Baseball ticked me off again tonight. These "Umpires"...wow. Angry. OK. 1..2..3...better.
Jim Joyce's blown call against Armando Galaraga with a perfect game going in the bottom of the 9th, 2 outs might go down as one of the single worst calls in umpiring history. It's a year where the usually "invisible" umpires are sadly becoming more visible, to the point where loudmouth fatass Joe West got fined for just generally being a moron.
This, to me is showing why its becoming harder and harder for me to be a MLB fan. The fans are getting screwed more and more each game, each day and each play.
BUT. I have, what I believe are some very good ideas to bring the game back to prominence, and I will go further into them now.
1]INSTANT REPLAY- Enough with this "it'll make the game longer" nonsense. If you don't like the length of the games, leave the park or change the channel. I'd rather stick around a few extra minutes just to see the right call, than leave the park a few minutes early with a blood pressure reading that will boil steel. I don't wanna see it for home run calls, I wanna see it for every call. Make it like football, each time gets 3 or 4 challenges a game and that's it.
2]ELIMINATE MOST UMPIRES- Save for the home plate ump, whose only job should be ball and strike calls, all umps seem to do is piss off people. Eliminate them. It'll save the game money. Replace them with the official scorer, or better yet, technology. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps won a race by .01 seconds, the only way they can tell was with a computer chip in the wall that he touched. Surely we can do something like this for baseball. Have the base blink as soon as the runner touches it.
3]END INTERLEAGUE GAMES- I might be wrong on this, but I think I remember that when interleague was announced, that it was only supposed to be for 5 years or something like that. Now it's every year and some of the match ups have lost their luster. Yankees vs. Pirates? That is a joke. Royals vs. Phillies? C'mon. Not only do you risk injuring pitchers, you kinda make the World Series less exciting. It was more exciting when teams from different leagues faced each other only on Spring Training games and the Series. If Interleague must stay, make it one series, like Yanks vs. Mets or White Sox vs. Cubs, the days leading up to the All Star break.
4]MORE TEAMS OR REALIGNMENT- The National League has more teams then American, and It has always bothered me as to why that is. Either move 2 teams to the AL, likely the Rockies or the Pirates, or form new teams. Surely Las Vegas is over due for a pro sports franchise, or dare I suggest somewhere in America's breadbasket? Maybe Oklahoma City, Topeka, Kansas, or Omaha, Nebraska? There are whole regions of the country that have no baseball near them, and it's supposed to be Americas pastime.
5]THROWBACKS- Wanna have a game with throwback uniforms to bring back a sense of "old time" baseball? Great idea, but lets take it a step further. For those games, lets also have throwback prices. I don't think MLB would lose much for $5 or so seats for the whole park for one or two days.
6]SALARY CAP- Yea, I know i'm gonna catch flack for this but I don't care. I get sick to my stomach when I see guys complaining about not making an extra $40 million a year on top of the $60 million they're already making when some people are digging in dumpsters for food and teachers and firefighters are losing their jobs meanwhile these pampered blowhards get paid ludicrous amounts of money to play a game we all happily play or played as kids for free. Whatever happened to "for love of the game?" In addition to the regular salary, these bums already get money from endorsements anyway. So what if they don't make that extra 40 mil? Can't afford that 3rd Mercedes? Whaaa.
7]PERSONAL CONDUCT FINES- The NFL has it, so why can't MLB? If I have to see Manny Ramierez stare lovingly at his HR for 10 minutes before he decides to run the bases, i'm gonna jump through my TV and strangle him with his own dreadlocks. For players who do this, there should be a mandatory $50,000 fine. Quit staring and run the bases like Williams, Mantle and the rest of the real players did.
8]HOMETOWN PLAYERS- This might be a little controversial at first but I believe it could have good repercussions long term. I think, in order to bring the hometown feel back to the game, every 25 man roster should feature at least 2 players who were born in or spent most of their life within 50 miles of the team they play for. I think it'd do a lot for the game. It'd give the fans a hometown guy to root for. Sure I like Posada and Pettitte but I Jeter was born close by. And while I know this might be sore subject with some, Teixeira was born in Baltimore, which is why he is currently reviled there. I love rooting for hometowners.
9]RAIN DELAYS- This one is simple. If it's a night game and the delay goes on for longer then an hour, call the game. I'm tired of waiting for hours at a time to see if they resumed play.
Wow. Look at that, 9 ideas....9 innings...9 players on the field. That tied up nicely didn't it? Oh Wait, extra Innings!!
10] FIRE BUD SELIG
Nuff' Said.