How to Improve Major League Baseball

Now that the NFL and the NBA are threatening lockouts in the coming years, Major League Baseball has a great opportunity to pick up the abandoned fans as the leagues struggle to figure out how to split the hefty profits. I know, it comes with a sense of irony since MLB went through a similar phase back in 1994 (Never Forget: Montreal Expos). But (as of now) the league has learned its lesson and although there is still no salary cap (I hate unions) baseball is just as competitive as ever as we see many small market teams manage to push around the big boys throughout the season. Last year, smaller market teams like the Rays, Braves, Reds, and Giants managed to clinch their division over more successful $$$teams like the Yankees, Cardinals, Phillies, and Dodgers. But in order to nab more fans, baseball has to clean itself just a little for the next generation of sports junkies. Baseball can still retain its extremely old-school roots, but can improve some of its “seasoning.”

Yes, for those that regularly read my blog (three of you), I have done this type of article before. But this is me expanding upon the original statements I made on how to improve baseball. First things first is the instant replay controversy. If we make it extremely simple, we can ward off all the complaints. For starters, the strike zone shall never, ever, ever, ever, ever be challenged by instant replay. Every umpire has their unique strike zone, and we must respect this to the utmost level. Some strike zones are wider than others, so as long as they are consistently calling the balls and strikes, we should let them be. The same goes with the check swings; that is strictly an umpire’s call. But once that ball is in play, we can challenge the end result. I mean this with foul calls, home runs, tags at the plate(s), fan interferences, and whether or not somebody stepped on the bases. Simple things like that.

So how many challenges should be issued? I believe in the professional tennis method: three challenges per team, if you win, you keep your challenge, and if you lose, you lose a challenge. There should be a fourth umpire at all times monitoring the ballgame somewhere hidden in the park but with complete access to all the televisions, computers, and gadgets that allows him to make the final call at a quick enough rate. Instant replay can be used in baseball without slowing it down much further. But I think a fifth umpire upstairs is necessary. Just as simple as that.

The schedule has been one of the major controversies of the NFL. They’ve wanted to increase its game total to 18. In my opinion, I prefer 16, but I don’t see many reasons why it would be a disaster to the utmost level if they were to increase it by two. Baseball on the other hand needs a subtraction. Back then, you could (barely) justify a 162-game schedule. Nowadays in this fast-paced world, 162 games is impossible to keep track of before it becomes tedious. Thank goodness it has the best playoff system in the major professional sports (and yes I include the NFL).

Now MLB is thinking of changing its playoff format, which I am totally against. These teams already play 100+ games a year; the 8 teams that make it have proven their worth and totally deserve their spot in the playoffs. Unlike the NBA and NHL, which features subpar mediocre teams managing to make it in the bottom seeds, all Major League ballclubs still standing in October deserve their standing. But, but, the schedule needs a little fixing. I believe that baseball should dip down into 126-132 games instead of the rather winding 162 games. Baseball is a very unpredictable sport, and one in which anybody can beat anybody on any given day. So, 82 games like the NBA is still a bit short, but anything over 132 would be overkill. My dream baseball season is 100 games, but realistically, if MLB were to reduce the amount of games, 132 would sound better.

And tweaking the schedule some more, I believe that there should be more Interleague, but it should be reduced to just inter-state and well-known rivalries and a lottery system, which I have discussed last year. The lottery system gives smaller market teams a chance to take on the well-known ballclubs (something like Nationals vs. Yankees, Dodgers vs. Royals, Rays vs. Cubs) and offers a little more variety to the schedule. However, I don’t think that every team should play each other at least once (like in the NBA and the NHL) because the American League and the National League are very different in terms of style of play. The NFC and AFC are similar, as well as the Western and Eastern Conference in the NBA (Although the West has been dominating for years). But in baseball, its over 100 years of history that defines the National and American League and upon deeper inspection, you’ll note most of the differences.

The marketing of baseball needs a major improvement, because like the NBA they focus only on certain teams. The NFL has by far the best marketing, because they can turn any team that makes the Super Bowl into a wonderful story. They turned the smaller-market Saints into temporary America’s Team with Drew Brees and company. Then they managed to turn a Steelers-Packers unprecedented Super Bowl into the most watched television program in history. They nearly force you to take a side and partake in the tradition of watching the big game.

While Major League Baseball can never conjure up those types of numbers (Because its best-of-seven, as opposed to best-of-um-one) they can find better ways of getting you excited for the series. There are dozens of great stories from each team: some historical, some recent. The Rangers/Giants matchup was the least-watched World Series in history, even though the Giants are amongst the most animated and unique core of players in the history of the entire sport. The Rangers could have built upon the story of how Nolan Ryan now owns a team that can win him his first World Series in 41 years. Or even build upon the suffering that the Giants went through on their first pursuit of a World Series since moving from New York way back in the 50s. But alas neither was really brought up throughout the series. Baseball has way too much history and way too many incredible stories for MLB to fail in the marketing department.

And speaking of marketing, sometimes the best marketing is viral. Viral marketing is what can propel one small incident or moment into a phenomenon, or a simple movie trailer into the most anticipated event of the year. But with MLB, they are terrible at allowing us to relive history. Good luck trying to find no-hitters, perfect games, or epic playoff moments on YouTube (that isn’t consisting of a man holding a camera and shaking it violently as a great play occurs). Baseball has the best, richest, and craziest history, and reducing its heavy restrictions on videos about the sport can allow it to thrive longer. Look at how the NBA has been a bit easier with their videos being shown online—and now we can watch the 50 greatest playoff moments (and more) online in a matter of searches. While older baseball classic moments aren't too tough to find, games in the past 4 decades are a bit more difficult to come by. We need to have the ability to see modern baseball playoff moments like this at any given moment (or this)---with good quality.

The final thing MLB must do in order to become more popular is establish a salary cap. This is going to be extremely hard with the greedy player’s union running around (I hate unions) but unless they want to continue seeing teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels spend 200 times as much as other teams because they have the dough, we will never see teams like the Rays, Royals, Athletics, and Pirates have a shot at picking up major stars. While nowadays teams are relying much more on a farm system to manufacture winning ballclubs (Athletics last decade, Rays today) just the opportunity to get stars should be presented.

Bottom Line: No professional sports organization is flawless, but baseball has the most potential to grow, especially in times which we might see a temporary lack of NFL and NBA. If we can fix the few little flaws hampering Major League Baseball, then it can develop a new audience and nudge itself closer to the NFL’s first-place position in the sports world. As baseball is my favorite sport, I’d love to see it dominate the ratings and press like it did back in the heydays. I personally think if we can reduce the number of games and slightly modernize some of its features, we can continue its resurgence in popularity.

P.S. Go Rays!!