How to Increase the Popularity of MLB

[Platano]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qc2S80E7wQ[/youtube]

[TyCobb]

Outstanding video, excellent points.

For me, it's increasing the excitement in its live television. One way would be to make fans feel more in the game by setting up the pitch-by-pitch camera behind homeplate instead of the typical centerfield to home look.

[Platano]

Outstanding video, excellent points.

For me, it's increasing the excitement in its live television. One way would be to make fans feel more in the game by setting up the pitch-by-pitch camera behind homeplate instead of the typical centerfield to home look.

agree and maybe some more strike zone technology

[Han Solo]

Detroit (the city) is bankrupt and we still fill the stadium every game.

Baseball is popular here in Michigan.

[UN-Owen]

My interest in the game would increase significantly with the elimination of human error on the part of the officiating staff

Baseball should increase its use of technology for the sake of getting calls right 100% of the time -- and that includes balls and strikes

[FreeBalling]

Guys like Braun, put a black eye on baseball. He tried to ruin the handler and the over the top lies. He should have been made an example and thrown out of baseball.

That's a good start. Fan go away b/c of issues like Braun.

He should give that award back, that would show some class.

[Dr Positivity]

I came up with this idea a few weeks ago:

- Instead of making it an 162 game by game schedule, make it so what counts in the W/L column is series wins, of which presumably there'd be 50-60 a year

- Clearly you can't just play a 3 G set and have the series decided that week, because if a team wins the first 2, the third game becomes meaningless and we can't have that. So the key is this: Series can run over non-consecutive games. Meaning say there's a 3 game set. One team wins the first two, so they get a best of three series win. Now the third game of that week's set, becomes Game 1 of the next series between the two teams. The next time they play, one team is already up 1-0 in that series to start it.

Reasons I like this: The variety in the schedule makes it more compelling. For casual fans for whom 162 Gs is just too long, they may turn into the 'series deciding' game instead. This is especially true for making other teams than the fan's interesting. If I'm a Cubs fan, am I more likely to watch the last 4 innings of a random Detroit @ Oakland or LAD @ Atlanta game in the current set-up, or if it's the series deciding one? And it's not just the winner take all games that become more important, if a team is up 1-0 in a 3 G set, it becomes a 'staving off elimination/forcing a series decider' game so to speak. Like game/set point in tennis. If everything is a Best of 3 you have three types of games: Series deciding (1-1), a team trying to force a series decider one way or the other (1-0), or Game 1 (0-0)

Possible hurdles: There's still some scheduling issues in that a team who plays more 2-0 series one way or the other than others, ends up with more total series over the course of the year. Solution is to make it so what matters in the playoff standings is series winning % instead of the raw W/L. Another problem is what happens if there's no games left on the schedule between two teams and the last series they played is undecided. Well first off if the undecided series is 1-0, that's not a problem, the last game was a best of 1 series. But for say a 1-1 tie, guess the most likely answer is to play extra innings as baseball's version of a shootout, or like a tennis tiebreaker. Suppose some make-up games system would be possible as well, though if a team had too many, it'd be difficult. The extra innings tiebreaker system would also avoid the pissy statheads problem more than make-up games would, by having a set 162 G schedule. The other interesting part about that extra innings tiebreaker system, is that you would have some in the middle of the season because of Interleague, which would again give more variety to the long schedule. Or they could just make a team's IL opponent just 1 or 2 different teams every year, so they end up having GP against each other like a conference opponent and don't play their last game until late in the season. Hell now that I think of it if they're really in love with the extra innings tiebreaker system, I guess it'd be possible to keep 2 and 4 G sets and just end it that way if necessary and just pull a hockey where that's a regular occurrence. Maybe allow teams to carry more arms for it

[Quake Griffin]

My interest in the game would increase significantly with the elimination of human error on the part of the officiating staff

Baseball should increase its use of technology for the sake of getting calls right 100% of the time -- and that includes balls and strikes

this IS and always has been a bad idea.

ur either asking for the game to be slowed down to get EVERYTHING right or ur asking for technology that either we don't have or is not convenient for the game.

it's perfect for HR right now.
But I am willing to bend. I'll do instant replay for the 9th inning. I'll do it for any close play at any base and any traps in the outfield.

no dice on balls and strikes though.

[UN-Owen]

My interest in the game would increase significantly with the elimination of human error on the part of the officiating staff

Baseball should increase its use of technology for the sake of getting calls right 100% of the time -- and that includes balls and strikes

this IS and always has been a bad idea.

ur either asking for the game to be slowed down to get EVERYTHING right or ur asking for technology that either we don't have or is not convenient for the game.

it's perfect for HR right now.
But I am willing to bend. I'll do instant replay for the 9th inning. I'll do it for any close play at any base and any traps in the outfield.

no dice on balls and strikes though.

Slow the game down?

After a close play one of the managers will come out to argue the call anyway, so why not use that time to ensure the accuracy of the call?


As for pitches:

Umpire holds a small electronic device in his left hand which has 2 lights: Green = Strike, Red = Ball

One of them lights up the moment the pitch crosses the plate so the home plate umpire can quickly glance at the colour to confirm his opinion on close pitches

This could be done in a mere fraction of a second and would not effect the overall speed of the game


And innings 1 - 8 are just as important as inning 9. Any argument to the contrary is completely arbitrary

[Higga]

The game needs to be shortened. Here are some of the changes I'd make:

-Pitchers should have a time limit, like say 30 seconds between when the ball hits their glove to when it leaves their hand. It's really annoying when they sit there taking twenty minutes to pick their nose, wipe their ass, itch their balls, etc. before pitching.

-Reduce the length of batters AB music/walk up. Some of the music is cool to listen to(:D @ Jayson Werth's AB music being the Walking Dead theme)but some guys take forever to walk up and do their whole little practice routine. Get up there and start swinging!

-Pitching Coaches/Managers need to hurry up when they go to the mound. Some of these old geyzers(Nats pitching coach Steve McCatty in particular)just take forever walking up there, then talking, then walking back. Again, maybe add a 30 second time limit.

I would also had a challenge system, similar to football. Each Manager gets one challenge per game, but they can NOT challenge balls/strikes(more on that later). Challenges can only be used from the 7th inning on, and can be used to review plays at the plate or a base. While this could make games longer, I don't think the Challenges would be used all that frequently due to the limitations.

Now regarding balls/strikes, I'm conflicted on this. On one hand the human factor makes things interesting and I don't want to lose that, but it's frustrating watching inconsistent strike zones when we have all this amazing technology that can track pitches all the way(K Zone, etc.).

[Da Schwab]

I would also had a challenge system, similar to football. Each Manager gets one challenge per game, but they can NOT challenge balls/strikes(more on that later). Challenges can only be used from the 7th inning on, and can be used to review plays at the plate or a base. While this could make games longer, I don't think the Challenges would be used all that frequently due to the limitations.

I hope this never happens in baseball.

[UN-Owen]

Re: Challenges

The onus should not be on the managers to ensure the officiating crew gets the call right

Limiting the number of challenges limits the opportunity to get calls right 100% of the time and ultimately that should be the goal

[Bully6789]

How about speeding the game up? Give the pitchers 15 seconds to throw a pitch. One visit by any coach to the mound another pitcher comes in. How about DH in both leagues


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Lionlifer]

the biggest problem I have is when a batter is up, takes a swing, then steps out to adjust his gloves, cup, shin guard, elbow guard, and takes a few practice cuts.

Cut that s@#t out B, it wasn't your gloves or your cups fault.

As for electronic strikes and balls, I personally like the human element, adds another layer of interest.

[Pharmcat]

Detroit (the city) is bankrupt and we still fill the stadium every game.

Baseball is popular here in Michigan.

thats cuz you guys have the best player like ever and a stacked team overall

[TyCobb]

Doesnt Trout play in Anaheim?