This is idiotic at the extreme:
Major League Baseball plans on testing a rule change in the minor leagues this season that automatically would place a runner on second base to start extra innings, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan.
The rule will also be implemented in the upcoming World Baseball classic next month. Major League baseball could experiment with the rule Gulf Coast League and Arizona League.
Joe Torre says it’s not fun to watch a position player pitch in the 18th inning. From what I can tell, lots of people like that because it’s different.
I suspect it’s more about speeding the game along, but please, I’d much rather have the 20 second clock.
MLB used to deal with this issue by calling games a tie. In a tie, all the statistics count, but the game needs to be replayed so there are a full season of decisions. I’d rather see a rule that after 12 innings, the game is called a tie and the game is made up. Since players these days hate double headers, that will give the a bit more of an incentive to score runs and finish the game.
Sounds like rec league softball where there are 4 games scheduled for a night so you have to get games done quickly. This is a horrible idea. Maybe there should be a progressive system where a position player has to pitch the 10th, the 11th goes to coach-pitch. If neither team can score under those conditions, it’s tee-ball from there on out.
It’s hard to believe that baseball is being run by idiots who don’t love, or even appreciate, the game, but proposals like this suggest that it’s the case…
There was a lot of experimenting in the Nineteenth Century, but by 1900 they had gotten it perfect. No need to mess with it.
I won’t object to a pitch clock and between innings clock though, it has worked at AAA.
Agreed – maybe in the minors but horrible for the majors – unless you’re a big fan of sacrifice bunts
This is a horrible idea and I hope it dies on the vine like Charlie Finley’s call for organge baseballs, three ball walks, and two strikes Ks. I also agree that seeing a non-pitcher throw late in a game is fun. In 1989 the Astros won a 22 inning marathon against the Dodgers with Jeff Hamilton pitching. He was throwing heat and even struck out Caminiti.