Major League Baseball Loves To Make Itself Worse With Awful Rule Changes

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We recently passed the third anniversary of the Boston Red Sox trading away Mookie Betts for a ripped Stop and Shop bag, which effectively murdered my love of baseball. 

I skipped the whole 2020 covid season essentially. I don't think I watched a single regular season game, so I missed all the gimmicks and changes, but I did catch a decent number of playoff games (s/o Robert Suárez) the last two seasons. I guess ghost runners are back in a move that stinks out loud.

Breaking: MLB’s Joint Competition Committee has voted unanimously to make the extra inning rule permanent for all regular season games moving forward. (2023 and beyond). A runner will be placed at second base at the start of every extra inning. Story coming at espn

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) February 13, 2023

I've watched my fair share of 15+ inning affairs, and get why teams want to avoid the possibility of that happening to them multiple times throughout 162, but I hate this rule change. It's fake baseball. Hockey OT at least has them play a shortened period before the shootout. I'd be fine with this rule if it started in the like the 12th to avoid super-long games, but this devalues the first nine innings. Is baseball gonna change its standing to a points system?​

I don’t mind the idea of the rule but it should start in the 11th/12th inning.
I think I saw that 60-70% of extra inning games ended in the 10th before this rule. Give them at least one more inning of actual baseball.

— Scott Singer (@IamScottSinger1) February 13, 2023

I also like this alternative. It's great for fans of situational baseball and gradually raises and guarantees tension.  A free runner on 2nd with no outs where a single can score him feels cheap.

My idea to fix this has long been:

-No ghost runner in the 10th
-Man on first in the 11th
-Man on second in the 12th
-Man on third in the 13th

The purists would still hate it, but it seems like a better compromise than the automatic man on second. https://t.co/CKMRLZX0Gk

— Josh Martin (@MartinOnMovies) February 14, 2023

This is the kind of anti-capitalist rhetoric I can get behind. Greed ruins everything!

The reason for the ghost runner has nothing to do with health of pitchers. The fact is that there is no extra revenue coming in from either local or national television sources, or from concessions which mainly have stopped sales of beer and alcohol by that time.

It's a farce.

— Tigerdog; #Twiterspreadslies (@Tigerdog_1) February 13, 2023

Even though I disagree with the ghost runner rule, I at least under the reasoning behind it. This rule change on the other name makes no sense to me. Maybe the game has passed me by, but why the fuck does there need to be any restrictions on when position players can pitch? Was this really a problem that needed solving?

MLB announced plans to extend new rules for position players pitching into the 2023 season. pic.twitter.com/yQWshyOCMZ

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) February 13, 2023

Baseball's quirks are what makes/made it great. I love when a position player gets on the bump in a blowout, but why does this need regulation? Is this what it feels like to be in the NRA? But in all seriousness, this is as fucking stupid as America's gun laws. Sometimes you need to just get off a good old fashion "that's fucking stupid," and this changes qualifies.

You're fixing a problem that doesn't exist, like the mafia. If a team is down by 12 in the 8th inning, they should be able to throw a backup LF on the mound and give the people still at the game something entertaining to see. I always watch Twitter clips of position players on the mound. It's awesome when you see moments like Anthony Rizzo striking out Freddie Freeman. That happened in the 7th inning. 

Baseball has some legitimate issues. How about you require owners to have at least a 100 million dollar payroll, so there aren't seven teams winning 65 games? Weekends double-headers should be a thing again. You ruined the All Star game with fugly uniforms. Why don't you get rid of TV blackouts so fans can actually watch your fucking product? It's so damn frustrating when the Red Sox are on MLB Network, but they're blacked out because of NESN when NESN isn't even on fucking YoutubeTV anymore. Although, that problem's solved since YoutubeTV dropped MLB Network too.

I look at baseball like an ex-wife that cheated on me, who I still love, but just can't seem to forgive. I don't know if I'll ever get over the Mookie trade. I mean, it doesn't eat me up like it did in 2020, but if I'm thinking about it for more than 30 seconds, I start getting furious. 

Major League Baseball may be doing well financially, but its fanbase is only getting older. The fact that they lost me speaks volumes because I used to be one of baseball's greatest advocates (in my hometown). I tried to get more people my age to see its beauty and care. I can't be the only person who's been disillusioned by scumbag owners. It sucks to see baseball make itself uglier by getting an awful haircut that nobody asked for. Hopefully, things will change for the better someday. At least hair grows back. Speaking of hair, the Yankees grooming policies should be fucking illegal. I'm all for making changes to the game that improve it, like replay or expanded playoffs. Even the new nets are ok. Yeah, I hated them at first, but I understand the liability. 

P.S.

This is the only ghost man I want.

Double P.S.

I just read this article between finishing the blog and publishing. I guess a record number of position players were used last year. The article further explains the "risks" and why the change was made, but I still don't fuck with it!