The beginning of spring is near, and that means Major League Baseball is around the corner.
Unfortunately, traditional fans of baseball have to watch the once-unfluctuating sport become as fickle as the Louisiana weather.
This year, the MLB plans to implement a dugout signal to intentionally walk batters, meaning teams no longer have to pitch four consecutive balls to put a batter on base. A manager will now simply flick his wrist to make an opposing player forgo an at-bat.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has been a proponent of quickening the pace of professional baseball games since he assumed his office in 2015, and the new intentional walk rule is his most recent attempt to shorten games.
In my humble opinion, it’s also his latest attempt at making a complete fool out of himself.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the new rule will save a whopping 14.3 seconds per game.
That’s downright laughable.
I’m old enough to remember a handful of times when a routine intentional walk turned into an exciting play because the pitcher overthrew the catcher with a runner on third.
There’s also the classic incident of a pitcher losing his concentration when trying to walk a player and grooving a fastball to a batter who happily obliges to take the pitch into the next zip code.
Yes, the above examples happened only a handful of times in my life, but when they did occur, they were at least exciting and, at most, game-defining moments.
Now, any potential thrill has been sacrificed to save a time frame equivalent of a teenage boy rolling out of bed and deciding what shirt he’s going to wear.
But wait, there’s more.
The MLB also plans on testing a rule in the minor leagues that will give each team a runner on second base at the beginning of extra innings.
That’s about as appealing as kissing my sister, but it is yet another attempt by Manfred to reduce the notoriously long game times.
He, and other high-ranking professional baseball officials, fear the sport is dying because it no longer appeals to America’s younger generation.
While that may be true, I highly doubt millennials will be lining up to buy tickets because Manfred’s intentional walk rule saved them enough time to cook their Pop-Tarts in the morning.
To truly woo younger fans to the sport, Manfred is going to have to appeal to the instant gratification culture that is prevalent in sports, like football and basketball, where scoring is prevalent and big plays occur every other minute.
However, what Manfred clearly fails to understand is people love baseball because of the things that make the sport different. Baseball requires different skills and talents, demands different levels of patience from players and fans and provides different moments of excitement and disappointment.
Sports are beautiful because they manage to teach players and fans life lessons while enjoying a meaningless game, and they each do it in a unique way.
But maybe that belief is as outdated as America’s former pastime.