Baseball has become a sport that isn’t talked about or cared about the way it once was. Every talk show on radio and TV are talking about NBA drama, NFL training camp, and literally anything else before they mention the MLB unless you live in a city where your team is in first place. But television stations like ESPN and Fox Sports rarely ever talk baseball unless they have a guest who is from the baseball world. MLB needs to find ways to get people talking about them. I’m sure this upcoming offseason will try to address some of these issues.
Oh, and while we’re at it, can we get rid of pitchers batting in the NL? It is a sad thing to watch. It would be like a goalie trying to shoot a goal in a shootout. It just doesn’t fit.
