Major League Baseball

How to Improve & Reorganize Major League Baseball: #1 End DH Rule. In practice that rule elevates the Pitcher above all the other Positions on the Field, thus it is no longer a ‘team’ sport. The whole contest revolves around the pitching. If you have a better pitcher, you win the game period, there’s nothing intriguing about it. #2 Combine American & National Leagues into one. The new American National League (combine - overlay - redesign the logos into one). This is a New Era! The sub division of the 'American National League'(ANL) will be Divisions based and kept strictly on the longitude of the various Stadiums. No more than six teams in a division. Adding divisions as expansion occurs, and keeping teams in as equally numbered divisions as possible, east to west, and with team moves. A team will play those in their own division slightly more than all other clubs. Pacific Div. = SF Giants, SE Mariners, OA Athletics, LA Dodgers, LA Angles, SD Padres. Western Div. = AZ DiamonBs, CO Rockies, TE Rangers, HO Astros, KC Royals, MN Twins. Central Div. = SL Cardinals, ML Brewers, CH Cubs, CH White Sox, CI Reds, AT Braves. Eastern Div. = DE Tigers, TB Rays, CL Indians, FL Marlins, PI Pirates, TO BlueJays. Northeast Div. = WA Nationals, BA Orioles, PH Phillies, NY Yankees, NY Mets, BO Red Sox. With five division there are three wildcard slots, etc. #3 The current fan selection of all-stars is nothing but a farce!! The big cities can out-vote the smaller towns and get all their players selected. Popularity contests are not honoring the players! The players that are the Stat-Leaders in ‘every category’, offense and fielding, or pitching/catching, etc.,should be the All-Stars, by adding together the 2nd half(previous season since all-star game) & 1st half individual statistics. Real Baseball Fans will whole heartily go along with this! Those receiving the highest marks representing the Northern Cities(½ of total Clubs) and those of the Southernmost Cities, based on latitude of the Stadiums, will be All-Stars (throwback to the Civil War, when baseball was a momentary release for troops & citizens of the North & South). The highest finishing teams of the north & south cities from the previous season will supply the manager and coaches. The All-Star game will rotate from city to city through all the major league towns ‘in order’ (not as to who has the newest stadium. This is Fair.), starting with the cities where it has been absent longest, ie Tampa Bay Rays and so on,(expansion teams would have to jump in at the end of the line). However, it must alternate South city to North city. #4 World club championship: The American National League Champion every year should compete in a Real 'World' Series against the Champions from the other top professional Leagues-Worldwide. This makes more sense than ‘the world baseball classic’, which polls show the fans don’t like! They’d rather root for their own city- team, or any City Team from America competing against the Japanese Champ, and Pro Teams of Latin America, etc.. This is how Baseball was build in America! (Rooting for your local club) This is absolutely the best way to sell baseball worldwide! Please help get it started. Work through the MLB and the IBAF. The hardest part is starting anything, so after this season let’s get the invites out and have a New & Improved 'World' Series with the pro Japanese champion, the Korean champion, the best pro team champion of the Best Latin American League this year, and our Champ in a four-way elimination. Everyone can chip-in for the costs. It can be improved on and become more inclusive every year thereafter. Fans in the U.S. and Worldwide will LOVE IT!! This International Playoff Competition can be held, (in warm zones or weather-suited stadiums for November) where the previous years winner chooses and the organization agrees, like unto the international sailing cup competitions. Since Baseball was birthed in the U.S., the first year would be here. Eventually there may be a World All Star Game, and an Asian National League, Latin National League, European National League, etc.. #5 Effective Salary Caps and Parity between teams! Also, an allowance could be set for the amount of travel a particular team has over others. The Teams need to be on an equal footing. That’s fair for ‘all’ the Fans! #6 Would also like to see: go to non-splintering bat (to eliminate waste and for public & player safety) of metal or other substance that would be of equal weight of the woods and of the same resonance, thus producing the same distance/force hit with the same current swing. AS BASEBALL GOES - SO GOES AMERICA - WILL IT BE UNIFIED OR NOT? We can now tell after the several seasons of inter league play in Major League Baseball, that one league's (the American League) rules, which they play under, puts those teams at an advantage and the National League teams at a disadvantage when they meet. Even this season (2009) we see the American League teams again taking the larger share of victories during inter league play. (Is this fair during world-series games??) This doesn't mean that the DH rule makes a better baseball watching experience, it simply means that the use of that rule gives an advantage to those teams that have been playing under it by the time inter league ball comes around. In the National League which plays the tried & true standard baseball - no DH rule, the pitchers must take a turn at bat. They swing the bat, they run the bases. In the American League where the DH rule is in use, the pitchers just pitch and then sit down till the next inning. That difference alone gives the meeting of AL teams and NL teams, to the AL. The AL pitchers are rested, whereas the NL pitchers have made more exertions leading up to inter league play! After standing in the batters box, concentrating on hitting (which is the exact opposite of pitching) and base running, a pitchers stride is interrupted. Multiply that by the number of games leading up to inter league play and NL pitchers are less focused to a degree on their pitching (as they are part of the team and bat). It's not that the DH rule makes 'better' pitchers, it only means that operating under other conditions and rules creates a different game. Also, the AL teams will almost always do better in pinch hit situations, due to the fact that they already have players on the bench that have been batting regularly and exclusively as the designated hitter. Whereas a utility player and pinch hitter in the NL may have been sitting on the bench for two nights and more, possibly. All this doesn't mean that the use of the DH Rule makes for a better baseball game, it doesn't. If you are not interested in the intricacies and strategies of the original game, but only enjoy the superficial aspects of pitching & hitting, then the DH game is for you. However you might as well go out and just see a home-run derby and will enjoy it more. The pitcher is not more or less important than all the other positions and he should bat! We've grown to know that an Afro-American is not more or less important than an Italian-American emigrant. The Ball Diamond is an equalizer. From all walks of life we've met and played the game. Our Original American Game of Baseball is and has always been a 'Team Sport', where everybody gets their 'Ups', with nine players and nine innings per side. Whoever it was that introduced this tenth player, the designated hitter into our national pastime is Anti-American. Our Game as Our Nation must be Unified and be as ONE! Where EveryONE gets their UPs and we ALL take our LUMPs TOGETHER! The Senior Circuit has MAINTAINED: Regular Good Old American Baseball! From the days past ,This was the Original Game that brought Americans out to the BallParks. The DH Rule detracts Significantly from the Game. If you might be an Automaton which only wants to sit and watch the superficial aspect of Baseball; the hits, strikeouts, & runs, then go home and think you've seen a Ball Game, well DH ball is right up your ally. Yet Real Baseball where the nine men on the field each get their 'UPS'; the game we played as kids in our neighborhoods, and the scratch games Adults have played at City Parks. America has always been about fairness and democracy, This is exhibited in Regular Baseball, Which has reflected America’s Greatness. Everyone gets the chance to Hit. Extra Innings-No Ties (ever watched a soccer game end in a tie-BORING). Teamwork throwing the ball around. Three strikes=Out > Three outs=Side Out. Hit batter=TakeBase. Simplicity is the Rule behind the Beauty of the Sport! Personally I enjoy anticipating how any Pitcher might do at the Plate. Adding the DH into the lineup is just NOT Democratic (where did this 10th guy come from?). With the DH your Managers just might as well go to sleep (just nudge him if the game starts to get out of hand, so he can wake up and change the Pitcher ANY TIME without any repercussions). That's Superficial Baseball! Having to maybe Wait and Leave the Pitcher In because the Pitcher is due to hit next inning or the other great strategies the managers use is what makes baseball Baseball! Who pays for the ticket and other stuff, the players or the fans? I want to see the best Athletes when I buy a Ball Ticket, not has-beens, over-the-hills, that can't complete in the field anymore like the DHers, which are taking up space on the Rosters, blocking healthier Men from rising to the majors, and showing us all their brilliance. Just think if Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Bath Ruth or others would have had to wait behind someone in the minors several more years. They may have given up hope and left baseball before we ever knew them, certainly their early exploits would have been in the minors and not the Major Leagues where the spotlight shown on them. We are NOT getting the BEST Product with DH Ball! MLB-OWNERS, Please Announce to the fans that after years of experimenting with the DH, it has been determined that it adds nothing to the overall Baseball Viewing Experience, and it is being discontinued! Thank You for jointly taking this positive action for Baseball and Thank you for reading this!