It's time for another installment for "If I Were In Charge Of". This week's installment looks at Major League Baseball. This is a league that has definitely had its ups and downs and some really stupid moves along with some smart moves. I do believe there are still a lot of improvements that can be made to "America's Pasttime" to make it even better. So here are some changes I would make if I were in charge of MLB....
*Institute a hard salary cap and have a minimum spending level. One thing the NFL (which I'll get to in a later post) totally gets right is this aspect. They have a hard salary cap & along with that have a minimum spending level. One of the most ridiculous aspects of baseball is how teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and such can have players on their team who's salary matches several teams' total salaries. In a way to shorten the gulf between the big market & small market teams institute a hard salary cap. That way the same four teams can't be the only ones going after the top free agents. Gives a more level playing field for the rest of the teams. At the same time, there is a minimum spending level that all teams have to reach. It keeps the stingy owners from not paying their players (I'm looking at you Dan Glass). I would have one exception to the hard cap and that's implementing a type of "Larry Bird rule". In the NBA, there is a salary cap exception for certain players to that teams can re-sign their own players. In this instance, each team will have one exception to for a superstar player to re-sign to make them a "_______ for life" type player. That way fans can identify with at least one superstar for each of the teams in MLB.
*Get rid of home field advantage from the All-Star Game. I always thought that was an overreaction to what happened in the All-Star Game that ended in a tie. Honestly that game shouldn't have ended in a tie, they should've kept playing it until it was over but Bud Selig goofed and then tried to fix the goof and now we have "This Time It Counts". I would either go back to alternating home field between National & American Leagues (even years it's American, odd years it's National) or best record gets home field. That seems more fair than what is involved now.
*Have a consistent strike zone across the board. Case in point, I watched part of the Red Sox/Rays game yesterday and at the end of the game there was literally an at-bat where none of the pitches were in the strike zone & the batter did not swing & the umpire called all strikes. That's ridiculous. There needs to be a consistent strike zone across the board. There will always be judgment calls in sports I understand but when it's understood what a strike zone should be, then call it that way. Different umpires shouldn't have different strike zones.
*Bring back day/night doubleheaders & day game playoff games. Some of this is definitely old school I know but there's nothing wrong with a little old school now and then. It'd be cool to have maybe weekend series where there is a day/night doubleheader (maybe on a Friday or Saturday) so that fans could really enjoy a day at the ballpark. Along with that, have more day game playoff games. It's detrimental to the sport when you have playoff games that have such a late start at night. Having day games (as in like mid afternoon) I think would help draw in more kids to the sport.
*Have "Autograph Days" during each homestand. Each team will have designated "Autograph Days" where they will have players set aside time pregame where they will sign autographs for fans. There will be designated players for each homestand signing. That way fans can have more opportunities to interact with players and players can build more rapport with the fans.
Feel free to post in the comments what changes you would make if you were in charge of MLB and go back and check out previous posts and comment there.
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