The rule that saw a free runner placed on second base in extra innings last year will continue in 2023 and beyond, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Also, position players will only be allowed to pitch in extra innings, or in the ninth inning for a leading team that is up by ten or more runs or anytime for a trailing team that is down by eight or more. MLB’s Joint Competition Committee voted unanimously for both measures. (Twitter links and ESPN link).
The automatic runner rule was first put in place in the 2020 season. Given the interrupted Spring Training and then quick ramp-up to shortened season, there were concerns about the unusual campaign leading to more injuries. The hope with the “ghost runner” was that it would decrease the likelihood of marathon games and therefore decrease player workloads and mitigate the chances of an injury popping up.
Though the change rankled many baseball purists, there’s little doubting that it was successful in accomplishing the goal of preventing exceptionally long games. As pointed out by Eno Sarris of The Athletic, there were only 11 games to reach the 13th inning last year, compared to 37 in 2019. There were also no games that went beyond the 15th in 2022, while it happened eight times in 2019.
Though many fans dislike the rule, it’s not hard to see why players and teams like it. For the players, they now have less chance of playing in an exhausting contest that goes to, say, 18 innings or six hours or both. For the teams, those situations would usually lead to a taxed bullpen and resultant roster shuffling, which is now far less likely. That doesn’t even get to the logistics of a game going so long that it leads to rescheduling flights or throwing off sleep schedules or other logistical issues that could be created. Whether fans like it or not, it seems it is popular enough among those directly affected by it that it is now here to stay.
As for the rules on position players pitching, Rogers reported on that possibility earlier today. The league had tried to tamp down on the occurrence recently by mandating that it could only happen when a game involved a six-run lead or larger. Unlike the free runner rule, this one did not accomplish its goal. There were 32 instances of position players pitching in 2017 but that number rose to 132 last year. With the instances still growing, it seems both players and the league agreed that it was necessary to further limit the conditions where it was acceptable to turn to such a tactic.
It’s not a ghost runner!!!!! ZOMBIE RUNNER
Who ya gonna call? Ghost busters!
My recommendation for regular season, if tied after 9, you play one more inning. If tied after 10, it is recorded as a tie.
For post-season, you would place with no ghost runners as long as it takes.
Who ya gonna call? Ghost-busters!
In Japan, a tie is a tie. Called the perfect game over there.
In mother Russia, baseball hits you.
They just don’t care about real fans. This is as stupid as stupid gets. Outside of playoffs, there’s nothing wrong with ties. I’d rather the rule be after 13 innings, it’s a tie than this BS.
If fans don’t stick around for extra innings and fans turn off the tv during extra innings, then blame the fans.
Real fans? That’s ridiculous.
So ties are more true to the game than the ghost runner?
I’d rather have ties than this crap. That said, baseball is best if you remove the artificial garbage. Shifting is not the problem, batters over swinging and pitcher over throwing are the problems. Why not just run simulated games via a computer or give owners cards and dice for Strat-o-matic?
It’s a lie. The real reason they use a ghost runner is TV. they have to pay to continue past the scheduled programming.
The stadium doesn’t make any money off fans after the 7th inning stretch so they don’t give a rats @$$ if there’s a single butt left in the seat.
Aren’t most games watched on sports networks.
And of course MLB TV has no other programming.
I can’t imagine baseball say… “Ohhh ratings are really good for extra inning games, let’s try to eliminate as many extra innings a possible.”
I realize people find data to support their point of view, but the data people are spouting doesn’t make any sense.
If it wasn’t broke, they wouldn’t have fixed it.
There have been ties in baseball. I can tell you the 1908 Cubs had 4 of them.. There were ties into the 80’s (1981 Braves, for example). Not common, but they existed.
Again, that wasn’t the case when I had season tickets and fans still left in droves.
s.
So… did concession close because they decided they no longer wanted to make money, or did a buisness close because no one was using it after the 7th inning?
But regardless that wasn’t the case in the late 80s and early 90s, and fans still left in droves.
And of course, no one is telling you to turn off your TV.
The fact of the matter is stadiums stop selling beer after the 7th inning (or after a certain time limit) and they start shutting down concession stands in the 8th or 9th inning so owners don’t want to have to pay overtime to all of the stadium employees once the beer stops flowing and there are no more hot dogs to sell.
Owners. Those things are run by the city. I realize cities make horrible buisness decisions, but if they made money, they wouldn’t shut them down.
So don’t they close down because fans aren’t sticking around?
Owners do not pay concessions employees wages. .Wages are paid by the concessions contractor who won the bid that year as well as their subcontractors.
They haven’t fixed anything. Changed the game, yes but fixed? Hardly.
Concessions as I recalled changed to limit alcohol consumption.
I’d like alcohol banned
You wanna drink and watch the game do it at home, in the box seats, or at your clubs version of ball park village
Yes. Baseball is meant to be a grind. It’s a 162 game season. Full of long games almost every day. Working out the injuries and having adequate backup players is part of this “war” of a season. Teams need to figure things out and players need to figure out how to hit against the shift or you lose your job. Simple as that. If you want to change baseball for the better shorten the season to 140 games and lengthen the playoffs including more teams. That’s when the real season starts.
It’s kind of funny that people who don’t like soccer site the fact that the games ended up in ties too often, but it is perfectly acceptable now to some people in baseball.
The problem with a tie in soccer is that teams weigh defensive and offensive positioning directly – so once you get to 1-1 and getting late in the game, most teams don’t take as many offensive chances, as a tie is at least not losing. This can lead to a boring end game.
It’s highly unlikely that any baseball team will “play for the tie” in a way that impacts the game regularly. Yes, you might see some offense getting taken out of the game for defensive substitutions late. But generally speaking, what you do on defense has little to no bearing on what your team does on offense in baseball.
@avenger05: What SITE are these people on when they CITE this soccer fact?
I was wondering how ties figure into The Standings for a division title. Most wins or best winning percentage? What about the next round for seeding purposes? I like the idea of ties far more than the ghost idea but both have problems.
How boit we just keep the ghost runner and leave ties for hockey and football… baseball has never really has ties… back in the early history when games would get called for darkness, but since the light came on, they finish games
@Manny: The Ghostbusters line wasn’t funny enough to bear repeating and running into the ground.
Sweet fancy Moses!
I guess we should be thankful MLB didn’t decide to start the 10th inning with the bases loaded and a full count.
Shush your mouth, somebody might be listening!
Who cares what it’s called? Still the same result. I hope that’s the biggest of your problems for the day laddie
Do you need to double tap the Zombie Runner to get an out??
@Robertowannabe – always double -tap.
Rick says make sure it’s in the head too.
Manfred Man.
Right. A “ghost runner” is when you have an imaginary person on base. Usually, only kids do this because they don’t have enough players to use a person on base.
Kids… I remember doing thr ghost runner ways would get into argument with the neighbor on whether it would score on a hit
I call it the Idiot Runner & it’s fitting
Golf is boring.
Change.the rule why don’t you. I can’t standing watching it on TV
…it’s so boring, change the rule.because it is not high intensity like football and basketball!!
MANFRED DOESN’T UNDERSTAND carps!
Let’s Change baseball < GET RID OF.MANFRED.
The economics of baseball is so bad…none of the owners have doubled their money in the last 10 years
…….yeah…it's that bad.
Golf changes all the time.
Because of equipment the courses change. And then when the equipment becomes too good, they change the rules regarding the equipment.
Sports are always adapting. Only the deaf, dumb and blind don’t notice.
Most of the new rules in baseball, is baseball adapting to the number crunchers.
Golf is nothing like Baseball & anyone comparing the 2 is OBVIOUSLY NOT a Real Baseball Fan & should stick to the Video Game Baseball
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/complete-changes-to-augusta-national
That’s just one hole of changes at Augusta.
Your post shows your ignorance.
So…they are implementing a drop on the green after 1.5 hrs?
Changes to equipment is hardly the same thing.
Ignoramus?
Golf changes all the time. It is the same thing.
Your point was ignorant and ridiculous.
And you don’t even acknowledge that.
Really, dude? How is your reading comprehension?
The point being, they want to speed up the game which is not the purpose of either game?
Get it? No one wants to speed up a nice relaxing game of golf. Nor should.they want to speed up a nice, relaxing afternoon at the ballpark.
I.never participate in personal insults but are provoking me with personal insults. You want to win an argument instead of communicating.
The people hat are changing the rules…DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE GAME.
Probably soccer fans….
Baseball IS.DOING SO.POORLY?
OHTANI LOOKING AT A HALF A BILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT???
THE PEOPLE.THAT ARE CHANGING THE GAME ARE FULL OF.HORSE HOCKEY.
THEY ARE TRYING TO HURT AMERICA
REMOVE.MANFRED
HE IS NOT A LOYAL MAN
Why does no one want to speed up golf? Could it be there are 18 holes where something is constantly happening, where there is so much action that they have to show things on delay well after the crowd has stopped cheering.
You are not a very deep thinker. Or maybe you know nothing about baseball and/or golf. I don’t know which.
Welcome to Major League Softball!
If these guys don’t want to play the game the way it was created, they can always play Soccer.
Uggh.
It should be a runner on first to start the inning, not second. It’s almost too easy to score and the away team has the advantage to score first.
The home team has the advantage of 2 sacrifice plays to win a game if the away team doesn’t score.
Second makes the most sense if you’re trying to shorten the game. Speed specialists will be more in demand now to be pinch runners going forward.
The best comparison would be NCAA FBS OT rules. Starting with the ball at the 25-yard line and getting four downs to score is similar to starting with a base runner on second. What you’re suggesting is like starting with the ball at the 50-yard line. That might not end the game very quickly.
I don’t like the zombie runner. (And I won’t call it a ghost runner.)
The new rule about pitchers stepping off is going to have a lot more speedsters stealing 3rd. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes an extra inning game get decided by a runner taking third and then a single sac fly. Quite the situation to be put into as a reliever.
At least the ghost runner rule maintains most of what makes baseball baseball.
FBS OT rules are brutal. They eliminate clock management, most special teams, sustained drives, and much of what makes football football. (NFL overtime is way better, now that there’s no more quick FG and done.)
I’m somewhat of a sports purist, but the ghost runner doesn’t really bother me much at all. Both teams get their shot with nearly equal scoring advantage (compared to the first nine innings). Yes, the home team has slight advantage, but that’s always true anyway, extra innings or not.
Agreed. It’s easy to score a run from second WITHOUT a hit. A grounders to the right side and a sac fly would do it.
Real thrilling stuff, huh? And the reliver gets hit with an L on his won-loss record. If they start the runner on first, teams might at least attempt to swipe a base.
The so-called “ghost runner” is a softball rule. Baseball and softball are not the same thing but thanks to Manfred, the line is starting to blur. What difference does it make when a position player comes in to pitch? That’s the opposite of the “committee” is trying to do. It saves the bullpen. And this incessant need to shorten games tears at one of the pleasures of the game: Sitting in the stands for a relaxing afternoon or evening of watching baseball. Three hour games are fine. And too bad if the players have to play a few more innings. Do they play for the love of the game or the love of the money? When I played, we would play from sun up til sun down, even in the winter. We weren’t millionaires, of course. We just loved to play the game. Maybe Manfred can find a way to put that back in the game.
Blaming Manfred on a vote that was unanimous is laughable.
Some people will blame the owners no mater what, some will blame the players no matter what,
But EVERYONE voted for this rule change,…UNANAMOUSLY.
Especially considering Manfred isn’t even ON this committee.
God, I wish they would dump Manfred. He doesn’t even seem to like baseball.
IF it didn’t cost so dmn much to go to game,.maybe, they would.get more.fans.
I like an idea where the team at bat chooses whether to place their runner at first or second; however, if you place the runner at second, you start the inning already with one out. If you start them at first, it’s a regular inning with no outs. In a sport where strategy seems to be involuntarily decreasing, there’s some strategy involved with this option.
Why overthink? I still say limit pitching staffs and players have to choice but to adjust and stop overthrowing. More injuries today in my view is because of the overthrowing and young kids trying to emulate their heroes before their body matures.
So so so dumb.
The only worse than this rule being premanent is that people are still calling it the Ghost runner. It’s the zombie runner.
I think they call it the ghost runner because it is stupid.
The initial proposal was drafted by the sports lawyer Steve Ghost
He’s the Shohei of the entertainment world…musical artist and sports lawyer
Baseball has officially become permanently pathetic. The race to 100 MPH pitching has effectively ruined the game. Sad.
You will be missed.
@whyhayzee: Feel free to not watch.
Man Fred ruining baseball
You misspelled ‘Max Fried’
“Fred” or “Fried” are misspellings of “Man Fraud.”
Think again. You missed the part about this being a unanimous decision of the Joint Committee. Meaning, the owners and players agreed completely on this change.
It was not a unanimous vote and the players have the minority on the committee.
Since they have not yet leaked who voted what way, we don’t know if the players agreed with this.
In the voting on the time clock and ghost runner the last time all the players on the committee voted against the rules.
The sources both said it was unanimous. Where is yours?
Everywhere I read says it was unanimous
Five players, six people from team various sectors of team management and one umpire.
Players were the largest share of the vote.
If you have to make things up to make a point… why make the point at all?
They edited the article since I posted.
If you admit you’re wrong, that’s cool. We are good. If you are now willing to change your stance after getting data that blows your opinion out to the water… that’s admirable.
If you are like me, you like extra innings the way they were, but the fact is, fans were tuning out.
Love how people with no clue act like Manfred makes these rules up by himself. He works for the owners and if he doesn’t do what they want, he won’t have a job. Plus joint committee. . Come on man, read and you’d see he wasn’t even involved in passing these rules.
Just more of how things work today. It’s all about who you blame and who you hate. It’s all about feelings. Facts need not apply.
Exactly. Teams are getting smart and are exploiting rules which hurt the game.
Teams use to tank. Baseball came up with a rule to stop teams from tanking.
The shift turned the offensive part of baseball into a three true outcome game.
Stealing hurt your chances of scoring, so the steal become a lost art.
It became advantageous to have one pitcher pitch to one batter, so what use to seldom happen, became an every game occurrence.
And so on. if you want to blame anyone for these changes, blame the number crunchers.
The game is adapting to counter the number crunchers.
I understand the game needs to evolve, but the ghost runner rule is just flat out stupid.
Both of these rules are very stupid
It’s evolving, just backwards -PewDiePie
The players, managers, owners, ballpark employees, TV, radio and based on ratings and how many fans actually stick around, very few fans like extra innings as well.
I love extra-inning games, but I also realize I’m in the minority. With that in mind, start the ghost runner in the 12th…. not the 10th.
The answer has always been simple – if you get bored turn it off. If you get bored after 9 innings than you aren’t a real fan.
The Players, Owners, Managers, Ballpark Workers, traveling secretaries, Radio and TV can’t turn it off.
Maybe if ratings didn’t crash and fans stayed at the ballpark, you’d have more of a point.
But it seems no one likes extra innings.
Yeah well they’re all getting paid so I don’t give a **** about them being angry.about having to work for a few extra innings. Meanwhile I’m paying more than ever to get less baseball.
You don’t care about them, which is fine.
But if ratings are going to crater and fans are going to leave the game in droves, what motivation do the players, owners..etc. have to not do something about it?
The fact is, fans had their chances to show how much they like extra-innings, and they showed they didn’t.
Blame all the fans that stopped watching games and all the fans that left the stadium prior to blaming everyone else.
@Halo11Fan
Fans leave the stadium because the concessions shut down in the 8th inning.
That’s becuase they close down the concessions after the 7th inning. By the 12th, you’re parched.
Oh yeah…because true fans when faced with not being able to eat another $8 hot dog or drink another $10 beer would rather leave early.
I’m not even talking about beer. I’m talking about getting something as simple as a bottle of water.
Becuase I really want to be in a place in the middle of August without any type of actual hydration.
I’ve never known a ballpark that doesn’t have a water fountain.
WOuld you really drink City water in Philly? I’d be perfectly fine with some vending machines for some smart water.
The issue isn’t with limited how long extra innings can go…I’m very cool with limiting that. It’s just that fake baserunners are fundamentally not baseball. And yeah, even making the ghost runner a late-extra-inning deal would at least reduce the impact…two individual chances to end an inning without a deadlock, and from there the stupid strategies can begin. At least it would feel like it got there because neither team failed to finish off the other…as of now, it’s just “whoops, equal runs after nine, time immediately flip the switch to stupid ball”.
I think you’re touching on the most important point: this is about money. Both sides now value profit over all else. The teams look at profit/time, but they have for years. The difference now is that many players value profit over competition. They work less and therefore are paid more. That’s why they only care that it’s not implemented in the postseason- because they actually care more about competition in the postseason (but that also has added financial benefits).
It doesn’t have anything to do with fans, imho. I’ve never heard fans talk about how they will/won’t watch the sport of baseball because of extra inning games.
@Halo11fan
The fans that don’t like extra innings don’t like it because the concessions get shut down in the 8th inning.
Keep serving food til the end of the game like they used to, and people will be happy to stick around.
I had season tickets for the Angels up until 1994. I never recall the concessions closing. Beer sales after the 7th, but that’s just common sense.
I’ve never been in control of the transportation where I left a game early. Yet, when I had season tickets, fans left in droves.
LA fans are infamous for leaving early. They’re not typical.
I don’t understand why the most common sense compromise of this rule doesn’t get implemented. One “normal” extra inning and if no one scores in the 10th, then you can have the stupid lame “ghost” runner.
The fact it immediately goes to the ghost runner after 9 is just so lame.
Totally agree. The 10th inning happens no matter what and half the games ended then anyways – if every game went 15 then it would be different.
I find the rule boring. Situations are the same. Tons of IBB, bunts, every pitcher going for a k on every hitter. But we knew this would happen. The people in charge dont care, there is no money to be made and the integrity of the game doesnt matter either.
I’m fine with it. Save arms and time. I know y’all like watching 18 inning games but I’m fine with it ending at 10/11.
Look around and you’ll notice very few complaints about this cutting down on marathon games. Baseball fans do love those, but virtually all understand the benefit of making them even rarer.
The complaint is about how MLB is going about doing it.
@James Midway,
I believe the correct spelling is ‘yous’.
“We need to grow the game!”
*Proceeds to cheapen the legitimacy of the sport by instituting little league rules and worsens the fan experience by mandating parks be fully lined with netting by 2025*
One small step backwards for Manfred, one giant leap into the gutter for the MLB
How about Rob Manfred himself serving as a ghost runner on every day throughout the season, appearing in all of the 30 MLB cities on a rotating basis?
I would settle for Manfred becoming a ghost.
Because fans getting hurt by balls in the stands is such a cool part of the fan experience.
Hey, I’m only good with Manfred getting hurt.
How about don’t look at your phone while the ball is in play at a sporting event you paid to go to. Also, don’t cherrypick 3 examples from tens of thousands of foul balls over the past 20 years, it makes you look more stupid than you are
My mom got her nose broken by a foul ball. No phone involved. Momentary inattention, yes — it happens, especially for old people with poor reflexes. If there’d been nets behind the dugouts then like there are now, it wouldn’t have mattered.
The reason people are getting hurt is becuase they can’t take their eyes off their cell phone.
They get hurt becuase they aren’t paying attention.
A total garbage opinion. The last serious foul ball injury at Dodger Stadium was to a woman who was eating a hotdog.
Trevor Bauer’s?
The netting is more egregious than the ghost runner rule, which is saying something.
Netting is ruining the gaaaaaame. Truly. Worst thing everrrrrrrrrrrrr. Until the next worst thing ever.
The netting seems like the worst.
It is. I got 1st row seats next to the visotors dugout at Coors Field when the Phillies came to town. Paid over $200 to have a net block my view. It honestly ruins the viewing expereince and doesn’t make it worth the prices to be up that close. It’s a better viewing expereince to be middle of the section 15-20 rows back.
We buy seats just past the netting, at an angle where it isn’t in the way of the view. It totally devalues the seats that are closer with netting in the way. I think people underestimate how many fans really dislike it. They know people will still go/pay/watch, just like adding totally unnecessary ($$$) ad patches on uniforms now. What are we going to do about it? Nothing.
Manfred.is deliberately ruiningnthe game.
A strike will now be called a Rob, and a ball, a Manfred. You, know, to speed up the game.
Boo!
Free runner is a stupid rule
Not a fan of either rule.
If it stays in regular season I’ll deal with it
If it gets into playoffs. I don’t know if I can accept that
Get rid of the ghost runner or I’m boycotting MLB!
Just kidding, but seriously.
Does the the throw to base rule still apply to the ghost runner? if not then what prevents a runner from getting a huge lead after the couple checks and a sacrifice bunt could get a speedy runner home and win a game.
I would say if you have to use the ghost runner rule get into a game that it is in the 13 or 14 innings you have the option of a runner at first. This way there is a risk reward with the double play if your last batter was a slow runner. That would be the option part if you want to risk it. I chose these inning because i cant remember if its 4th or 5th inning where if a game is called due to weather or other things it becomes officially.
Keep in mind that pitchers can still attempt a third pickoff move; it’s just that it has to get the runner out or else he gets the base for free. That sets up maybe an extra step or two, but if a runner takes too big a lead or establishes a pattern of guess taking off after two attempts, pitchers will exploit that with another pickoff attempt. I think from the testing of the rule that has been done, there has been some positive impact on stealing, but nothing crazy.
Another stupid F’ing rule
They should take the zombie runner, three attempts at picking off a runner, larger bases, pitch clock, position players pitching only in certain situations, etc. and start another league. They could call it the Manfred League. Then they can leave our game alone and have it played like it’s always been played. The game has been played professionally for over a hundred years. If some people don’t like it, watch basketball. Over three hundred combined points per game. How hard can it be?
Must play 5 full innings for a game to become official.
Pretty soon we’re gonna have pitch timers and robo umps. And maybe even Charlie Finley’s orange baseballs.
Pepperidge Farms remembers those orange baseballs.
We have pitch timers this season. Next season robo umps
Hate it with extreme prejudice.
The horror
Effective immediately stop watching extra innings oh wait it’s tough enough to even watch a game living in Iowa oh well more reason not to tune in
To see the game sped up more, I would like to see batters hit off a “T” type device. Does this need to be tested in the minors first?
I like seeing position players pitching.
I remember Wilson Valdez throwing a gutsy, scoreless 18th inning for the 2011 Phillies. Wilson faced the heart of the Reds order (Votto, Rolen, Bruce, etc.) throwing a fastball that reached 90 mph. The game ended with a Phillies win in 19 innings.
Ah, the good ol’ days.
this is beyond ridiculous. thought it was bad enough we had to deal with it for these past 2 years. A GHOST RUNNER ISN’T F-ING BASEBALL! You earn your way on base, you earn your win. Not have it given to you by the league.
The rulebook used to proudly label it that “all runners must be accounted for”. It was one of the central aspects of the game. Now that language, if it is even still included, is meaningless.
How many GREAT extra inning games have you seen? Me, plenty.
Now, no extra inning game will be. If it ends fast who cares. If it doesn’t, it will be pathetic.
I hated this rule from the start. I would rather see a game stop at 9 or 13 innings or something in a tie than sit through the BS runner.
Just no ghost runner in the post season.
The only thing more stupid than this rule would be to shorten games to 7 innings or call the game at 2 hours. This may be my last year as a fan. I certainly won’t make any plans to watch this bastardized baseball.
I think I am just going to turn the game off if it goes past 9 innings. MLB doesn’t care, why should I.
My opinion on this is simple: I basically can’t watch extra inning games anymore. The baseball rulebook used to even proudly call out that “all runners must be accounted for”, but the purity of the game in that regard has been ruined. On a practical, rooting basis, if my team is on the road in extra, every single time they fail to at least score their ghost runner makes it feel like a loss (and it often is), and avoiding giving up a run at the bottom of the inning just feels like a stay of execution.
If protecting arms is the goal (and I approve of that notion), just have ties. Set a limit of 1-3 extra innings, I don’t care, and if still tied at the end of the limit it’s a tie. Yes, America sports fans aren’t keen on ties, but they have worked fine in many sports and I’d rather suffer ties than fake runners, period.
Fire Manfred.
Best post in the thread!
Meaning, the least well informed?
What exactly is the problem with position players pitching?
Kody Clemens of the Tigers struck out Ohtani on a 55 mpg eephus pitch!
Clemens pitched in 7 of those 132 innings by position players and had a 3.86 ERA. That is league average. He was better than half the relievers out there.
In Milwaukee, they asked the Competition Committee to require one of the sausage racers to start at second base, but that didn’t quite pass the mustard.
@BucksPackersBrewersWow!: They didn’t relish the idea of the other sausages falling on their buns trying to ketchup.
Or just do a tie game after the 10th inning. Save everyone that hates extra innings games and those that don’t like the ghost runner rule.
Cue the “They’re ruining the game” comments. It definitely shortens extra inning games which is the purpose of the rule. Used it in MiLB games before COVID and worked fine there. Players and owners are all for this because those type of games really tax a team and it’s pitching staff. Seems the only people who are angered by this is the fans, and then only a proportion of them. I’m fine with it and I know a lot of fans who feel the same way. I’d be fine with a tie as an alternate idea. In Korea they call it a tie after 12 innings.
Yeah sure pal. Every article I’ve seen about it today the majority of the comments were against it.
That’s because generally the only people who care enough to post about it are the ones who don’t like it (which is true about alot of things online). Personally it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. We had the same rule back when I played little league.
I think the rule could be improved but it wouldn’t be enough for purists: play the 10th inning straight, start a man on first in the 11th, and then on 2nd in the 12th and subsequent innings.
The fact of the matter is baseball isn’t losing (or not gaining) fans because of extra innings. In fact, the length of the game isn’t the issue – it’s the pace. The game of baseball is not meant to be as fast as Basketball, hockey, or arguably even football. The issue is that MLB is trying to court people who have no desire to watch the game and quite frankly won’t simply watch because the game takes 2.5 hours over 3. Wrong solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
I disagree that the length of the game isn’t an issue for most people compared to the pace. I see a lot of fans leave after a certain point, no matter what’s going on, including people who were following it closely while they were there. Sometimes it’s a group of young people, sometimes it’s families, sometimes it’s other veteran Season Plan Holders. People have other demands on their time.
Pace of play is obviously related to game length tho.
I said this earlier. I had season tickets for the Angels up until 1994. Games were almost always less than three hours, attendance still cratered after the 9th inning.
It’s interesting that people are all up in arms about a baseball game lasting three hours but they have nothing to say about a football game lasting three hours, or that they hate extra innings but they’re fine with OT in football. A few years ago a reporter was sent to an NFL game with a stopwatch to see just how much action there was in a game. The result? 16 minutes.
I walk during a portion of sporting events. There is a path I can take in my house that takes about 25 seconds. That about the same amount of time between a pitch and a down. A down something always happens. A pitch often results in absolutely no action whatsoever. That’s a relatively new phenomenon.
I’m glad they are instituting a pitch clock. It’s an example of the number crunchers hurting the game. They discovered if a pitcher holds the ball longer, he’ll have more recovery time and the pitch will likely be more effective.
Baseball is once again instituting a rule to combat the number crunchers. That’s a good thing,
They used it in MiLB games because, like all considered rule changes, they test things out there fire.
You seem to insinuate that this doesn’t to a minor degree “ruin the game”. As I’ve put in other comments, the baseball rulebook explicitly used to declare “all runners must be accounted for”. It was literally and out loud a fundament element of the game.
I don’t think fans are taking issue with the notion of shortening extra inning games… it’s this particular way of doing it. We didn’t have to break a fundamental bedrock of the game to get there.
Then move to Korea.
I’d much rather have a tie after 10 than this BS. It’s so easy to get a runner home with someone in scoring position. Two sacs and they’re in. Managers/Players are, so far, too dumb to think like that for some reason, but the option is there.
What is this word that keeps showing up, “sacrifice?” No one knows how to “sacrifice” anymore, not baseball players and not Americans in general.
I still don’t understand how the extra runner speeds up the game. All it does is raise the score because both teams generally score the guy from 2nd. And why is the run not considered an earned run for the pitcher? Because MLB knows it is a joke and shouldn’t hurt the pitcher. We might as well just have a pillow fight to decide the winner.
The more scoring, the more likely an inning will end with an uneven score. And because the home team can respond to what happens at the top of any inning, in extras any time it keeps the ghost runner from scoring it can use sacrifices that create high odds of scoring the one run (that are harder to utilize in empty base situations).
Baseball is a microcosm of society. In society today facts are whatever people make up. Baseball believes that if it says it, it is true. Like much of society today, baseball is misguided.
It’s not an earned run because an earned run is charged to whoever allowed the runner to reach base. I think you are kind of reaching on that one. It’s no different than a reliever not being charged for a run that that the previous pitcher allowed to reach base. There is no one to charge the run to since no pitcher was responsible for them reaching base.
I can’t call this anything other than the Manfred man.
I can call it other things than that, but they aren’t fit for public consumption 😛
Maybe you should try. The Joint Committee:
Players: Jack Flaherty, Whit Merrifield, Tyler Glasnow, Austin Slater (Ian Happ, Walker Buehler alternates).
Owners: John Stanton (Mariners), Bill DeWitt (Cards), Greg Johnson (Giants), Dick Monfort (Rockies), Tom Werner (Red Sox), Mark Shapiro (Blue Jays).
Umpire: Bill Miller
Players: Jack Flaherty, Whit Merrifield, Tyler Glasnow, Austin Slater (Ian Happ, Walker Buehler alternates).
Owners: John Stanton (Mariners), Bill DeWitt (Cards), Greg Johnson (Giants), Dick Monfort (Rockies), Tom Werner (Red Sox), Mark Shapiro (Blue Jays).
Umpire: Bill Miller
They ALL need to get the Hell out of baseball. I’d give them a minimum of 365 days in County jail plus I’d fine them 10% of their annual income. That includes the Commissioner as well.
Ruin the National Pastime and get a one way ticket to Siberia‼️
It’s always the casual fans that think these changes are cool. These are the people who show up late, leave early and go to one game a year. The same fans who attend a game for the booby prize or because of some other gimmick.
I hate when people create strawmen. You think I’m a casual fan?
Most of these rules I love. I’m not crazy about the “ghost runner”, but I understand it.
Number crunchers have changed the game and the game needs to change to just to make it as exciting as it was in the 70s.
Stolen Bases, base runners, a couple of pitching changes mid innings instead of five.
Helping eliminate the three true outcomes and making contact and baserunning more important isn’t a good thing, it’s a great thing.
Except for the ghost runner, I like these rules.
Do all of your opinions come out of the southbound end of a northbound horse, or just the ones you post here?
Thanks to the nonsense threading of these comment boards it looks like I was responding to Halo when my comment was directed at that chronic horse’s patoot They Live.
I’m glad you clarified.
On the extra inning rule, I have the same opinion as most, I don’t like it.
But why am I looking at it in a different way? It’s because something isn’t working, and all the evidence indicates only outliers like it,
When something like that happens, I realize it will likely change.
Tyler Glasnow on a committee that requires thinking? This guy has a tattoo on his lip, can’t even imagine wanting the pain to get that.
So the owners had a two man advantage over the players. I’d call that fair in manfredville.
I thought it was five. I miscounted. But it’s not just owners, Executives who are on the board to add a different viewpoint. Not all those guys are owners.
And an umpire.
It was unanimous.
Unanimous is the key takeaway.
u·nan·i·mous | yo͞oˈnanəməs |
adjective
(of two or more people) fully in agreement.
• (of an opinion, decision, or vote) held or carried by everyone involved.
Expected, but nevertheless a complete affront to the basic principles of the game.
Ever hear about the fun sports fan topic “what would be the first change you’d make if you could be the sports commissioner for a day?” My answer: I’d not only do away with this rule, but in declaring it dead I would denounce everyone who was involved with it for their massacre of basic baseball principles.
Imagine if when a football game went into overtime, they just put whoever wins the coin toss on the other team’s 10 yard line.
This rule is dumb as sh”t
That’s sort of what they do in college, except it is the 25. And each team gets a chance to score, just like in baseball. You need a better imagination.
A single to leadoff an inning shouldn’t win the f#cking game. Sorry.
Even worse, you shouldn’t be able to win a game without getting on base. The way it stands, if the visitors do not score, the home team could groundout twice to the second baseman and win a game.
Errors don’t count as reaching base. Teams win games without technically reaching base all the time and long before this rule was in place. I find it hysterical that so many people get worked up over this.
A couple decades ago I gave up my NFL and NBA season tickets and bought season tickets for college football and basketball. Have not attended a single pro game since.
Sadly, MLB is moving in the same direction.
When I watch a game, I want to see the best. College is not the best.
MLB’s Joint Competition Committee Votes To Make “Ghost Runner“
STOP‼️
We the fans need to declare MLB’s Joint Competition Committee NULL & VOID. Retire these jagoffs immediately‼️ Where is our vote as the consumer of this tainted slop❓I’ve had enough.
The sport of baseball seriously needs a LIV-esque shock to its system.
First, ads on jerseys and now this! What a great time to be a baseball fan!
Those greedy players necessitate the extra ads to make up in revenue.
Just stop the game at 9 innings. Or have a zombie runner every inning. Or make a rule that a sick burn counts as a touchdown.
Stupid. Not baseball.
The rule regarding position players pitching is great. That was out of hand last year.
Agreed. I hope this rule spares me from having to see Miguel Cabrera volunteering to pitch whenever he can, during his final season.
Apparently, Jack Flaherty, Whit Merrifield, Austin Slater, Tyler Glasnow, Ian Happ & Walker Buehler hate their jobs. They take baseball fans for fools. Shame on them.
I’m assuming the players you mentioned in your post voted for this travesty of a rule? I’d expect the owners to do anything to line their pockets & to short change the fan. I’m mad as Hell about this‼️
We don’t know if they did…this time. Only 4 players vote at one time with 8 votes coming from owners or umpires.
The last time the ghost runner came up for a vote just to try it, all the players voted no.
The last time the pitch clock came up for a vote, all the players voted no.
The last time a vote for restricting position players pitching came up the players all voted no.
You seeing a pattern here?
I’m sure this will bring in new fans by the thousands…….
Play it like the old days 15 innings or however long it takes. This is bull. Always messing up the game with these stupid new rules. And yes. Get off my lawn.
No doubt. If guys who worked as farm hands and as steel workers in the off season can play a 15 inning game, then these fools who work out year round, don’t have to work manual labor jobs 12 hours a day in the off season who have better nutrition, training, and medical care, with more players on the roster, they can play 15 innings too.
I’m sorry to hear this, maybe a runner on first would be acceptable, but this rule has always sucked.
Why not just have a shootout? Do a mini-home run derby after every game that’s tied through 9. It beats the ghost runner silliness.
Horrible. Leave the game alone, if you don’t like it but a soccer club instead of a baseball team.
anyone know who’s on the committee? would love to email them.
I feel like it should start no earlier than the 13th inning. Gives each team one more chance through the batting order to end it the old way.
I HATE the Zombie Runner Rule. You pin a win and loss on a pitcher that didn’t deserve it and reward batters that got out with a run to their credit.
I thought after the Super Bowl that I would be happy about the end of football season and the beginning of baseball season. What an absolutely demoralizing damper this is.
I am the minority of the minority in that I love extra inning games. Some first year fan below mentioned it makes the 10th inning somehow more exciting if there is a runner on second, and that it might lead to interesting strategic choices.
It was an astoundingly stupid and idiot thing to say. Apparently this genius never saw an extra inning game before.
If the 10th or 13th inning drags you down, don’t watch baseball. It is part of the game. It will be still, just with a stupid artificial run waiting to score, courtesy of cheap billionaires and players who don’t like working overtime.
One of my favorite games was the Angels playing the A’s back in 1971. It was a 20 inning 1-0 game.
I was glued to the TV set. Extra innings games use to always be my favorite games.
But I don’t blame a network for cancelling shows because of low ratings. If you are not going to watch, bad things are going to happen.
I used to love pitchers duels until 2014 came along. Last year especially changed my mind about low scoring affairs. The internet is lowering everyone’s attention span. I have to be checking each player’s stats update and checking the daily scores while watching.
These guys are idiots. Baseball is going downhill due to this idiotic Manfred man rule. (Man?)fred screwed up baseball single-handedly.
I was totally cool with a universal DH. This is a bridge too far though for me.
“Sigh.”
See you guys at the pub
What a sad day
As my Japanese friend says (about anything)…time to drink!
Hey, my fiancé is 1/2 Japanese! Saki it to me baby
The ghost runner will give the self-styled purists something to complain about. The rest of us will like getting to a decision quicker.
It makes my ocd stat brain explode.
2/3 ip, 0 h, 0 bb
L
“Shudder”
Why not just have the umpire flip a coin? That would be even quicker.
Not only does the ghost runner get to a decision quicker, but the rule creates immediate interest in the tenth inning and some tricky strategic decisions. And like I say, it gives the purists something more to complain about. A win-win!
Try watching rugby or volleyball. You’ll like those better.
>the rule creates immediate interest in the tenth inning and some tricky strategic decisions
Really, like what kind of tricky strategic decisions? Because all I’ve seen are races to strikeout.
And sliders in the dirt over and over and over again
No fly balls allowed!!! JFC. Basically ostracizes an entire sector of rp’s who rely on soft fly ball contact. Such a big L here for Tony the Tiger and the union
Ok rant over. Sorry guys. I gotta stay off this topic lol it seriously gets me going. I wish it didn’t bother me so much
You do realize that ratings for extra innings have plummeted 42% since the institution of this rule, right? That means even casual fans like you are against the rule
People don’t want to watch games like that and they have voted with their feet/eyeballs.
I wish it would start in the 12th. But I doubt your numbers. People know the rule and feel like the game will be over shortly.
Go look at the Nielsen ratings. The ratings for extra innings dropped from a 3.12 to a 1.80 since 2019.
Baseball is down in general, but SI reports something different. As I listed.
And since people now when games are now going to be over sooner than later, it doesn’t make sense logically.
Equally stupid,, but beautiful in its simplicity so I upvoted you!
Try watching volleyball or something then.
Then don’t watch if you are so eager to just get it overwith
As the friend of pitchers, I see no problem with position players pitching in blowouts. It is even entertaining at times. Saves a pitching staff, otherwise they would have to run Johnny Wholestaff out there.
In other baseball related news it looks like the Dodgers have decided to withdraw from competitive baseball for 2023. The Dodgers will field a team of semi-retired & used up ball players mixed with over hyped minor leaguers & managed by a third rate manager. The fans will support them regardless because it’s Los Angeles.
Booooooooooooooooooooo
Each crap MLB rule just leads to crappier baseball. Thanks nerds!
It should start in the 12th inning. Let the 10th and 11th play out like a regular inning. This rule is worse than wanting nearly half the league making the playoffs. 12 is already too much but that should be the max teams in the playoffs.
I get why they have the free base runner in extra innings, but I don’t have to like it. We are slowly making baseball into a game that’s unwatchable and taking away from the history of it and making past achievements worth less and less meaningful
The only way I buy in to this is if the manager is the runner in the 10th inning. That would be entertaining. 11th inning it’s the 3rd base coach, 12th inning the first base coach and then back to the manager for inning 13. Who doesn’t want to see Bruce Bochy tag up from third and try to beat the throw home?
Advantage: Giants
Or a hung over Tony LaRussa before he re-re-retired.
What a disgrace. Learn how to score a freaking run and we won’t have these marathon games. Once it hits extra innings everyone, and I mean everyone, is blatantly taking wild swing for the fence swings on every pitch. And what a shocker it is that the pitchers know this and pitch to stay away from the long ball. Take what the pitchers giving you, slap a few singles, move some runners over and freaking SCORE. The bottom of the bullpens are not supposed to be that good that they shut down lineups for 5+ innings.
This is like watching the contractors son whose been coddled his entire life not pick up a hammer. It’s a part of the job! Get to work. Get off my lawn!!
I know. Like I said. Leadoff singles should not win the game. It is absolutely anticlimactic to have the stupid runner on.
And I thought there couldn’t be a worse commissioner than Bud Selig.
What about using pitchers as pinch-hitters or runners? If we can’t have non-pitchers pitch, then pitchers shouldn’t be allowed on offense either.
And how about the opposing team gets to choose the ghost runner every inning? It won’t be long before someone (probably Craig Counsell) knows his team won’t score in the bottom of the 9th, so he pinch hits with someone batting .094, but is lightning fast, so he’ll be the runner on second, and the other team complains cuz their speedster is due up 4th or something.
Scores winning run, demoted next day for hitting .094.
Hate it.
I love the ghost runner. It makes extra innings cant miss tv. Before it could drag forever with little to no action. Now its just as good as redzone on Sundays. Sign me up.
Baseball isn’t a sitcom, so the can’t miss TV thing…try watching volleyball or cricket. Or How I Met Your Mother.
If it made extra innings can’t miss TV, then the ratings for extra innings would not have fallen 42%.
Fans have spoken with their eyeballs 42% don’t watch extra innings anymore because of the rule. We turn the channel.
I don’t believe that’s true or at best it’s misleading. And since your credibility is constantly in question, I’m just going to dismiss your claim.
From SI
Okay, it’s not new. But prompted last year by COVID-19 protocols to avoid long days at the ballpark, this one officially is here to stay. Extra-inning games last year ended in the 10th inning 69% of the time, up from 46% in 2017 through ’19. With an instant rally in place, viewership on MLB.tv of extra innings as much as doubled in 2020 compared to 2016–19, according to MLB figures.
—-
If you have distort to make a point… why make it?
The ghost runner rule is ridiculous. If baseball games have to be shortened, MLB should have ties instead of the ghost runner.
Marathon games are fine during day games. But when you get a 16 inning game that doesn’t end until 1 or 2 in the morning then it can be exhausting.
ghost runner also puts loses on pitchers permanent record that they didn’t deserve. surprised Boras is ok with this
Wish they cut the extra inning rule, or made it to where it only went into effect after the 12th inning.
I would rather MLB shorten the regular season to 154 games than to destroy the integrity of the game as they are doing. By shortening the season the players would get more days off. Bottom line is that MLB & the players have jumped the shark one too many times with the ghost runner rule. The players who voted for this should be given drug tests daily for a full year & those who are even smoking weed should get 81 game suspensions without pay.
They Live. (not a bad movie)
Unless salaries were prorated, owners would never go for it. And since they are not going to be prorated, the players would never go for it.
Owners would never go for it because they would have to give back millions to the TV stations that broadcast their games.
I vote they either add ties, or add the ghost runner later than the 10th inning. Preferably in the 18th or 19th if it gets that far.
Both of these changes make the game less interesting.
Tie’s are like kissing your Sister. I’d much prefer a winner and a loser. Good with the runner.
This is the age of enlightenment…. how dare you make light of who people can love!!!
Didnt someone do the math and the ghost runner actually made the average game longer?
How many games when 12 innings last year?
I dont know, but here it is. https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2022/3/16/22980781/ghost-runner-12th-inning-and-later-good-idea
Instead of allowing a position player to pitch in the ninth or later why not allow the losing team to forfeit?
As baseball has become a 3 outcome game at the plate the addition of an automatic runner at second base gained merit when in the context of 9 inning games already lasting over 3 hrs. For people who frequently attend games rather than just talk about them on forums, fewer/shorter extra inning games is a good thing. Nobody likes getting home from the game at 2am.
Having position players on the pitching mound sucks. It’s the de-facto forfeit of the game without actually just conceding the game. When fans are clamoring for shorter games and for starting pitchers to have relevance again, it makes sense to curb the analytically driven front offices from making games boring, but the position player pitching has been deployed as a strategy crutch for poor pitching staff management.
By NOT using the ghost runner in the post season, they are openly admitting it’s not true baseball.
I disagree, it is a totally different situation.
I am sorry you can not see that.
@Captainmike1
So you’d have no problem with the NFL having different rules for regular season games and the playoffs?
Apples and oranges !!
Not the same sport
Not the same at all
Not the same situation at all
The NFL already has different rules in the playoffs. Regular season games can end in a tie.
Why is it a different situation? Games in the regular season can count towards (1) whether or not you play in the post season, and (2) where you are seed in the post-season tournament.
I am a baseball purist. I just like to watch baseball even if the game “doesn’t matter”. I normally skip the post-season and head on down to Phoenix to catch some Arizona Fall League games. The AFL games are far more entertaining for me than the post-season games normally. Better informed crowd at AFL than at MLB.
At least, they did not decide to use the robo umpires.
After you saw a referee decide the Superbowl, why would you want umpires deciding Playoff and World Series games?
Far too often umpires decide who gets to play in the World Series and who wins the World Series. The less games they decide, the better.
I’d rather the game end in a damn tie.
The ghost runner rule is an excellent idea.
Clearly the players know more about the situation than the fans who refuse to think this through.
MLB, where the customer is always wrong.
That is f’ing stupid. No fan likes that rule and its supposed to be for the fans.
Good rule on pitching. I’d prefer forfiets over frauds on the mound, unless they pay me to toss a few, in which case Im all for it.
Ghost runners? Why not start with bases loaded, no outs. That’d shorten things up. Or 1/2 run for scoring the free runner from second (because the runner was 1/2 way home without earning those bases).
But I suppose run-fractions would screw up stat’s.
How about fractional runs per base gained? 1/4 run per base. That would pretty much eliminate extra innings, and could make MLB the first sport only understandable to statisticians and engineers.
They can’t have forfeits. Advertisers and broadcasters would roast them alive.
Those position players are MLB players and many pitched in high school, college and even the minors. They are not frauds, they were just better hitting the ball than throwing the ball.
As a group, the position players that pitched in games had an ERA just above a 5. That is better than a large number of pitchers that took the mound as a reliever last season.
Nobody stupid enough to think the “ghost runner” is a good idea should be permitted to dress themselves, or cut their own meat. Lord.
The attempt to shorten games is silly. You could just call a tie a tie. Nobody really complains that a baseball game is 3-4 hours. All the other sports are 3-4 hour games. I think the 162 is the real problem. It’s a challenge to watch your team for 4 hours 162+ times a year. They should start by taking about 25% of the games, so a 120ish game season.
Do you have a season ticket package? Do you pay for a cable package and watch the games on your TV? How many games do you pay to watch (directly) per year? How many games do you attend a year? I am a season ticket package holder and I attend a couple dozen games a year. I’ve watched games at a dozen stadiums across the country. In other words, I’m a paying customer who spends thousands of dollars a year on the product.
Games are way, way too long. Every single season ticket holder I know has complained about the length of games and how slow it can be as some games just drag on and on and on. It’s sorta okay for the first couple innings, but after you’ve already eaten your food, had a beer or two and you’re just sitting there as the 7th, 8th and 9th innings slowly drag on long after the sun has gone down and you and your guest have work the next morning, it gets real old after the first couple games you attend.
The ghost runner is the dumbest rule implemented. Manfred is trying to shorten games for a younger fanbase who will never be loyal to baseball regardless. It’s the short attention span viewer who will chase the first squirrel that pops up. As soon as something they like better turns their heads away, true fans will be left with a watered down version of baseball.
I agree with you that this is a dumb rule change, but your boogyman theory of everything wrong with baseball isn’t going to work here at all. Manfred isn’t even on this committee. It’s made up of players, owners, and an umpire. And they all voted for it.
blueskies – Actually the consensus here seems to be that Manfred is horrible. It’s naïve to think Manfred isn’t involved in these decisions and their outcomes.
Just because a lot of people agree that everything bad in baseball is on account of Rob Manfred and Scott Boras, that doesn’t make it true.
It’s painful to keep having to say that Manfred is the mouthpiece for ownership, and that he keeps his job because he delivers for them, and have so few get it. Or that Boras is hired to represent many players because he delivers for them, and have so few get that either. Bottom line, a lot of people believing something doesn’t make it right. It being right is what makes it right.
So again, the definition of unanimous is….?
BlueSkies.
We live in a society where it matters more who is doing something than what is being done.
Just look at our political parties. This has never been clearer.
Manfred could create a cure for Covid, and some people would still find fault.
But we have a cure, don’t we? The vaccine. (Insert eye roll emoji here)
A sad but true story, Halo. It’s gotten so we can’t even agree with someone if we aren’t doing it while hating on whoever they happen to hate.
Sad, sad, sad, sad. Sad. 🙁
It does seem insane.
The people who don’t like the rule, I agree with them. But some of the hyperbole thrown around is laughable.
Most of the changes to the game are to counter the number crunchers, and consequently return the game more to its roots. I like those changes.
This change is an attempt to artificially to add excitement to something I don’t think needs to have excitement added.
But the vote was UNANIMOUS. How is this Manfred’s fault?
Not sure how much the extra innings rule is intended to add excitement to the game. My read is the players, owners, and umpires all agreed that they don’t like marathon games. They’re unprofitable, exhausting, and wreak havoc on travel schedules.
As for the position players pitching rule, I have no idea what that is supposed to accomplish. About the most fun we can have watching a blowout game is seeing an infielder lobbing pitches over the plate in the late innings. I’ve hung to the end of otherwise dull game just to see that. The entertainment value can be quite high, so why they want to limit how much we see it is a mystery to me.
The number crunchers have determined the game is lost so save your staff for the next game.
My opinion, if a team burns their bullpen, that’s a huge disadvantage for the next game. Which I think is the way it should be.
I want there to be a penalty for using so many pitchers.
We’ve gone from two or three pitchers a game to five or six. If you are using six pitchers, I want there to be eventual ramifications.
Baseball countered changing the rules so teams are not able to send their players down simply to bring in a fresh arm. Baseball is countering the number crunchers. They have to. This is another counter.
I don’t know that you need to be a number-cruncher to recognize that if you’re up by seven runs in the ninth that y0u can risk giving up a few and still win. They already instituted the three-batter minimum so if we’re still seeing an increase in the number of pitchers used in a game it’s probably on account of pulling starters earlier. Making it harder to use position players in mop-up situations probably isn’t going to change that.
For whatever reason, something has changed, and now teams are exploiting situations.
So.. baseball makes a rule to counter the exploitation.
I’m good with that. If others are not, I’m good with that too.
To exaggerate… It’s the reactionary. “The Sky is Falling”. And “Manfred should be tarred and feathered” that I object to,
1) The Pitcher restriction isn’t a big deal.
2) The vote about extra innings was unanimous… How does Manfred take all the blame?
Well, because, you know! 😉
So just to be clear Halo and Blue, both of you believe that Bob Manfred, the Commissioner of Baseball, has no say, influence, or part in any of the rule changes that baseball is experiencing. Is that correct?
On this rule change, he has no influence on how players and umpires vote. And the Owners are typically pretty smart guys. Manfred has to sell them or his proposals would go no where.
I like the 15 second pitch rule. I like the slightly wider bases that no one will notice. I’m not crazy about only two pick off moves and the extra inning ghost runner. I like enforcing the current balk and the continuous windup rules.
The only thing I’m really upset about regarding Manfred is pulling the All Star game out of Atlanta. He owes the entire country an apology. I’d fire him for that.
I’m discerning enough to judge each action separately.
Wrong. What I believe is clearly stated in what I say. Instead of simply responding to what I actually said, you are trying to interpret what I said to mean something else. To me, this seems not only completely unnecessary, and unproductive, but at least a little insulting besides.
Halo: And in the end it doesn’t matter a flying fig even if the commissioner presented this committee with a 500 page report and a lengthy personal opinion urging the adoption of the new rules. The committee still has to vote for it, which they did without any disagreement whatsoever. And they did this, why? Because all the parties on that committee find shorter games to be in their interest. A lot of people seem to be surprised by this, and also by the fact that MLB doesn’t ask us fans whether we like the changes. The only “committee” we’re on is the one that forks over cash as customers of the game. MLB is betting that more fans will like it, or at least accept it, than don’t.
No one like extra inning games. That’s not on Manfred.
I don’t like Manfred because of Atlanta. I do like Manfred for helping get rid of the shift, making pitchers pitch the ball in a timey manner, and enforcing the balk rules. I like larger bases.
I’m open regarding the two pick off moves. Although I don’t like it, I’m not devastated with the extra inning rule.
Like most people, he’s a mixed bag.
Ah well. I check the scores at work, being in Australia and extra innings are always mad fun. But can definitely understand why this was done:) que sera, sera:)
rabid – Congrats on posting the first ever Doris Day quote on this board.
Ahahaha, thank you very much:) that quote seems to be a good response to most things these days:)
Morons. The game I grew up loving is becoming unrecognizable. They wonder why they can’t attract new fans. How about keeping the old fans interested, Maybe they can pass that love along instead of saying, you should have seen how the game was played before the corporate A-holes took over..
What rip off.
So, you don’t get what you paid for??????
Lazy players union and rip off.owners.
Baseball is doomed due to lack of respect for tradition.
Used to be a relaxing afternoon or evening at the ballpark……
Now it’s 2.4 hrs or less…..THEY CARE LITTLE FOR THE OPINION OF THE CUSTOMER.
The rule changes seem to implemented by people WHO DONT LIKE BASEBALL SO THEY ARE TRYING TO CHANGE IT.
PEOPLE.WHO WATCH SOCCER SHOULD NOT BE INCOLVED IN MAKING DECISIONS REGARDING BASEBALL
it is a conspiracy to ruin this country and.they are attacking baseball,
what is Manfreds’ background, really?
I’m guessing they can’t attract new fans because it’s too slow. It’s either change the traditional game or introduce a new, faster version that runs in parallel. Seen this in cricket. The introduction of a faster, shorter version has revitalised the game a couple of times.
The traditional slow form still exists, and once the fast paced versions suck the youngsters in, they graduate to the long.
Yes! Common sense rule prevails.
Not really sure what their goal was with the position player pitching rules. It happens so rarely, just 132 half innings in 22045 innings played last season. A quater of that the season before.
It is also not like those position players went out and embarrassed themselves every time last year. As a group, those position players put up 48 scoreless innings and they had an ERA that was better than 231 pitchers that appeared in relief roles.
If your team is getting completely blown out, one of the few fun things that can happen is a position player coming out there and throwing an eephus or striking out some star hitter.
Last, but not least. We will never have any more 2 way players if they don’t give them a way to build up those innings.
I can totally see why staffs and players want to do away with excessively. long games. I mean, even if you play an 18 inning game, still counts as a single win or loss, and it risks injury to pitchers who have to go on short rest or are overstretched. Honestly as a coach, after 14-15 innings, I’d just lose the game. Not worth messing up your roster over one win.
It was unanimous!!!!
According to a league source, the players on the new Joint Competition committee are Jack Flaherty of the St. Louis Cardinals, Whit Merrifield of the Kansas City Royals, Tyler Glasnow of the Tampa Bay Rays and Austin Slater of the San Francisco Giants. Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs and Walker Buehler of the Los Angeles Dodgers will serve as alternates.
On the ownership side are Seattle’s John Stanton, St. Louis’ Bill DeWitt, San Francisco’s Greg Johnson, Colorado’s Dick Monfort, Boston’s Tom Werner and Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro.
There is one umpire on the committee, veteran crew chief Bill Miller.
—
No one likes it. If fans are going to leave the park or turn off their TV sets in droves, why would they vote otherwise. Fans have nobody to blame but themselves.
Fans already HAVE changed the channel in droves. 42% lower Nielsen ratings in extra innings since 2019.
I copy and pasted the SI link that disputes your claim.
I leave it at that..
“viewership on MLB.tv of extra innings as much as doubled in 2020 compared to 2016–19, according to MLB figures.”
Gosh.. who am I going to believe… let me think.
halo,can you prove your what you say?the neilsons got real numbers that show proof its gone down,since they intoduced the ghost runner.where are you getting your stats and ratings from?
SI reported what I copy and pasted.
That’s a copy and paste. I don’t know what else to do.
Do you happen to know recent is this? How are they selected? Appointed by who? Elected? Volunteer?
Merrifield is on the Blue Jays now, not KC. Does he keep his committee assignment?
The most PA Slater has ever had in a season is 325 last year. Not even an everyday starter. Ever.
Flaherty and Glasnow either weren’t or couldn’t stay on the mound in 2022.
4 players, 6 owner/FO guys, and an umpire get to decide for all of baseball owners, players and fans. That’s just peachy.
Seriously? You think those players and the umpire act in isolation.
No one but a small portion of fans likes extra innings. And I mean nobody.
(1) It’s not a “ghost” runner, it’s an automatic runner. Can we at least keep the name right?
(2) Position players can only pitch in extra innings, or in the ninth inning for a team up by ten or more runs, or anytime for a team down by eight or more runs. What a ridiculously arbitrary rule. Is MLB just throwing darts to come up with these things?
(3) How do we stop MLB from trying to make baseball more like the NFL and NBA?
Regrading point #3: The players have, one generation at a time, abandoned the tradition of the game. And they are allowed to do so because the owners – generally speaking – do not demand any sort of accountability so long as the profits keep coming in. And the fans put up with it and even support by continuing to give MLB their money.
So many salty, bitter old men. Baseball has changed since the 60s. Get over it or stop watching.
So the game only belongs to the modern Progessive? Nonsense.
Uh, no. I’m saying the game has changed and will change more. I’m sorry that baseball and the world isn’t the way it was when you were 12. Times have changed, and just because something was always done a certain way doesn’t mean it should have been. There are still people griping about the DH. THE DH, which has been around for FIFTY years.
hof24 – Nonsense. Baseball falls under the category of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. There was nothing wrong with baseball prior to this flood of new rules in the past few years. These changes are part of an agenda to shorten the game. It’s about money, not about the game itself. You see this in everything. Value has taken a back seat to revenue everywhere. That’s why you pay the same for 52 ounces of orange juice that you used to pay for a half gallon. You are paying the same or more for less baseball. But if it’s all you know, then you don’t care. Apathy is a killer of all things good.
You’re missing the point. Not all change is good. That’s the main complaint, whether you’re talking about the game or the world in general. It’s fallacious to assume that just because something is new, it is also better. The same is true in reverse at times.
Personally, I am ok with some of the new rules and not ok with others. I like the universal DH and shift banning for example.
The game is completely different today than it was 60s, 70s. 80s, 90s, 2000 and 2010.
So if there is nothing wrong with baseball, I guess there was something wrong with baseball in all the other decades I’ve watched baseball.
I think most of this discussion is misguided. Some new rule developments are valid and useful. Others are not and harm the integrity of the game. Saying the latter does not mean one has to say that every other rule change was bad for baseball. On the contrary, one only has to say that the rules that seem bad for baseball are in fact, bad for baseball.
I think non-pitchers pitching makes games a joke. I think teams should have to manage their staffs.
I don’t like the ghost runner, There is something special about extra innings and that “specialness” is being removed.
We are in 100% agreement about both rules.
The problem is millions of people who grew up w baseball have stopped watching and many are pretty young. The sport is only going to keep bleeding fans. Gimmicks that cheapen the game wont help.
Fools like you can’t stand different opinions. This screws up modern analytics too. There are so many runs allowed that aren’t unearned or earned. It really throws off the game. I’m in my early 20s, and I’m willing to bet you are relatively the grumpy old man complaining people disagree with you. Just get off the comment site if you can’t handle comments you dislike instead of ranting about it.
I’m in the 60s and have watched baseball since the early 60s.
The game today is completely different today. Number crunchers have changed the game. I think baseball has to counter the number crunchers. I like singles, stealing, fewer pitching changes and rewarding contact.
Many of these updated rules are trying to get the game back to where it was.
As for the ghost runner, I’m not a fan. But I understand why they made the change.
Football adapted. It use to be “give the ball to the running back”. Joe Nameth through exactly ZERO passes in the 4th quarter of Superbowl III,
The score was 19-9. Nameth threw for 206 yards. Unitas. 110.
Games have always changed to counter strategies that make the games less exiting. People need to deal with it and stop acting like this is new.
I’m not responding to you, Halo. I’m replying to Seattle. He’s the one ranting about old people on this site.
May 1, 1920: Brooklyn Robins 1, Boston Braves 1, 26 innings, 3 hours and 50 minutes (game called because of darkness).
Perhaps there are other ways today with which to speed up games.
Like true Progressives, they must tear down all tradition wherever it is found. This was inevitable. #GetOffMyLawn
Seriously? By that reasoning these guys should be in at least regular BP rotation and how about a spot start or two? Most pitchers were hitters at one time too. How about they fill the batting order with pitchers in blowouts, it would be as enjoyable as the other way around.
Might as well flip a coin
I think the rule changes too much of the game as the rule still states that every runner should be accounted for in the rule of the game. MLB Baseball has to understand this isn’t little league. When will they decide to include all the Teams in the playoffs?
I think the solution is to expand the rosters to 30 players and raise the 40 man to 45. But like some of the commenters stated this only raises the operating expenses of the Owners. In my opinion ok so what the owners will pay more to make the game better? I feel this is a greed issue propagated by the both sides. Owners and MLBPA. Its easy to see how the players and agents were courted.
Without the fans to support the rising ticket prices, parking and concessions what will they decide to do then.Also while I’m at it the World Baseball Classic adds more Baseball to players who are already at their limits. That’s basically what we’re being told here.
I think they decided this when they decided to bring back the Classic and add those games for the participants so that certainly had an negative effect. Wait and see how many of those players are injured.
Did anyone notice that some teams only had a player or two participat? How is that some Teams had 6 to 8. Is there a bonus given for more players but at the cost of the real fans in the quality of the game. Purests only want genuinely honest and fair competition….
No matter what the Sport is I think TV revenues and Executives have so much more influence that we might realize because they pay in a huge huge way.
It’s just not good in my view.
Hard to develop young players when they are sitting on the bench, and that’s exactly what a 30 man roster would cause.
I do like the idea of a 45 instead of a 40 man roster.
Play the 10 and 11th with no ghost runner. Start the ghost runner in the 12th inning.
OhioDodger, If I had a vote, that’s what I would vote for.
At a minimum they need an injury exception to the position player pitching rule. If a team is using the last guy available in the bullpen to take care of the 9th and he gets hurt, they shouldn’t be forced to bring in some starter whose arm isn’t ready to pitch that day.
I suppose they could send a starter out there just to stand on the mound and intentionally walk enough people to push across the number of runs needed to be able to legally use a position player, but that would be silly.
ahh, we are still talking 8 RPs pitchers?
How do you burn out 9 pitchers in a 9-inning game.
But that said, the 9th pitcher can be a position player. How’s that?
Ghost runner absolutely screams T-Ball and further cheapens the game. Can “participation” trophies be far behind?
Isn’t that what 16 teams in the playoffs is? Participation trophies? That is what the owners want.
I think the next rule will be “pitch to your own team in extras”. Then participation trophies. It’s called incrementalism.
At this point, why even have managers? The rules are dictating most moves these days. Ghost runners so that guys making 30 mil a year don’t have to “work” an extra 25 minutes? Poor babies.
Nothing like creating a crazy ridiculous comparison to make your point.
Hey… why sell tickets if 90% of the fans leave after 9 innings. Hey, just making a wild crazy point for the heck of it.
@Halo11fan
90% of the fans leave after 9 innings because they shut down the concessions in the 8th inning.
They didn’t shut down the concessions when I use to go to 50 games a year back in the 90s. They shut down beer sales.
The fans still left. As far as TV goes…. They don’t make you turn off the TV.
I went to a game in Kansas City a couple of years ago. They did shut down the hot dogs, I’m wondering if I could still get a coke.
They have shut down alcohol concessions after the 7th league wide since 1985. Most teams started shutting all concessions down after the 7th by the early 1990s. I have not been to a game in SoCal, Dodgers, Angels, or Padres, where you could get anything in the 9th since 1992.
Again. I had season tickets to the Angels up until the strike. but after games, I had to drive an hour to get home. I’m not sure I would have noticed.
When I went to a game in KC last year, I wasn’t able to get a hot dog. I didn’t try to get a water.
But when I was a season ticket holder, and I was for several years, fans left in droves during extra innings games. I remember Dick Schoefield hitting a foul ball between home and first, where i easily grabbed it even the ball even though i had to walk through two aisles to get it.
@Halo11fan.
LA fans leave in droves no matter what is happening. Just look at the video of Kirk Gibson’s World Series home run. As the ball sails into the seats, you can see a trail of car taillights leaving the ball park.
It’s not like that in other cities.
One of the appeals of baseball is how it minimizes change, and that games played today have a great deal in common with those played in the past. There’s no good reason to change the rules regarding extra inning games.
“…there were only 11 games to reach the 13th inning last year, compared to 37 in 2019. There were also no games that went beyond the 15th in 2022, while it happened eight times in 2019.”
—-So we’re eliminating the excitement of such games despite their rarity, which should make those games all the more to be prized and appreciated. Bad move, MLB.
Not sure we need or want 30 man roster but how bout opening up Taxi Squad rules that can be potentially utilized say after 9 innings or just have other option rules that solve the problems with pitching?
That could make for some other manuvering and other interesting strategies? I do enjoy position players pitching and oftentimes they are effective.
They really need to go back to fundementals like moving players up, hit and run, bunting instead of swinging for the fences with a certain launch angle but often striking out.
Keep the integrity of the game. Life is not perfect and neither is sports. I wonder if Nascar instituting the “Lucky Dog” and Competition Cautions. It’s the same mentality of thinking that is coming from the financier’s of the Sport TV Networks and their Sponsors like Big Pharma…..watching the games pay attention to who’s running ads.Theres the driving force for the changes. TV Greed in my opinion.
The real ghost that haunts MLB is the ghost of Bernice Gera …
That was a great rule change. It made a dull game being played become exciting. The dead ball actually remove one of the one of three outcomes so that was a great season to do that. The shifting, and dead ball would have conspired to have had a lot of long games last shortened season too, without the rule change.
How will it play this year with no shift ? I think it’s going to get a lot more exciting in the late innings, and perhaps too risky for the road teams to not try everything to prevent a tie. The dead ball humidor baseball will really get livened up in the extra innings, and if you as a fan don’t have M.L.B.tv, I would suggest you get it. With no shifting that guy on second will most always score I believe.
I would pop up the menu of games going on to see what was going to be tied in the 9th, as those were the best games to watch. This was the best rule change baseball ever made since the D.H.
They said it was only temporary. Seems they mislead fans. I believe the reason it passed is it appears there is support even among players and umpires for this rule change. Basically, anyone who has to work extra innings decided to change the very nature of the game permanently so they can go home early. That’s also why you’ll see many baseball reporters in favor of the change too. Fans opinions did not matter at all on this.
Count me as definitely NOT a fan of the rule.
There should be at least three extra innings before going to the fake double to start the 13th. Other sports don’t fundamentally change the game immediately, they have extra time before going to a shootout or whatever.
NHL plays 3 on 3 in their 5 min overtime in the regular season.
MLB is telling Traditional Baseball fans that they don’t give a damn about them & MLB is continuing to destroy the Traditional Game of Baseball & it’s a crying shame
Number Crunchers, a faction that was still in its infancy 15 years, ago has completely changed the game. MLB is attempting to counter those changes.
It’s laughable that traditional baseball fans do not think the game has been completely updated.
What’s laughable is there are too many NON Baseball fans who hate the Traditional Game of Baseball & you’re reply says you hate the Traditional Game
Too many young nerd fans and many of the new ones that MLB are trying to woo with incessant NFL style rule changes would just go to the shorter games and still not pay much attention to what happens on the field. They’d rather spend the time on their cell phones than take in the beauty and pace of a game that is so different from any of the other sports and other live entertainment options.
This just in… Joint rules committee unanimously votes rule banning beer cans more than 5 ft from the foul line, and 10 second sip clock in effect in 2023.
Garbage rule. Absolute crap. Embarrassing.
Universal DH, Ghost Runners, Pick-off rules, etc… What’s next? 1hr, 50 min games like youth baseball tournaments…
I hate this. Why not just make the game 7 innings, or 5 even, if you don’t want to play the game anymore? This isn’t evoulution, it is just laziness.
Just don’t play at all? Even better
How does one find out who the rules committee actually is? I want names!
Oh…. Thanks halo11fan
I will repost
According to a league source, the players on the new Joint Competition committee are Jack Flaherty of the St. Louis Cardinals, Whit Merrifield of the Kansas City Royals, Tyler Glasnow of the Tampa Bay Rays and Austin Slater of the San Francisco Giants. Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs and Walker Buehler of the Los Angeles Dodgers will serve as alternates.
On the ownership side are Seattle’s John Stanton, St. Louis’ Bill DeWitt, San Francisco’s Greg Johnson, Colorado’s Dick Monfort, Boston’s Tom Werner and Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro.
There is one umpire on the committee, veteran crew chief Bill Miller.
Reading through this thread is all it takes.
Couldn’t you see, when you replied, that I already had? Reading the comment is all it takes.
I could easily see that you hadn’t because this information had already been posted by me hours before you asked the question. I can’t account for why you missed it.
I hate this rule just like most diehard fans but the players seem to like it and it does have it’s advantages. For example, teams seem to have lost the ability to execute the basic fundamentals. Seems to me teams swing for the long ball way too often. If you can execute a sac bunt then get a sac fly consistently you could put immense pressure on the other team who is striking out on everything because they rely too much on analytics and didn’t bother learning this part of baseball…..
I’m glad they’re keeping it.
Sure, I’ll continue to listen to games on radio but I assure you I will never give MLB a single DIME from this moment forward. No tix, no merch, NADA. Asinine decision.
866-244-2291
MLB Customer Svc
HEY MLB Commissioner: I played ball for over 50 years and have to say the I hate the “ghost runner” rule! Why not use, in extra innings, a tee ball stand to save on pitchers arms? The “ghost runner” is embarrassing! What a way to begin a new season by telling the fans that this stupid decision is continuing! SHAME on you MLB!
MLB: Let me be honest with you. If you really care.
If you want to make games shorter leave the game as a tie after 11 innings! Don’t begin extra innings with a runner who did not earn it! Your decision to continue this little league idea is wrong! But what do you care about what the fan thinks! This decision is another way you tell the real fan that you don’t care about us.
Another way you don’t care for the fan: Making the fan to pay twice to view games on TV. Initially we pay a company to view your games and then you ship off games to youtube, Hulu, Apple TV, Peacock…. where we have to pay them to watch the game. What you really care for is the fan’s money!!!!!
The “ghost runner” is another situation where the simple minded who run MLB find it necessary to think of a solution to a non-problem. If there really was a concern about injuries, simply suspend a tie gane after 9 or even the average 13 innings and complete it at a later date.
Incredibly stupid rule concocted by those who ignore the fan base when making decisions.
Let’s face it, people would complain no matter what.. imagine sitting through a 4 hour game, only to have it suspended and you don’t get to see the conclusion.
This is terrible! An abomination! You can’t change the rules in baseball or it’s not baseball anymore!
Oh, wait . . . they’ve changed lots of rules. You used to be able to get a baserunner out by hitting him with the baseball. Players didn’t have gloves. Catchers wore no protective gear. Pitchers didn’t throw overhand pitches; the ball was pitched underhand. You could put spit on the ball. A batter was out if a batted ball, fair or foul, was caught on one bounce. The pitcher told the hitter what pitch he was going to throw, low or high. The distance of the pitcher’s “box” (it wasn’t a round mound) to the batter was different. There were no bases on balls, and when walks were introduced, it took nine balls to work a walk, and if you walked you were exempted from an at-bat.
Etc., etc.
Me, I like this latest rule change. I live on the East Coast and can do without extra-inning games on the West Coast that go until the wee hours. The rule applies to both teams, and the players like it. Good enough. I spend too much time watching what’s already a long game, longer than the other major sports. Carry on.
The Oakland A’s traded their ghost runner this morning for a pair of prospects.
It’s.Not.A.Ghostrunner.For.The.Love.Of.God.
I hate the automatic runner on 2nd in extras. Why are they always trying to speed up the game and get the fans out of the stadium. A team can lose by way of a sac bunt and a fly ball. It takes the skill and the strategy out of the game. Are the players not getting paid enough to play a couple extra innings? Bigger bases for shorter base paths, Restricted defensive shifts, a pitcher can’t pitch to only one batter, can’t throw 4 balls for an intentional walk because it slows up the game. How many intentional walks are issued on average per game and how long does it take to throw 4 pitches?. Maybe a player should be out after 2 strikes, or out after 2 foul balls? what other crazy rules will be in effect to speed up the game and get the players out to the bar or restaurants faster. Poor players just spend too much time playing and are not compensated enough??
I could be wrong (it happens a lot) but does this mean a pitcher could throw a PERFECT game and lose? 0-0 in the tenth and say the “free runner” steals third and scores on a ground ball out or sac fly – wouldn’t that STILL be a perfect game? I know guys have lost no-hitters, but until now you couldn’t lose a perfect game, could you?
I realize it’s a fantasy to think a pitcher these days would pitch more than twice through the order, of course…but it’s an interesting scenario.
This logic of the two rules (ghost runner and position player pitching) kind of cancel each other out, no? They don’t want games going too far into extra innings (lame) because that could tax the bullpen/pitching staff BUT they want to lessen the number of times that players pitch which will eventually…tax the bullpen/pitching staff.
Golf is boring.
Change.the rule why don’t you. I can’t standing watching it on TV
…it’s so boring, change the rule.because it is not high intensity like football and basketball!!!!!
MANFRED DOESN’T UNDERSTAND carps!
This MLB Commissioner wants to change baseball. I get it. YET, there have been many ideas to change baseball. Some are fine, yet many have been just stupid to insane!
Move the distance of the pitching rubber/mound(that is insane!). Limiting pick off throws by pitchers. This may cause possibly more steals(that is not baseball. that is wrong. It hurts the pitcher.) Bigger bases(I don’t care. I just want the runners not to get injured with a better base.) Use of clocks(that is fine as batters and pitchers waste too much time). Placing a runner on second base to begin extra innings! That is insane! That is not baseball! A runner who didn’t earn to be on that base! The pitcher who takes the loss is wrong! This is tee ball not adult baseball! That is wussy!
LEAVE baseball alone, Commissioner!
Do you want odd rules? Why not try these: (1) In extra innings have batters hit off a batting tee. This way the league can save the wear and tear of pitchers.
(2) Why not agree on a spectacular end of games reaching 15 inning! Each team’s mascot to perform a 3-wheeler Demolition Derby ’til death event.
Winning mascot gets their own Palladiuma TOPPS Baseball Card!
Philly’s Syl Stallone would most likely want to represent the Phils in this duel to the death of mascots!
The commissioner wants whatever the team owners want. First, last, always.
Yup, and the team owners want to limit their electric bill…
Mark all ghost runner extra innings wins with an asterisk * because these fake wins shouldn’t count in records.