The Pecan Park Eagle

The Three Egregious Anomalies in Baseball We Hate Most.

There are others, but these are the ones we hate the most. And they all begin with: Here at The Eagle, we think they’ve been bad for the game ever since baseball decided to ….

1. Melt AL/NL Identities into a Singular MLB marketing brand, but ignore the fact that the two leagues continue to play two different kinds of baseball because of the DH use in the AL.
2. Continue Inter-League play in spite of the DH variant that imposes a disadvantage in each such contest because of the rule which imposes the DH rule in games played at AL parks and then switches to traditional baseball with no DH in games played in NL parks.
3. Continue the ridiculous Selig Solution to All Star Game apathy by allowing the annual All Star Game winner to determine home team advantage in the same year’s World Series.

Does anyone in Major League Baseball have the gonads to stand up in opposition to these incongruous conditions? Or do we simply have to make our peace with the fact that the people who run professional baseball are simply experts at sanctioning half-baked ideas and allowing baseball to strangle on misguided concepts like the All Star Game solution because that position – of political squat – is preferable to hurting the feelings and image of the ex-car dealer/commissioner who somehow dreamed up the All Star Game elixir from his “buy one – get one free” automobile marketing notes catalogue.

Possible Solutions.

1. Vote the DH all the way in – or all the way out. – One MLB with one brand of baseball is preferable to the mixture. – Get it done – even if it means dealing with the Players’ Union over the need to increase roster sizes, if the DH goes. This is harder to do now because baseball put this off so long that we now have generations of fans who have grown up with the DH – and they feel as strongly about the DH as the purists do about the damage that the DH does to managing the game of baseball. – It’s either make the tough choice – or live with the fact that MLB is really an alliance between two similar games of baseball.
2. Discontinue inter-league play until MLB decides if it’s going all DH or no DH – or MLB simply admits for the first time that baseball has now evolved into two similar, but not identical games.
3. Accept the All Star Game for what it is. – It is both a party and a way of honoring the game’s greatest. – Increase the roster sizes, if need be. Include 3-4 extra pitchers who may only be used if the game goes into extra innings, but kill that World Series home field advantage rule, asap. – The World Series team with the best record should have the home field advantage. – In the event of record ties between NL/AL winners, simply work out an additional gradient factor for breaking the tie based on field performance in key areas.

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 Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas