We don’t know if any Major League Baseball games are going to be played in 2020, nor what tweaks we’ll see to the standard framework of a game if play does resume. To recap some of the ideas have been publicly floated, teams could potentially end up playing the entire season at MLB stadiums and Spring Training parks in Arizona and Florida, regularly playing at least one doubleheader per week in order to fit as many games as possible into a truncated schedule. We already heard last month that the league was planning to allow 29-man rosters for at least the start of a shortened season, and it could very well be the case that expanded rosters become the norm for any games played in 2020, owing again to the need to keep as many players fresh and healthy as possible for this sprint of a season.
The changes may extend to the on-field product itself. Doubleheaders could be staged as two seven-inning games, rather than standard nine-inning contests. Dodgers star Justin Turner recently proposed the idea that, instead of extra innings, teams would decide games in 2020 by having a Home Run Derby if the score was still deadlocked after a 10th inning. As Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times noted in that last link, an abbreviated season could also give MLB the opportunity to apply its automatic-baserunner experiment for extra innings (already used in the All-Star Game and World Baseball Classic) to regular season contests.
These are all interesting ideas, and frankly, no concept should be off the table given all the difficulties the league faces in trying to launch any kind of season while keeping players, team staff, and stadium personnel as safe and healthy as possible. That said, the traditionalist baseball fan in me can’t help but be hesitant at alterations to the nature of the sport itself. Something like an expanded roster isn’t an issue, but holding a seven-inning game or deciding an important regular season contest with a HR derby doesn’t seem quite right.
If limiting the time of games and the extra innings conundrum are going to be obstacles, The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli (subscription required) recently suggested a simple proposal — tie games. Every regular season contest would end after nine innings, no matter the score. As per one reader e-mail to Ghiroli, MLB would adopt a point system of awarding two points for a win, one point for a tie, and zero points for a loss.
It can definitely be argued that ending extra innings is much more of a fundamental shift in baseball’s nature than, say, putting an automatic runner on second base in the 10th inning onward. After all, there’s definitely a romance to the idea of a game that always has a decisive winner. Just about every baseball fan has at least one personal story of attending a marathon game until the very end, or showing up bleary-eyed at work the next day after staying up very late to watch their favorite team finish a West Coast game that went 14 innings.
It’s worth noting, however, that the threat of a tie score adds its own level of drama to games. As Ghiroli notes, it creates “a real emphasis on winning in nine innings, the drama unfolding over the final three outs because there is no more baseball. Managers won’t have to save guys in the bullpen or think about who may be needed to play the field in the 10th.”
Postseason games, naturally, would still have as many extra innings as necessary to decide a winner. But for the regular season, a tie game in baseball wouldn’t be any different than a tied football game or a tied soccer game, both of which are familiar concepts for sports fans. While there may be some level of dissatisfaction in watching a game that ends without a clear winner, a tie has its own sort of “we’ll get ’em next time” feel that is particularly fitting for baseball, particularly since that proverbial “next time” could be the very next day.
Rather than limit draws to just a 2020 season, Ghiroli suggests that tied games could become a regular element of baseball going forward. “We know viewership — on TV and at the game — drops the longer a game goes,” Ghiroli writes. “We know baseball is constantly fighting the stigma of being long and boring. We know, more than ever before, thanks to oodles of data that exhaustion increases the chances of injury and a game with its stars hurt suffers greatly.” Adopting tie games wouldn’t be too much of an impact on the overall schedule; to use the 2019 regular season as an example, no team played more than 19 extra-inning games last year.
Let’s open it up to the MLBTR readership to get other views about both the idea of tie games or other late-game methods of deciding a winner, both in a 2020 season and beyond. (Links to both Poll One and Poll Two for app users).
HR derby to decide a tie game is a really stupid idea. Just have a tie game. Regular season is regular season.
I really can’t stand tie games. Drives me crazy in football. What about this, and it may be just as crazy LOL. But.., it avoids a tie.
If two teams tie, then that win will carry over to the next game. Next game counts as double, two wins. Not bad eh !!
yea. ties result in more divisional ties
Do like in t-ball. Have a base race after the game to break the tie. And every player then gets a granola bar and juice packet. This would save the teams money by not having those big elaborate post game spreads. The money saved then could go toward signing say a Chone Figgins at 4 years, 36 million dollars. Or paying off Bobby Bonilla. Or the Phillies could use it to hire Bryce Harper a personal valet and footman. Or the Yankees could use it to sign one more gigantic broken down slugger. Time to think outside the lines.
Not a bad idea
Not bad, terrible. There will be expanded rosters. Play the game until there is a winner.
What happens if its the last time during the season that the two teams meet? Not every tie happens in the middle of a three or four game series.
they need to adapt the college football OT rules. No clock each team has the ball no matter what at least once.
Pretty unfair to teams that don’t map out their roster based on homers. Just keep playing extra-inning games. It’s worked since day one.
Many of you seemed to miss the whole thing with the HR. It said runners on base or a couple other things. I missed it at first too.
The last out on the previous inning starts on second for a set number of innings then the last two outs for a set number of innings then the last three. This makes the game exceedingly harder and more exciting than continue to run out players normally.
I don’t like ties but I voted for calling it a tie game after 9. In order to maximize the number of games played in a limited number of stadiums they might have to schedule as many as 3 games per stadium in one day.. To schedule that they’d have to make sure games didn’t run past 4 hrs/game. So stopping after 9 made the most sense to me given the limited stadiums and the limited time to play the max number of games.
No. Just no
They should cut the season down instead of this crap, because the season is too long and boring, and I like baseball!
“I like baseball” and “the season is too long and boring” are two very contradictory statements. I call BS.
agreed
Yep!
“baseball is boring, and I like baseball”.
I. Just. Can’t.
Cheeseburgers are gross but man do I LOVE cheeseburgers!
If you love baseball, why do you want less of it?
couldnt agree more
Ditto
Tie games, homerun derbies, 7 inning games…all b.s. While we’re at it, give the players tampons instead of jocks.
I really have no idea where you’re going with the tampon comment.
I do and it was hilarious.
And sexist. (But not hilarious.)
Pretty soon it’ll be like junior high school soccer. They won’t even keep score. Everyone wins and everyone gets a trophy. Welcome to Socialism.
Hard to believe someone who was traded for Frank Robinson in one of the most lopsided deals in MLB history.
Do you have any idea what socialism is? And why the hell was there any need to bring politics into this? You easily could have made a valid point without it
I hate baseball but a 1-0 great pitched with great D can be better than an 8-11 game with runners on base every inning.
Plenty of time for a nightcap after a 1-0 game. 11-8? Not so much.
I’d love to see another 23-22 game at Wrigley don’t even care who wins even being a cubs fan. 1-0 perfect game with a walk off home run. Double perfect game up until that point would be something to see. Even better make it 2 finesse pitchers that can throw a complete game with under 100 pitches
Imagine thinking that tie games at the end of 9th should change in any way from how they are now….
No
if they can keep as many innings as possible, that would be optimal, but im fine with ties after 9 or 10 if that is what we need for there to be a 2020 season. not after this one though, no ties and no HRD.
Extra inning games rarely last beyond the 12th inning or so. Every so often you’ll get a really long game, but players start to get tired, eventually there’s no one left on the bench and one or both sides will run out of pitchers.
So you’ll wind up using the absolute last guy in the bullpen. And if he can’t get anyone out, that’s it. Leave it be. Baseball is the only sport without a game clock.
Exactly. People act like tie games in baseball last for hours and hours. Sometimes you do have like an 18 inning extra inning game, but it’s rare considering how many games they play in the MLB. And most everyone loves those long extra inning games.
This isn’t the NHL where multiple ties happen on night. You don’t need to micromanage every single aspect of the game.
I remember going to a cubs game a long time ago. The game was delayed due to tornado warnings. Delayed like 3 maybe 4 hours. Soriano eventually hit a walk off home run.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it… some of the most memorable moments in the history of baseball have happened in extra innings.
Exactly
couldnt have said it better myself
Wow! Tie games and HR derbies. Give me a break! Extra innings all day!
agreed
12 innings in the regular season, no limit in the postseason.
I love extra inning games, though I can see why MLB would want to limit them. My ranking of options would be:
1) Play extra innings like normal
2) Put a player on base to start innings in extras
3) Game ends in tie after Xth inning, preferably around the 12th
4) Game ends in tie after 9
5) Coin Flip decides winner after 9 innings
6) Home Run Derby after 9
NHL style. 2 points for win. 1 for a tie after 9. 3 inning OT for the extra point. No HR derby because That’s just batting practice.
A home run derby should be exhibition only.
yea
If there is a tie after 9 innings, just use the “Feats of Strength/Wrestling” format from
“Festivus” on the Seinfeld show; one participant from each team to try and pin each other. First pin wins; Festivus for the rest of us, per George Costanza’s father!
Right, this seems like just as good a way of determining the winner of a baseball game, as a homerun derby. Could you imagine being a contact/speed team or a team that relies heavily on good pitching/defense to win ball games, and losing the division by 1 game. Meanwhile you lost 9 out of 10 homerun derby’s and the team that won the division won 7 of 9.
They are floating way too many crazy ideas around. Why they don’t just see what happens and when things will open and then make a decision. I think the original of playing in Arizona was fine. 11 stadiums to work with. Start the games at 5pm or 6pm, so on the east coast they would be at 8 or 9. I don’t think they can play earlier as it would be 130 degrees in the heat of the day in the sun.
Hell no
Can’t change a fundamental element of the game. Saying this as a guy who realizes the damage a 16 inning game can inflict on a team.
No. Hell no. God no. Explicative no.
1) The extra innings concept is one of the few major things that makes baseball unique compared to all other sports. This goes back to literally the first real organized baseball team.
2) The home run derby idea is just stupid. The best comparison to it is a shootout in hockey and I don’t know any serious hockey fans who like shootouts. They consider it boring and annoying.
3) Anyone remember the 2002 all star game that Selig declared a tie? There was such a huge uproar that Selig made an even bigger mistake of declaring the league winner of future all star games gets home field advantage in the World Series.
4) Stop trying to change baseball!
Seriously what’s next? Any hit to the shortstop is an automatic out? If it hits the wall then it’s an automatic ground rule double? Add a target in center field and it you hit it your team automatically win?
one only needs to remember that tied all star game
I mean, is there really any reason to change it other than to change it? It’s not like games often go more than 12 innings. Sure sometimes you get those marathon extra innings games that go 15+, but there’s only like one or two, maybe three a season that are like that. On April 13th, 2019, the Giants had the most extra inning games since 2017, but even then it was only about 11-12%, and I know not every single one of those went past the 10th.
I also found that only .75% of MLB games from 2011 to 2018 went to the 12th inning. Only 109 went to the 12th inning. That is such a small number when there are so much bigger issues in baseball.
.75% of games that went into extras I should clarify.
I don’t want infinite extra innings taken away either, but the main reason I’ve seen for changing it (which, granted, is unfair) is because there’s always some AAAA guy who comes in and throws 5 shutout innings in those super-long games who always gets subsequently demoted/DFAed simply because they threw all of those innings.
I had tickets to MLB’s most recent tie game: the 2002 All-Star Game. It stunk then, and it’ll stink now.
2016 was the most recent tie
Leave the game alone!
Everyone is always so scared of change. Try something in the shortened season and see what happens.
It’s not that people are scared of change. It’s that you’re giving us less of something most of us here love. I’m sure every baseball fan can remember a time when they watched their team win an extra inning baseball game in a thrilling or dramatic fashion. Even when our favorite team loses, we love that adrenaline rush knowing that in extras, one small mistake could be the costly deciding factor that makes the other team win.
was at an 18 inning game when I was 12. I loved it. My parents, not so much… which only meant I liked it even more.
the point is there is no upside. if there is no reason to expect that the change will help then the change is useless. at that point you are changing something just toc change it, which is always a terrible idea.
Tied game is kill baseball
If they put runners on base to start extra innings, I will quit baseball.
I’d rather just let them play until there is a winner, but if not that, then ANY other solution, including calling it a tie, or flipping a coin (which is also silly)
Agreed, that’s the worst option. I stopped watching the WBC when I realized that was a rule for those games. Makes the entire game before it seem like a waste of time.
Players hate it too. I remember talking to a player who played in the Pan Am Games that had that rule in effect. He wasn’t exactly a fan.
tie game if its still tied after 10 innings?
Never, never a tie. Extra inning games are the best games in regular season.
First off, changing rules re extra innings doesn’t need to be considered just because of shortened season. It would only need to be considered if there was a significant increase in the number of double-headers and/or a significant reductions in the average number of off-days per week. If double-headers/off-days are not changing, there is no reason to change the rules re extra innings..
Secondly, even if there are more double-headers and fewer off-days, if the active roster size is increased to 29 or 30 players (up from last year’s 25), you should still probably play games out to completion regardless of how may innings it takes. The reason for increased rosters would be to allow teams to play the same as always, even with a denser schedule.
Third, if the goal is to eliminate “marathon” games without fundamentally changing the rules, 10 innings seems too early to call a game a tie. 12 innings seems more reasonable and would result in far fewer ties.
Finally, the home run derby is a terrible idea. Games should not be decided by how good a team’s bullpen pitcher is (or whoever is going to be called on to toss up gopher balls).
As a baseball naturalist, keep it the way it is
No, no, no, a trillion times no. Leave the damn game alone, save for undoing all the terrible changes in the past 50 years.
Can’t wait for a 54-54-54 season
Baseball already has tie games and has forever. It’s just that nobody ever remembers them because they’re not counted in the standings, but the game itself is declared a tie and all stats are official. Another reason no one remembers tie games is because they’re so rare these days unlike decades ago when they were more common prior to there being lights at every MLB stadium. But if you don’t believe me just pull up MLB standings on MLB.com for say 2002 or any year you wish and it will give you a list of games that ended in ties but aren’t counted in the standings.
I don’t think games should end in ties after 9 innings but I wouldn’t be against games ending in ties after 12 innings.
The whole starting a runner on 2nd base in extra innings deal is absolutely asinine!!
(to amend Tom Hanks) There’s no tying in baseball!!!
Why not have a shoot off like in soccer?
If the game is tied after 9 innings just pick some players from each team and have a shoot off? Duh!
You mean…a home run derby?
because it’s not soccer.
Baseball needs to keep an open mind moving forward and that may include incorporating elements of soccer.
Listen… no one wants an extra inning game to be solely determined by playing an additional soccer match. I’m just suggesting a soccer shootout after the 12th inning.
Nah. All businesses need to keep an eye on the future but unnecessary change is unnecessary change. And there is no reason whatsoever for soccer to have anything to do with baseball decisions.
I was thinking that it would be cool for MLB to be on the forefront of incorporating totally unrelated sports into their game, but I can see a counter-point. Touche’.
Get the hell out of here. Not a damn chance
Home run derby… why?
I’m talking about using a soccer ball and a goalie. More global appeal.
I think they should stop keeping score, all statistics should be in purple wit a happy face emoji, all teams are winners every game and they can hand our juice boxes to the players after the game. Minute Maid can be given the exclusive contract to make up for lost value on their stadium naming rights, and the stadium in Houston will henceforth be remained the Houston City dump, where trash cans are appreciated.
Don’t forget the participation trophies. Can’t have an unscorekept game without participation trophies!
Everyone saying that they are baseball purists, you all do realize that baseball had tie games until the late 50s right? I think it should go until 12 innings. You can’t win in 12 then the game ends in a tie.
It has nothing to do with being a purist, these are professionals they should never be ok with a “draw” the most emotional moments are when two dog tired teams slug it out 14 or 15 innings and some unlikely hero who doesn’t get any meaningful time in a standard 8.5-9 inning game comes up and has the biggest moment of his short career. Guys like Travis Ishakawa remember extra inning games long past their playing careers from this reason. Why deprive them of that. As for TV, while some may say it’s too long an 18 inning game to me is like your favorite TV series showing two episodes in the same week, the only rule change they should make is for the live audience and let them keep drinking beer past the 7th, with Uber and other ride shares I don’t see why this is an issue any more.
the reason they had tie games was usually because of the dark and such, not because people didnt like extra innings. there was never any number so it wasnt really a change.
For the 2020 season only adopt Japanese baseball rules
3 extra innings max
If tied after 3 complete innings, the game is a tie
If the home team gets the lead in any inning from the 9th onward , the game is over
the home team taking the lead in the ninth and after is called a walkoff
d’oh!
I put tie after 10 because there was no option for later, really I feel like it ought to be the 13th, really between the 12th and 14th is when ppl usually leave when it goes to extras. The longest game I think I have attended was 19 innings and I left in the 18th because the train was going to stop running, but there was almost no one left
the mlb is unique for this. who doesnt love extra innings?
I love baseball, but I have a lot going on in terms of school, work etc. so it’s not common for me to sit down and watch a typical regular season game for four hours every day. That’s not to say that I don’t check every single box score every day, read play by plays, and follow what’s going on on my phone as it’s happening.
That said– Once I see extra innings, I’m turning it on. That’s personally my favorite part of baseball. The strategy that goes into it, the bullpen decisions, things along those lines. To this day, the time that Wilson Valdez took the W as a pitcher against the Reds was one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever watched.
People need to tell Manfred to sit down and stop trying to fix what’s not broken. The only problems that I have with the game are many of the owners who either try to be too involved despite having a very low baseball IQ, and being cheap, and Manfred trying to reinvent the wheel. The reason that the NBA has become even more successful is because the owners aren’t just stuffy old rich guys- for the most part, they’re younger, and actually care about the game, not just the bottom line. Thats not to say that they don’t care about the money- teams are an investment- but it’s about winning. I’m even fine with tanking because it’s still about winning- just in the long run as opposed to wheeling out a 6 seed that goes out in the first round of the playoffs every season.
Sorry about the tangent, but regardless- just leave the game the way it is- if anything give the NL a DH, and allow for it to be optional, in case there are pitchers like Yovanni Gallardo or Madison Bumgarner who are actually good hitters.
An optional DH is just ridiculous. You would lose the advantage of Gallardo, MadBum, and any other good hitting pitcher because compared to other pitchers, they are great, but compared to position players, they are not. Keep the DH in the AL and keep the NL with no DH. That way fans of both have something to watch. I don’t like the DH, because I believe defense is a fundamental part of the game and that position is completely against that idea. But I don’t want to take away that from the people that do like it.
Baseball’s greatest charm and legacy is it’s continuity. That it is fundamentally the same from grandpa to dad to son. Massive changes will damage and water down baseball itself. And for what ?
Just for the argument of possibly doing something different, if a game was tied after the 9th inning, we go to a 10th. What if at that point the teams can start at any point in their line up that they choose. Kind of like other sports overtime rules. Teams would not be allowed to “reuse” players that have been taken out of the game, but you could start the 10th with your lead off man, or your #3 hitter spot in the line up if you chose to.
Another idea would be to have a 3 inning extra innings game. No matter the scoring at the end of the 10th or 11th, but end of the 12th would be the end of the game. Takes away a little bit of the drama, but prevents games going any longer.
I prefer the one extra inning, start anywhere you want in your line up, if 10th ends in a tie, it’s a tie.
No , they’re just wanting to please people who don’t like baseball , hr derbies are nightmarish to even contemplate to think about ,
NO! This year if they play ok but NO permanent change, i love watching extra inning games and being extremely tired the next day.
Who does extra innings really bother enough to have to change the rules ? Announcers, maybe ? As a fan, you can always turn it off, or go home, if you happen to be a fan who doesn’t desire such a game. To me, and clearly by the comments here, baseball fans have no problem with extra inning games.
they already have ties see 2016
Of course it’s a total coincidence the guy with one of the most prolific home run hitters in the league on his team thinks a HR derby is the best way to break a tie game.
No, the issue isn’t the game play, the issue is the commercials. That’s what makes the game last so long. Commercials = revenue so they blame elsewhere
The “ideas” being introduced these days will change the purity of the game forever. If baseball is too long, then find some other instant gratification past time. Leave baseball alone.
I’ve no problem with ending a game in a tie after, say, 12 in innings. The home run derby and starting with runners on base ideas are way too radically off balance for me to support them. Just dumb.
Home run derby is the stupidest crap I’ve ever heard of just above the ASG deciding World Series Home Field advantage. Might as well have the fastest players on the team run the bases, it just makes the game more one dimensional.
Bring back break-up slides at 2B and let us keep extra innings.
The best part about baseball is the fact that it does not rely on a clock to finish a game. In sports ruled by a clock, there eventually comes a point where there is no doubt about the outcome of the game because there isn’t enough time for the trailing team to come back. In baseball, as long as you have one out remaining, you can theoretically come back from any deficit at any time. Another thing I HATE about both football and basketball is that a team in the lead can basically go against the spirit of the game in an effort to have the clock defeat the other team.
I just wish people would stop trying to change the wonderful differences that set baseball apart from the rest of the sports. If you don’t like baseball the basic way it is, there are plenty of other sports for you to like.
These greedy owners dont want us to get any extra baseball for free! (Sarcasm)
Free baseball is the best kind, who would want to take that away??
If they do this, then they need to cut the rosters from 26 down to like 20. Why would you need so many relievers and bench players if you are only going 9 innings?
You must not know very much about baseball…
You must not know very much about baseball…
Saying it twice doesn’t make it any truer.
Agreed. Can’t get any “truer” than 100 accuracy.
Although “truer” is a word, you are using it incorrectly. What you meant to say is “more true” which would have been grammatically correct.
However, I stand by my statement that you know S#it for baseball and my statement is backed by simple mathematics.
8 position players
3-4 bench players (back up outfielder, back up catcher, back up infielder, based on the current 26 man rule, one additional position player)
5 starting pitchers
That equates to 16-17 players. You suggest that teams should only be allowed to carry three to four relievers?
As of 2018, the baseball season is 162 games in 26.5 weeks. That is 6.1 games per week. The average starting pitcher makes it 5 innings. That means a reliever would have to pitch, per your suggestion, 1 inning per game with no games off.
To further fuel the fire, ML is planning on playing a condensed schedule with even less days off, which will require baseball teams to utilize a 6 man rotation, leaving even fewer bodies available for relief.
So, I’ll say it a third time, you must not know very much about baseball.
I don’t know much about baseball, but I do know a lot about how to make someone waste their time writing a bunch of garbage intended to teach someone something they already know.
BTW, professor, you might want to look up the phrase “exaggeration for effect” and you might understand what my original comment was.
I personally think MLB needs to see how things play out with the current “three batters minimum” rule before worrying about adjusting the extra innings situation.
I think the three batter minimum limit extra inning games as it is so a further rule change will not be necessary.
Nobody likes a sister kisser
I’d rather just wait out this and there not be a season than keep tinkering with the game
Well now that the Texas play is in place. No!
This sounds like Manfred floated this or some asshat who watches soccer and likes baseball came up with this BS.
I’m down with 7 inning doubleheaders in an abbreviated season but not a game where it end in a tie. Baseball needs to be baseball and try not to be what it’s not.
Baseball isn’t for everyone. When will Manfred wake up and just realize this?
Hell to the F no.
We learned something new here today: a 14-inning game only keeps fans up late when they are played on the West Coast.
On average a team plays 14 extra inning games a year. If 2020 is a half season long that would be 7. Just an interesting stat that I learned. mlb.com/cut4/which-teams-have-played-the-most-extr…. And 60% of extra inning games end after 11.
Also, I think Justin Turner should be banned for life for proposing a Home Run Derby to decide games.
Play to 10 innings. If it’s still tied, play a DH the next day starting from the 11th inning. Once a winner is decided, play the game that was originally scheduled. If the tie is the final game of the series, resume play the next time you face said team.
Or leave baseball alone and play every game until there is a winner.
It was an idea I threw out there that I do not necessarily agree with. As to your response, many changes have been made to baseball over the last 30 years so the game will never be left alone until us fans decide to leave baseball.
Only in recent years have changes been made that are detrimental to the integrity of the game due to the priority shifting from improving the game to shortening the game. When the priority becomes shortening the game to appeal to short attention spans of people who don’t truly understand the nuances of the baseball, that’s when the foundation starts to crumble.
Please, a thousand times please, no tie games and NO POINTS! This is NOT hockey. I like Hockey, too, but the “points” even for a loss is just wrong. Wins and Losses only, please.
What’s the point of playing more games if you’re going to turn around and play fewer innings? I’d think for health and safety they’d be better off playing fewer games, with a full 9 innings, so they’re exposed to fewer opposing players; thus limiting contact. I don’t understand the logic behind this idea.
Also, ties suck. I hate the idea.
I can take a tie after 10 innings more easily on a scheduled double-header day. For other days, play on. Next year, no ties, ever. Play until someone wins.
If a game goes into extra innings
Each team gets a man on 2B every inning.
2B runner does not count against pitchers earned runs nor does he count as an RBI for hitters, if he scores.
Or extra innings switch to DH rules for NL vs NL so teams don’t have to worry about running out of position players to hit for the pitcher.
Putting a man on second to start an inning is absurdly dumb and goes against the spirit of the game. Why do it? Just dumb dumb dumb. If extra innings is such a problem try to solve it in a less radical manner.
Awesome contribution to the discussion. So what, you feel so worthless that you need to bring down other people’s ideas to make yourself feel better or something?
Well cheer up buck. If you’re feeling down, just remember your greatest accomplishment in life thus far has been you were your daddy’s greatest swimmer. You sir are the Michael Phelps of sperm.
Hose … I love how you complain about a person putting somebody down by putting them down! There must be a psychological word for that.
It’s called a rebuttal.
There’s no clock in baseball. You play until one team wins. Extra innings are EPIC. This is just utter foolishness. 2004 ALCS and so many other examples of the magic of extra innings. 1986 Astros vs. Mets when Danny Heep collapsed at the fence because a pitcher tied the game with a home run. Extra innings are one of the great aspects of baseball. Just stop.
Or we could misquote Stengel and say only four things can happen at a baseball game: you can win, you can lose, it can rain, or you can go home early.
Never ties. In the 10th each team starts with a runner on first. In the 11th each team starts with a runner on first and second and so on until every inning starts with a bases loaded scenario that forces runs to be scored…. but avoids ties and most importantly the result is decided by skill
I haven’t done all the math here regarding ties, but depending on the past years chosen it seems that 8-9% of MLB games go extra innings. In a shortened season of say 100 games (for math’s sake), that would be 8 or 9 games per team that end in ties after 9. If every team was awarded half a win for a tie, how much different would final standings actually be from games that were played out? I would imagine most teams average record is .500 in extra innings, with the main distribution falling in the .333 – .666 range as well. So let’s say a range of +/- 5 games, or in this exercise a range of 2.5 wins. Significant, but not outside of a team’s year to year variation in extra inning record alone I would think. I think it could be worth trying in a shortened season, esp if there is an increase in doubleheaders. Plus there would be new strategy around the 8th and 9th innings of tied games, knowing you can’t extend it. That has potential to be more exciting and actually lower the number that end in ties as well. Traditionalist here, but open to anything that gets us safe baseball this year that also may increase fans a bit due to novelty factor.
I have been to minor league games where they now use the baserunner on 2nd base to start extra innings rule.
My initial reaction was that this is terrible. After seeing it used a half dozen times, I have come to support it.
That said, HR derby to resolve a game: NEVAH!!!
Honestly it isn’t like extra inning games are extremely common, and ones that go more than one or two extra innings even less so.
I don’t want ties in baseball, or any sport for that matter, but I also don’t want gimmicky ways to finish it that might be way in one teams favor either.
Baseball has worked for well over 100 years, it isn’t broken.
In regards to the poll, ask an NHL player whether they prefer overtime or a shootout. You would be hard pressed to find even a single player who doesn’t prefer overtime to have a chance to decide the game naturally instead of adding a totally different game at the end to decide the outcome. Play it out.
No ties. No ties in any sport. Ever.
How about if the game is tied after 9 innings, home team loses their “final at-bat” advantage and the game becomes sudden death? First team to score wins.
Wouldn’t have much of an impact. How often does the home team re-tie a game in extra innings?. In general I don’t get why we’re trying to fix something that ain’t broke.
next thing up is the 10 run rule.
which ever team scores first, what ever inning it is, the other team bats until they tie, go ahead, or complete 9 innings.
The only idea worse than ending a game in a tie is ending one with a coin flip. You really want to watch a 4 hour game end in a coin flip? Tremendous waste of time. I’d rather see a HR Derby with pitchers hitting and fielders pitching.
managers could sumo wrestle
a rocco baldelli vs. gabw kapler match would draw the audience MLB has been trying to draw for generations…. The Gays
You probably go ahead and close the pole down and take a L on this idea..
we’ll know what manfred thinks of the fans when he does the opposite of poll results
Ties don’t belong in Baseball.
This is not the NHL, we don’t need a shootout to determine a winner
If they don’t quit changing the rules of baseball they’re going to have to rename the game. It’s BASEBALL for God’s sake. A great game. Leave it alone. If you don’t like 3-hour plus games, stay at home or get up and leave when the wimp in you takes over. I grew up living for weekend doubleheaders. with a 3-hour drive waiting to get home.
The only way to change it is if you have an 18innning game there’s no players or left on the bench one designated player determined at the start of the game in case it goes that long. It has to be 15 innings or long. That player can reenter the game. Each team will have a backup if that player is hurt if he started the game or entered before the 9th inning.
Or maybe after 11innings the DH is implemented to save from using 4 pitchers or whatever it maybe to prevent injury
The Traditions of Baseball is what makes the game as great as it is. I’m not a fan of any changes made that breaks the way it’s been played for almost a century and a half.