Quote:
Originally Posted by frankbmd
(It just ain't fair to the unemployed utility player with teams carrying 14 pitchers on their roster most of whom are one inning wonders in the bull pen)
..........All MLB games were 6 inning in length?
I suspect the complete game would make a comeback.
3 and 4 hour games would be eliminated.
You could still have that runner on second base but let the extra seventh, eighth and ninth innings be real baseball in the case of a tie.
The runner on second base in the tenth inning looks like a kid's game in the sandlot that is threatened by the mother's calling their kids home for dinner, and the kids want to know who won.
I suspect 3 or 4 relievers could do the trick with 5 starters. Certainly no more than 10 on the roster.
A 12 inning double header would be preferable to the current 14 inning affair.
The managers would have more flexibility to manage beyond calling the bullpen for a new pitcher every inning.
And to accommodate all the starters who cannot seem to pitch 5 innings any more, let 4 innings be the requirement to record a W.
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Such a proposal would drastically reduce the number of relief pitchers each team needs. To expedite the cutdown process, I suggest an annual event each Spring Training called "The Running of the Bullpens". Pitchers can compete in events like 'Arguing balls and strikes,' with the winner being the most demonstrative, and 'The (how not to hit a) Homerun Derby'.
They will be evaluated on how long it takes them to wake up in the middle of a game when they get the call to start warming up, with bonus points awarded if they can do it despite being hungover from the night before. The Dick Radatz Award will be given to the pitcher who can crack open a cold one at the top of the inning, then strike out the side before it gets warm.
They will also be scored on how many sunflower seeds, peanuts, and boxes of Cracker Jack they can consume per inning. The capstone event will be a series of wind sprints (after all, it is the
Running of the Bullpens) that will continue until all excess pitchers have dropped out.
To placate the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) activists, no bulls will be harmed in the Running of the Bullpens. To placate the PETA (People for the Eating of Tasty Animals) activists, ample hot dogs will be provided to spectators, so that the overweight ex-jocks who get winded walking from the sofa to the refrigerator can have something to chew on when they volubly inform everyone within earshot that they could have thrown a football over them mountains, and would have won the state championship and gone pro if only coach had put them in in the fourth quarter.