Sunday, May 30, 2004
Marmar fixes baseball
Ok so I am this bar last night, and actually get the nerves to go up and talk to a girl who was Hungarian. And we talked for a while, made usual chit chat, and I offerred to buy her a drink. And right after I do, she starts conveniently ignoring me. Not only that, she bought a fucking Vodka and Redbull, about as expensive as you can get. If you are going to use me for a drink and shoot me down, at least let me know before hand so I can buy you the house gin. That was one mean bitch.
But of course, like any player, I put her behind me and moved on to the next one...which was the girl taking my order at Burger King. Another Saturday Night and I aint got nobody.
Lets change the subject before I start crying. This post is about how to make baseball better. I still love baseball, mostly due to my love for the Red Sox. And I really love baseball, for example, I think that 162 games is an acceptable amount, and will watch 140 games a year if in Boston. But I realize I don't represent the majority of fans. And its painfully obvious to me that baseball has the most problems: no young fans, too much of a difference in revenues and payrolls between teams. Most importantly, the NFL is taking over as America's Pastime. That is huge for baseball, the tie-in to history, the roaring 20s, World War II, all that nostalgic crae Times are changing however; the Super Bowl destroys the World Series in every possible way in terms of national prominence. If baseball loses that status, it will become marginalized.
The solution is modeling the entire system, from A ball all the way up to the Majors after the European Soccer system. This involves paring the Major Leagues down to 24 teams. 12 NL, 12 AL. 6 in the East, 6 in the West. Here is how we would do that, for the first season this system was in place, the last place team in each of the current divisions would get demoted to Triple AAA. Triple AAA would also have 24 teams, then Double AA Single A, Half A, or whatever all the way down the line. The winners of the divisions in the majors would play the ALCS, NLCS, World Series.
There would be 5 days between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs. During this time, at a pre-selected stadium, the Major League would hold its Bud Selig Regulation tournament. The teams that had won their divisions from all the levels, as well as the bottom 4 teams from each division in all levels, would come to play in a tournament. ESPN and the Deuce could carry it. 5 days, 5 games (potentially). The winners of the series get promoted, or avoid getting demoted.
That would be dramatic. It would give last place teams in the Majors something to play for. It would let teams that couldnt compete with the payrolls of the Yankees and Co. spend a few years functioning on a smaller scale and rebuilding, with something to compete for in making it back to the majors. But it would reward teams that could build great teams on smaller budgets. It would improve the overall quailty of major league players, by getting rid of the worst 125.
I would abolish the concept of farm teams, allowing teams to keep 50 man rosters and 25 man active rosters. The major league teams would then loan their non-active players to lower division teams. Thus, if a third division team was able to find and sign talent for cheap, and could keep the team together, they would potentially be able to get to the World Series. That would increase interest in baseball as a regional sport.
I would also set up a tournament similar to the FA Cup in England, where every team from all divisions play three game-series against each other, from May to August. 5 weekends would be removed from the schedule, cutting the season from 162 games to 145. These weekends would be used for rounds of the Cup. Each round would be a three game series, held at the site of the lower division team, (except the final, which would also be held at a neutral site.) This would give the lower division fans a chance to see the stars of major league. Meanwhile, in a three games baseball series, anything can happen so there would be a ton of upsets. Plus it would be great to gamble on.
I would construct a baseball World Cup, to be held in November, about a month after the World Series, in Florida. Like the Rugby and Soccer World Cups, I would only hold it every four years.
I would move Montreal to San Juan as soon as possible, with a real stadium. I would move Tampa Bay to Havana as soon as Castro dies.
I would make a rule that if you trade for a player, you have to pay that players salary. This is to keep the Yankees from trading for Raul Mondesi, then trading him and paying his salary. This would make teams more cautious about trading for players and keep teams from paying off management mistakes.
I would make rules to cut down on pitchers like Frank Castillo running around the mound. This would involve limiting pitchers to two pick offs per inning (three is treated as a balk.) limiting batter-step outs, and putting an alotted time between pitches.
I would force Fox to fire Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, and force them to watch Joe Morgan-televised games for the next ten years.
I see nothing wrong with this plan, and they do it in Europe, so there is no reason they cant here. But they wont
But of course, like any player, I put her behind me and moved on to the next one...which was the girl taking my order at Burger King. Another Saturday Night and I aint got nobody.
Lets change the subject before I start crying. This post is about how to make baseball better. I still love baseball, mostly due to my love for the Red Sox. And I really love baseball, for example, I think that 162 games is an acceptable amount, and will watch 140 games a year if in Boston. But I realize I don't represent the majority of fans. And its painfully obvious to me that baseball has the most problems: no young fans, too much of a difference in revenues and payrolls between teams. Most importantly, the NFL is taking over as America's Pastime. That is huge for baseball, the tie-in to history, the roaring 20s, World War II, all that nostalgic crae Times are changing however; the Super Bowl destroys the World Series in every possible way in terms of national prominence. If baseball loses that status, it will become marginalized.
The solution is modeling the entire system, from A ball all the way up to the Majors after the European Soccer system. This involves paring the Major Leagues down to 24 teams. 12 NL, 12 AL. 6 in the East, 6 in the West. Here is how we would do that, for the first season this system was in place, the last place team in each of the current divisions would get demoted to Triple AAA. Triple AAA would also have 24 teams, then Double AA Single A, Half A, or whatever all the way down the line. The winners of the divisions in the majors would play the ALCS, NLCS, World Series.
There would be 5 days between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs. During this time, at a pre-selected stadium, the Major League would hold its Bud Selig Regulation tournament. The teams that had won their divisions from all the levels, as well as the bottom 4 teams from each division in all levels, would come to play in a tournament. ESPN and the Deuce could carry it. 5 days, 5 games (potentially). The winners of the series get promoted, or avoid getting demoted.
That would be dramatic. It would give last place teams in the Majors something to play for. It would let teams that couldnt compete with the payrolls of the Yankees and Co. spend a few years functioning on a smaller scale and rebuilding, with something to compete for in making it back to the majors. But it would reward teams that could build great teams on smaller budgets. It would improve the overall quailty of major league players, by getting rid of the worst 125.
I would abolish the concept of farm teams, allowing teams to keep 50 man rosters and 25 man active rosters. The major league teams would then loan their non-active players to lower division teams. Thus, if a third division team was able to find and sign talent for cheap, and could keep the team together, they would potentially be able to get to the World Series. That would increase interest in baseball as a regional sport.
I would also set up a tournament similar to the FA Cup in England, where every team from all divisions play three game-series against each other, from May to August. 5 weekends would be removed from the schedule, cutting the season from 162 games to 145. These weekends would be used for rounds of the Cup. Each round would be a three game series, held at the site of the lower division team, (except the final, which would also be held at a neutral site.) This would give the lower division fans a chance to see the stars of major league. Meanwhile, in a three games baseball series, anything can happen so there would be a ton of upsets. Plus it would be great to gamble on.
I would construct a baseball World Cup, to be held in November, about a month after the World Series, in Florida. Like the Rugby and Soccer World Cups, I would only hold it every four years.
I would move Montreal to San Juan as soon as possible, with a real stadium. I would move Tampa Bay to Havana as soon as Castro dies.
I would make a rule that if you trade for a player, you have to pay that players salary. This is to keep the Yankees from trading for Raul Mondesi, then trading him and paying his salary. This would make teams more cautious about trading for players and keep teams from paying off management mistakes.
I would make rules to cut down on pitchers like Frank Castillo running around the mound. This would involve limiting pitchers to two pick offs per inning (three is treated as a balk.) limiting batter-step outs, and putting an alotted time between pitches.
I would force Fox to fire Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, and force them to watch Joe Morgan-televised games for the next ten years.
I see nothing wrong with this plan, and they do it in Europe, so there is no reason they cant here. But they wont
# posted by Marmaniac @ 7:07 AM 
