Column: Solutions to fix Major League Baseball

We are on the cusp of another World Series. The best two teams in baseball will take the field Wednesday at the home of the American League champion in the tradition-steeped “Fall Classic.”

But Major League Baseball is not what it once was, and this is a better time than most to think about how to fix it. Here are some humble suggestions. I’m not the first or the last to identify the sport’s problems, but here are some ways to get to the solutions.

• Shorten the season. Starting in an April snow shower in Cincinnati is one thing, but playing the sport’s showcase final games in locations like Philadelphia, Boston, New York or Toronto in November is just asking for trouble from approaching cold fronts.

Remember last year’s Series? The Saturday weather-delayed start at 10:06 p.m.? The chilly, rain-drenched Monday game that should never have been begun, and didn’t end until two days later?

Commissioner Bud Selig at the time called it “baseball drama at its best.” Humbug! Playing in a wintry rainstorm materially affects the quality of the game and the ability to execute the athletic feats that baseball requires. He cheapened the sport last year.

Plus, do you think network advertisers were happy when the ads they bought in Game 3 last year aired at approximately 12:45 a.m.? Didn’t think so.

But getting the playoffs back into September and October as they once were poses a problem with the calendar, and cutting back on the quantity of games is not an option.

I am aware that the owners will not give up their 81 home games and the revenue they potentially produce. Since the season can’t start much sooner, how do we get more games into a limited time?

My solution: More double-headers, preferably the day-night variety in which fans have choices of an afternoon contest or an evening game. The stadium could be cleared after game one to maximize ticket revenues for the second game.

This would also cut down on the club’s travel and lodging costs if teams double up their time spent in a given opponent’s city, rather than make additional trips during the season.

• Daytime World Series games. Network television wants prime-time exposure and ratings during the November sweeps period, sure. But ratings would increase in the long run if more people were exposed to a full game.

This year’s Series has starts scheduled for 7:57 p.m., which is not too bad in the Eastern time zone, with one Sunday game set to start at 8:20. Still, children who must be alert in school the next day should not be up until after 11 p.m. watching the ninth inning.

Yes, people will tell me that the world has changed, and they’re up at all hours anyway. But that’s not good — and why do we have to encourage it by making choices like this?

As my friend Larry Hypes has noted more than once, more children watching complete baseball games will produce more baseball fans years down the road. That will equate to more television viewers and more ratings, if we could only get past the myopic focus on demanding prime-time exposure for every single Series game.

My solution: A couple of Series games a year in the warmer afternoon hours — that’s a reasonable goal, which would probably produce a ninth inning and a postgame show in prime time, anyway.

• Barnstorming the country. Near the end of spring training, some teams play a few exhibition games as they work their way toward their home stadium. There was considerable buzz last year when the New York Yankees showed up in Blacksburg.

It’s smart marketing for teams to stop at ballparks around the country, to be seen in person by thousands of potential fans whose finances may not permit them to travel to a Major League city, pay for a hotel, game tickets, parking and food and the rest of it.

My solution: A coherent marketing plan for every Major League club to visit some choice locales for exhibitions prior to the start of the season.

• Revenue sharing. The National Football League spreads the wealth around from its lucrative television contracts, and as a result, the “smaller-market” teams like Pittsburgh, Green Bay and Jacksonville can compete for the same talent as the Giants and Jets, and can realistically expect to get into the playoffs.

Compare that with the plight of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have just completed yet another losing season after selling off most of its starters and becoming little more than a minor-league-staffed punching bag for the true Major League teams.

Meanwhile, the Yankees snap up one top player after another, becoming a veritable all-star team in pinstripes.

Do you think that situation is good for baseball, long-term? Didn’t think so.

My solution: Adopt a form of the financially-equitable system that has helped make the NFL the premier professional sport in America.

• Adopt a broader range of instant replay. It works to one degree or another in the NFL, college football, NBA and Wimbledon tennis. Do you think MLB umpiring crews like to admit to the public, “I missed the call. I’m only human,” when the right call should be only a replay away? Didn’t think so.

My solution: Use available technology to get the calls right. It’s a matter of credibility.

• End the All-Star home-field gimmick. The team with the most wins should be allowed to host the first game of the World Series.

It will never be proven that awarding home-field advantage to the winner of the All-Star game will make the players play harder on that one night. The adoption of this gimmick with the idea that it will make the game more relevant to players, or fans, shows that an alarming number of baseball’s owners have a big, big problem coping with reality.

My solution: Reward the team that’s proven itself the best over 162 games.

Final thought: There are still people who love baseball. The time to act to save the sport and attract new devotées is now, before that generation dies off.

*****

Tom Bone is a Daily Telegraph sports writer and editorial cartoonist. Contact him at tbone @ bdtonline. com.

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