I'm the MLB Commissioner

[Dogeshak]

The baseball season is approaching. I always imagined running the MLB since I was a kid. I have some ideas to introduce to the MLB to improve the game. As we all know, baseball has been losing popularity to other sports because of the lack of action and stand around time. The league is stagnant, and it needs a little energy. Here are a couple things that I would implement, if I were the MLB Commissioner. Please feel free to add your own ideas and critique others.
 

• Lift the ban on previously banned players such as Pete Rose and Joe Jackson making them eligible for the Hall of Fame right away
• Change the scheduled amount of games from 162 to 150
  • Every series is a 3 game series
    •  60 Division games, 60 same League games, 30 Interleague games
• Opening Day is April 2nd - Final Day is September 26
• 3 Divisional Winners from League automatically make playoffs
• Wild Card Games start September 30th (Top two teams that did not win Division from each League)
  • Reseeding based on best record in season for LDS
  • Best overall season record has home field advantage throughout playoffs
• Playoffs start October 1st
  • For Five Game Series (2-2-1) For Seven Game Series (3-3-1)
  • LDS (5) is October 1-8
  • LCS (7) is October 10-19
  • WS (7) is October 21-30
• Trade Deadline is moved to August 8th
• Have each team play a series outside of current MLB ballparks to introduce the game to other markets
  • The 15 Locations would include ballparks around Las Vegas, Omaha, Portland, Charlotte, Mexico City, Montreal, London, Tokyo, Sydney, San Juan, Santo Domingo, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, and Seoul
• All Star Break be the weekend after the 4th of July
  • 2 days off then 3 days of events then 2 days off
    • USA vs. World Prospect Game
    • Celebrity Softball Game and Home Run Derby
    • All Star Game (limit to 25 players on each team)
• DH is established in both Leagues
• Pitch Clock is set to 30 seconds, while batters have to have one foot in the box while preparing for the at bat.

 

This is just a rough draft so far. Hopefully I can expand it as the days go on. Tell me what you think.

[DDR]

Pete Rose, yeah, sure. But I'd reinstate "Shoeless Joe" Jackson.

[2001mark]

30 minutes ago, dorshak said:

The baseball season is approaching. I always imagined running the MLB since I was a kid. I have some ideas to introduce to the MLB to improve the game. As we all know, baseball has been losing popularity to other sports because of the lack of action and stand around time. The league is stagnant, and it needs a little energy. Here are a couple things that I would implement, if I were the MLB Commissioner. Please feel free to add your own ideas and critique others.
 

• Lift the ban on previously banned players such as Pete Rose and Joe Jackson making them eligible for the Hall of Fame right away

 

Translated:  Betting on baseball is 100% fine by any & all directly involved with the sport.

[Gary]

I can't get behind the Pete Rose argument. He might be a great player. But he bet on the game and his own team. Which should make him automatically kicked out. 

 

Second they are leagues not conference's

[Magnus]

I would be fine with a 162-game season if the series were shortened to 3 games, and have discussed as much in the Reel-line-mint thread.

9 games each against teams in your own league, plus one interleague rival (matchups should be fairly obvious) would give 135 games. But adding 15 to that total instead of 27 would work fine as well. Just play a whole division in the other league once (five series of 3 games).

[IceCap]

Rose and Jackson stay banned. It's baseball's cardinal rule.

 

End interleague play. Bring back the NL and AL umps.

 

Get rid of the WS home field advantage stipulation from the ASG.

 

That's all off the top of my head.

[Dogeshak]

20 minutes ago, 2001mark said:

 

Translated:  Betting on baseball is 100% fine by any & all directly involved with the sport.

I see the Hall of Fame as the greatest baseball players of all time, not greatest decision makers of all time.

[Cujo]

- Both leagues adopt the DH rule!!!!!

 

- Revert back to 2 divisions per league. Eliminate the Wild Card.

 

- Trash the "All-Star Game winner gets home field" rule.

 

- Open the Hall of Fame doors to steroid users. Those who bet on baeball remain disallowed.

 

- Put the Brewers back in the AL, Astros return to the NL.

 

- Make the Padres go back to brown and yellow uniforms.

 

- Managers can no longer dress up like baseball players (the Dom Zimmer rule)

 

- Force the Marlins to remove that ridiculous outfield mural.

 

- Place a Home Run Derby restraining order on Chris Berman.

 

- Outlaw all ALL Derek Jeter-esque farewell tours.

[WSU151]

59 minutes ago, dorshak said:

I see the Hall of Fame as the greatest baseball players of all time, not greatest decision makers of all time.

 

So breaking the rules, especially a rule like betting on your own team, should have no bearing on HOF status?  If so, any player that is a shoe-in for the HOF should break all the rules they possibly can.  What's it matter?  

[FiddySicks]

Get that universal DH crap outta here. 

[Gary]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

- Both leagues adopt the DH rule!!!!!

 

- Revert back to 2 divisions per league. Eliminate the Wild Card.

 

- Trash the "All-Star Game winner gets home field" rule.

 

- Open the Hall of Fame doors to steroid users. Those who bet on baeball remain disallowed.

 

- Put the Brewers back in the AL, Astros return to the NL.

 

- Make the Padres go back to brown and yellow uniforms.

 

- Managers can no longer dress up like baseball players (the Dom Zimmer rule)

 

- Force the Marlins to remove that ridiculous outfield mural.

 

- Place a Home Run Derby restraining order on Chris Berman.

 

- Outlaw all ALL Derek Jeter-esque farewell tours.

Smells like 1990 around here

[Gary]

I would also take it a step further. For those who were caught using steroids should be banned from Hall is Fame consideration. Not speculation. But being caught.

[mcj882000]

Let's see, some of the things I did in a game in Out of the Park 13:
-Reduced schedule from 162 games to 160
-Instituted a static season start day of April 1; between this and the shortened schedule, seasons would always end on September 22
-No interleague play (I used to really like IL, but the game couldn't schedule it properly, so I just did without it; now I've grown to like it that way)

-I think I eventually abolished the DH (truth be told IRL I don't really care whether it stays or not)
-Went back to 4 division setup (I wound up expanding to 40 teams (!), with 10 teams per division)
-Revamped the postseason, making it akin to the NHL's divisional playoffs in the late-80's (top 4 teams in each division get in, division winners meet in the LCS, League winners meet in the World Series)
-I'd ditch the "ASG = World Series home advantage" thing, but I wouldn't go back to the old alternating system either - whichever WS team has the better record should get home field advantage.
-And it's evidently an Unpopular Opinion, but honestly... I'm kinda with the TC, I'd probably reinstate Rose & Jackson too. I mean, heck, MLB's already circumvented Rose's ban twice 'cause of special occasions; and maybe I'm just a young fool, but IMO now that we're in the days of PED scandals, suddenly gambling in baseball doesn't feel like such a huge problem anymore.

[Gothamite]

2 hours ago, Gary. said:

I would also take it a step further. For those who were caught using steroids should be banned from Hall is Fame consideration. Not speculation. But being caught.

 

Going forward, sure. 

 

But for this to have any Pete Rose relevance, you would have had to make that rule some time in the 1930s. 

[goalieboy82]

1: get rid of DH

2: reinstate Rose and Jackson.  the voters in the Hall of Fame would have to decide if they would want them in or not.  it might not be a foregone conclusion that they get in.  

3: season back to 154 games.  move Brewers back to the AL and Astros back to the NL.

4: would have interleague play but would have less of it (more like city/state rivals, and old WS match-ups).  

5: Throwback/City Baseball Heritage jerseys will be worn from around July 1st to the Sunday before the All-Star game. 

6: would go back to the alternating between AL in even years and NL in odd years in having home field advantage in the WS.  

7: would have best record for LCS.  

8: would go back to one wild card.  

 

[infrared41]

• Add a pitch clock (saw it in action at a Columbus Clippers game last season and it's great) and any other measures necessary to speed up the pace of games. 
• Reduce the regular season to 154 games
• Get rid of the DH
• Move Astros back to NL and Brewers back to AL
• End this nonsense of the ASG deciding home field advantage
• Each team can designate one position player and one pitcher to wear #42 on Jackie Robinson Day. That's it. Everyone wearing #42 is a nice thought, but it's overkill and I think it waters down the tribute.

 

That's all I got off the top of my head. 

[The_Admiral]

I'm on board with bringing Houston back to the National League but I like Milwaukee in the NL too. I don't think of them as an AL team anymore and respect the Milwaukee Braves (public) rationale for moving the Brewers to the senior circuit.

 

Everything else you said I agree with except 154. It ought to stay at 162. Just schedule a couple day-night doubleheaders to free up some days at the end of the year.

[OnWis97]

6 hours ago, dorshak said:

The baseball season is approaching. I always imagined running the MLB since I was a kid. I have some ideas to introduce to the MLB to improve the game. As we all know, baseball has been losing popularity to other sports because of the lack of action and stand around time. The league is stagnant, and it needs a little energy. Here are a couple things that I would implement, if I were the MLB Commissioner. Please feel free to add your own ideas and critique others.
 

• Change the scheduled amount of games from 162 to 150

 

This is just a rough draft so far. Hopefully I can expand it as the days go on. Tell me what you think.

I'd go 154 since there is a historic precedent.  That was the schedule prior to about 1961.

 

Some ideas are interesting.  In theory I like the playing outside of MLB parks (though some locations are too far away, at least for mid-season).  But unfortuantely, they won't have ballparks that can produce the revenue.

 

I would:

• Have interleague follow the NFL's model.  That is, divisions rotate and you play teams in the opposite league every three years.  Brings more schedule integrity and the contrived rivalries, which are losing their luster, would be more exciting when played less often.
• Eliminate the DH.
• Eliminate the current Wild Card setup, which can favor a lesser team setting it's ace vs. a team "trying to win the division" and not setting its staff.  Go back to three champs and one wild card.
• Dump the All-Star game for homefield rule.

[The_Admiral]

I would have liked the Cubs to have played a three-game set in Des Moines or Omaha or someplace else while Wrigley was under construction last April. Would have been better than foolishly opening the season at home coming out of construction and making everyone piss all over the place like animals.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Everything should be the way it was when I was 12.