Dear MLB, Evolve!

20. Jun, 2010 45 Comments
Spencer Loomis

“If you want a revolution, the only solution: evolve.”

Gatorade gets it. Every other major sports league gets it, so why does the MLB still live in the past? Because baseball is America’s pastime? Not anymore, football is far more popular. Furthermore we’re not even the globally dominant force in baseball. The average Dominican or Venezuelan kid could outpitch and outhit the average American kid.

The issue comes to the forefront following veteran umpire Jim Joyce blowing a call at first base in the final 27^th out of what should have been Armando Galarraga’s perfect game, the 3^rd in the league in the past 23 days, the most in MLB history. Oh MLB history, so historic and honorable. Oh wait, that hasn’t been the case since the Sosa/McGwire HR chase of 1998 and the resulting black eye of PEDs.

Umpire Jim Joyce responsible for costing Armando Gallaraga a perfect game

Technology could have easily solved the blown call problem for the MLB and prevented this painful black eye.

So why does the MLB still refuse to implement instant replay? To respect the honor and tradition of the game and the human error element related to the history of the game? Then why has the game adopted postseason instant replay rules?

Perhaps the league wants to keep the game moving quickly and can’t afford to spend time reviewing regular season plays. If the league is fighting to shorten regular season games then they should adopt technology as a form of doing so. When George Mikan dominated the NBA in the 1950’s the league implemented a shot clock to prevent scores like 20-19. Technology protected the fan experience. The same is true for play clocks in football. So implement a pitch clock that assesses a ball to the count if the pitcher takes too long or a strike to the batter if they take too long out of the box. This would easily allow for enough time to review the one or two crucial calls in a game that need be correct.

The MLB is now rooted hypocritically in tradition. The league insists that it makes decisions to protect the integrity and honor of the game. Then why did the league and Commissioner Bud Selig allow PEDs to run rampant and restore fan following to baseball following the nation’s disgust at player salaries following the 1994 strike.

If the MLB truly believed in unchanging tradition, then Jackie Robinson would never have been allowed to don a Dodgers jersey to break the color barrier. So the league will adopt change in some ways yet has put its foot down in refusing evolution in other ways. For instance, the MLB still uses wooden bats. Does that mean that if the PGA truly believed in the history and tradition of the game of golf that players would still be using wood clubs? You could argue that it’s the sound of the crack of the bat that is the reason that the MLB still enforce the use of wood bats. Ah yes, the sound must be protected.

Remember the sound of a wooden driver cleanly striking a ball off of the tee? Of course not because no one has used one since before you were born. Technically that’s not true, my grandpa had an old set of wood clubs that I swung once or twice growing up to get a laugh out of my buddies.

You could argue that games would be too high scoring if aluminum bats were adopted. Too high scoring? For who? Fans love home runs and it’s not like home run records carry any significant meaning since Barry Bonds raped the record books while ballooning his cranium to beyond bobble head proportions.

How about we start respecting the honor and tradition of all sports like the MLB does for baseball? Growing up, race car drivers should use all of the top modern racing technology, but when they get to the NASCAR level they have to use old fashioned racers and load as much moonshine as they can fit in the trunk. The NBA should implement new hoops made of old fashioned peach baskets and keep a ladder next to them to get the ball out each time a hoop is made.

The honor and tradition of baseball has already been tarnished beyond recovery, so MLB, let go of your dreams and start living in reality. All of the numbers associated with the MLB’s history have been tainted by the league turning a blind eye to blatant steroid and PED use because it became prevalent conveniently during a time when the nation didn’t care about baseball. Record breaking home run seasons refocused the American eye on the MLB and essentially saved the league. Once the league was thoroughly reestablished, the commissioner returned to his moral pulpit by punishing the players that made his league prosperous once again.

To truly protect the honor and tradition of the game of baseball, perhaps we should strip the game of its other uses of technology. The first two perfect games were pitched 5 days apart in 1880, before games were covered on the radio. Well a baseball purist doesn’t want any change to the game, so the league should cancel its lucrative coverage deals. By not covering the game on TV or radio, the league could’ve addressed their current Public Relations problem because there wouldn’t be replays showing how inept their veteran umpires are. Stadiums ought not to have any electric scoreboards or big screens either. The league should prevent their games from being covered beyond the print media as games were first covered. No TV, and even no websites allowed to cover the games. This would certainly make Jim Joyce happy today (Jim Joyce’s Wikipedia destroyed).

Come on baseball, technology makes the sports experience better for players and fans alike. The MLB can’t continue to be institutional Luddites.

So in summation, the Major League needs to accept that the world evolves and that the days of the MLB being pure, historic, and honorable are gone. Some important history and statistics are still worth protecting for baseball, one of which is the rare perfect game. So why not at least get what little history they have left right?