15 New Year’s Resolutions MLB Should Adopt
15 New Year’s Resolutions MLB Should Adopt
No topic is more fun to think about than what other people should chose to be their New Year’s Resolution. It is way more fun to think of what someone else needs to do to improve their lives than ourselves. In that same way it should be a blast to imagine what the powers that be in Major League Baseball should think of doing to make themselves better for the year of 2014. It really could get silly if you think about it.
For example they could pledge to create a profit sharing situation that would actually work well enough to even out the payroll of each MLB team. Isn’t that ridiculous? I’ll pause while you laugh. It could be decided that the managers of the league got to vote on the best umpires and the bottom 25% of vote getters weren’t allowed to throw anyone out all year long the next season. See now, that would be awesome! Angel Hernandez would never throw anyone out again!
The list that follows will be somewhat more serious than that. Though some possibly might seem more difficult than playing the first game of the season on the moon, these are things that could potentially happen. Well some of them could really happen and some of them would literally take an act of congress to get done. Feel free to add your own ideas for what MLB could do for a good resolution in 2014. Have some fun with it. Who knows? They might actually pick one of them one day.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
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New Year’s Resolution for San Francisco Giants
15 – Change Placement of World Baseball Classic
It doesn’t come along every year but when it does the WBC really has the irritating ability to mess up spring training for a lot of players. More times than not it just changes the way the players get ready for the year but the potential of them getting hurt before the regular season even starts is way too large of a risk for players to have to take. I’m not sure where it should go but I think they should change where they place it.
14 – Stop Opening Season in Odd Places
This year the first series of the season is a full week earlier than other teams start and will be in Sydney, Australia. It has happened many times before in different places but for my money I don’t see why they must keep doing this. I’m sure the teams aren’t pumped about the first series of the year being messed up and earlier than others. Sure the money is great for MLB but they should care more about their teams than money.
13 – Hold Umpires Responsible for Foolishness
The vote idea from the opening article was a joke but in all seriousness, umpires have to be held accountable to someone for real. Sure they say they answer to someone but they clearly do not or the same terrible calls wouldn’t keep happening. Hopefully the addition of instant replay will alleviate some of that instead of making it worse but either way the bad umpires, you know who they are, have to be held to some standard.
12 – Do Not Force Pitchers to Wear Helmets
I don’t like seeing anyone get hit in the head with a baseball. At the same time however I also don’t like choice being taken out of the situation either. There are already safer helmets for pitchers in the works but they could be uncomfortable at best to pitchers which itself could mess with their performance. Allow them to choose whether or not to wear them and there is no issue at all. Forced safety measures are only good to a point before they become too much.
11 – Give Alex Rodriguez a Break Already
Rodriguez has dealt with PED issues for a while now but the way the current suspension is being handled is just wrong. In fact it seems that the entire situation might be more suspect than anything with how confident A-Rod and his lawyers are that he won’t have to serve the suspension. Bud Selig wanted to make an example of this guy on his way out the door to hopefully polish the dark stain that the PED era has left on his legacy. Stop it and give A-Rod a break from the target on his back.
10 – Remove Extra Umpires in Playoffs
All career and all season long umpires work in four-man crews. There is no way putting them in a different situation for the most critical games of the season is a good idea. This has been displayed numerous times over but with the addition of instant replay there is now absolutely zero reason for there to be extra umps down the lines.
9 – Ban Scott Boras
If Pete Rose can be banned for life for something that could be damaging to the game of baseball then agents like Boras need to be banned for the same reason. I love baseball but we would all have to be blind not to see the effect of big money agents like Boras on the game down the road. Long lockouts are inevitable to one day happen unless salaries are harnessed in some way. That would begin with banning agents such as this guy from the game. Call me a dreamer but I’m not the only one.
8 – Work Towards Salary Cap
Yes baseball needs a salary cap somewhere. Obviously the players are never going to agree to such a thing without a fight but who is to say it has to be small? Things work okay right now with some teams able to lift salaries well over $100M so make the cap somewhere around $200M or so. It doesn’t have to be low but there needs to be a cap somewhere or all the money in the world will one day be funneled through MLB owners.
7 – Do Not Add More Wildcard Teams
One wildcard team entering the playoffs was controversial but it worked pretty well. The addition of a one-game playoff and a second wildcard seed is a bit much. It lessens the impact of having the best second place record. It does have the added bonus of pushing teams to want that divisional title though so it is okay. Stop it there though. MLB has to be tempted to try and create a situation where even more teams have a shot at the postseason but further diluting the playoff system for baseball would be very bad for the game. They should cap it where it is.
6 – Officially Remove “Asterisks” From Record Book Discussions
Barry Bonds is the all-time home run king for a single season and for a career. I know what everyone else knows but he was still the greatest home run hitter of his time. A ton of guys were juicing at the time but only one performed like Bonds. Give the guy some credit and never speak of asterisks in regards to numbers again. For goodness sake put them all in the Hall of Fame already. We know what happened during that era but it also included great baseball. Give the guys their credit for hitting those marks and forget the stupid asterisks.
5 – Reinstate Pete Rose
With all of the other scandals going on around the game and the much improved attitude of Rose over the last several years, there are diminishing reasons to keep the man out of the Hall of Fame. No one who ever plays the game is bound to get that many hits ever again. If anyone in baseball deserves some credit for a job well done it is Pete Rose. Hate him, scowl at him and judge him all you want but give the man a round of applause for destroying Ty Cobb’s untouchable hits record and being one of the toughest men to ever wear cleats.
4 – Remove World Series Implications from All-Star Game
This has to be the worst idea Bud Selig’s regime ever had. The All-Star game was always an exhibition and it still is. No more people care about it now than did before the winning team got home field advantage in the World Series. The home field should go to the team with the best record bar none. Making the series in a third party location like the Super Bowl wouldn’t work because of the differences in the games and it is preposterous to allow the fun-loving mid-summer classic affect the outcome of the Fall Classic in any way.
3 – Leave Future PED Investigations to Third Party
If we have learned anything from the Bud Selig vs Alex Rodriguez situation it is that bias on the side of the MLB officials is not out of the question. Because of the potential far-reaching effects of these kind of suspensions, investigations into PED scandals and the testing itself should all be handled by an unbiased third party from now own. That would remove the entire drama from the A-Rod situation and likely would have resulted in a ton fewer suspensions than were handed out in Selig’s final bow to the baseball world.
2 – Put the DH in Both Leagues
I have been a baseball purist for a long time but it is getting to the point where a DH in both leagues makes the most sense. Think of a player like David Ortiz. He is basically a career DH at this point and most would agree he is quite an important one. Yet National League teams would never be able to consider themselves a favorite to sign him because there is no DH option. Players getting older who might need less time in the field can extend their careers with the DH but again only in one league. It is fast approaching time to even out the playing field.
1 – Do Not Tinker With Instant Replay
This is a big year for MLB because of the instant replay addition that is coming. I think the way they are doing it will be a very good thing for the game. Most of the time, most umpires get the call right. Good umpires have no problem admitting they made a bad call if they in fact do. This would simply allow those calls to not affect the game’s outcome. It’s great but they have to put it in place and leave it alone. Sure there will be some things that are probably changed during the first year of it but once the kinks are out of it, they have to leave it alone. Do not constantly tinker with it and change it on a yearly basis.
