The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Just got a news report that he is planning to retire as MLB commissioner effective January 2015.  I wonder if the new comissioner will soften his stance on Pete Rose.

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? Bud Selig Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.

Well at least for the 2016 season

where does he rank in the list of best baseball commissioners ?

best ever ?

Bud Selig: great commissioner, or the greatest commissioner?

Some guy on ESPN this morning was saying that it was important to get a young guy in there who is in touch with the public's view of some of these issues.  ...that another old guy (even Joe Torre, who is generally liked) isn't going to "get" the need for replay and is probably too much of a purist to evolve the game.

I am probably the worst person to have an opinion of this, but I think that baseball needs enormous overhaul -- many fewer games, replay, get rid of unwritten rules, stop catcher from getting bowled over at the plate, no more beaning batters for discipline, speed up the game in every way possible -- you can't go talk to your pitcher unless you're going to pull him, you can't get out of the batter's box once you enter it, etc.

^^^ How would you propose getting rid of unwritten rules since they aren't actually a rule that can be done away with?

Well, duh...you use an uneraser. ;)

Are you kidding me?  On this guy's watch there was the following:

1. A strike that cancelled the World Series for the first time in 90 years and threatened to do so the following season

2. A near miss on another one eight years later.

3. An enormous scandal with steroids that rocked baseball to its core with all of the little subplots of each exposed individual

4. An All Star Game that had to be called a tie because they ran out of pitchers

how are baseball revenues currently compared to at the end of other commissioners' tenures ?
how's the current health of the game and labor situation compared to the end of other commissioners' tenures?

I think MLB just signed a 10 year labor deal quietly, with no hint of a labor dispute.
I'm fairly sure MLB revenues are way up.

come back at me with facts that matter about a commissioner's job performance  .. not a bunch of TMZ story-lines about stuff like "rocking the core of baseball" .. steroids was the best thing to happen to baseball since getting a monopoly excemption

Steroids best thing to happen to baseball? That's making lemonade out of lemons to say the least. The Mark and Sammy hr race helped excite some people but the overall effect was it tainted most people's perception of the sport.

Revenues aside, you can't just focus on that.  You have to look at overall performance.  Work stoppages and drug scandals don't look good at all. 



Fau, just do what the nice men in the white suits tell you to do.  They'll take good care of you.

You're trying to make baseball into basketball.  It's not supposed to be fast-paced.

Baseball also has a rather unique position in that there is a HUGE reverence towards historical significance of statistics... much more than other sports.  In baseball, due to the way the game works, every play is neatly categorized and recorded, to be compared to any/every other play ever.  While I may not care for it, I respect it.

I do think that nearly everything revolving around beaning players (particularly: the fights) needs an overhaul.  I am perplexed as to why football and basketball have zero-tolerance fighting policies (and are still considered "thug-infested" in the event of an occasional brawl), yet baseball and hockey still consider fighting an accepted and necessary part of the sport.

Steroids didn't taint most people's perception of baseball until many years after steroids saved it.

Without steroids, baseball could very well have been duking it out with the NHL for time slots on OLN.

That's like saying Bernie Madoff was a great man for donating millIons of dollars to charity only to find out later he made those millIons while running a Ponzi scheme

No. It isn't like that at all.

It's like saying you can't really get the true flavor of the peanut unless you're eating chunky peanut butter.

That analogy is not at all accurate, but to that point, from the perspective of the charities I'd say he would be a pretty good guy.

I don't think they'd give the money back.

Dave has had beef with baseball, mainly the number of games they play, since forever.  I think Dave just doesn't like baseball.  Perhaps he has tried in the past and has devised this scheme for making him like it better, but it just won't work.

There's no "penalties" in baseball.  You can't back them up 5 yards or give them free throws.  There's no power play.  How do you get a guy in trouble for beaning the opposing batter?  Give him a free base?  Or, right they already do that...

My only thought on improving baseball is to do away with this ridiculous play-in 5 team wild card playoff structure.  I'd like to see them return to 4 divisions, AL, NL, East and West.  Then take the top 2 teams from each division and play for division titles.  Division winners play for League championship.  League champs play in World series.  Eight total teams, very clean.

Otherwise, baseball is fine as it is.  Maybe there's room for replay, but not for balls and strikes.  Its just not for everyone.  If you like fast-paced games with lots of action, I suggest you turn on an NHL game this October.  Baseball is not for you.

If you can't think of any other penalty, your imagination is pretty limited:

- 4 free bases instead of 1
- pitcher automatically ejected
- pitcher suspensions
- manager suspensions
- fines all around
etc.

There are plenty of options; however, I would want to leave some room for genuine wild pitches and batters crowding the plate.  And I do also realize that pitcher suspensions can be pretty toothless when many of them don't play every game anyway.  So my solution is: keep 1 free base on hit batsman, intentional hit (at discretion of umpire) is automatic ejection.  All beanballs are reviewed by league office, and league hands out 5-game unpaid suspension (plus potential fines) for any intentional hitting of a batter.  (If pitcher is ejected by umpire at the time, 5-game suspension automatically applies.)  Any ruled intentional hit also results in a 1-game manager suspension.

If a dugout or bullpen player steps on to field of play during a scuffle, 5-game suspension.
If any player throws a punch at another player, 5-game suspension.

It is not some sort of random coincidence that brawls are extremely rare in the NFL and NBA.  Heavy suspensions up and down the line will solve it near instantly.

I agree: the use of replay for balls and strikes is pointless, particularly since that could be done entirely electronically.

Then the charities themselves would be the subject of public ridicule because they took donations from a man who supplied them with money that wasn't his. 

I presume I can find this record of public ridicule in the same place where I can find the public ridicule of the car companies, restaurants, jewelry stores, etc. who happily accepted Madoff's ill-gotten funds and promptly chalked it up in their ledgers as profit?

It should be pretty easy to find... right next to the Hall of Shame where everyone who accepted money from Enron and Lehman Brothers is memorialized.

Greatest, hands down.  Anyone who knows anything about baseball, I think, would agree.  The white noise of strikes, PED's, etc, is exactly that.  White noise.  Show me a sport where those items don't happen. 

Wait.  You can't.  Hockey?  Strikes.  Recent ones.  Check.  I remember not too recent entire seasons gone.  Basketball?  Yep.  Football?  Uh, yeah.  PED's?  Baseball has Arod.  Funny, if Von Miller played baseball this board would be exploding about a baseball player trying to trick the system.  I'm not hearing a thing about it.  Six game suspension.  That's it.  Baseball?  He would be wearing a red scarlett letter for life.

Baseball is a machine, one which is rolled on through generations and generations.  The only commissioner who I put on par with Selig is Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle.  The only "blurb" I put on Selig's resume is not finding a way to bring the American and National league more in line with each other, rule wise (DH).  It wasn't a large deal into more integrated play.  Now it is, and needs to be dealt with.  It's crazy that the National League hasn't had a vote on it in decades. 

The amount of games = perfect.  This won't change.

Tempo of the games could be worked on.  I have attended games that were under two hours.  I've been at games over 4.  I think you will see some teaking here, no matter who comes in.  This being said, I can take the stance that every sport, minus hockey, takes forever. 

Every.sport. 

Basketball is impossible to sit through at the end.  Football, with the TV timeouts, the challenges, reviewing every TD, coaches challenges, reviewing everything within two minutes, the team's time outs, injuries, fake injuries...takes forever.  Last night's Patriots game was well over four hours.  Much longer than any baseball game.  No one ever bitches about that.

Hockey?  Your favorite team is down by 2 goals and there is 8:43 left in the 3rd.  You think "plenty of time."  You blink and there is :43 left.  Hockey is the only game which actually goes fast.

Somehow, baseball is the only game demonized by this, however.

Selig has done amazing things in baseball.  Amazing, amazing things.  The game is going to miss him.

Good.  I like basketball.  And baseball sucks, so I'm fine with that.

Because it's the slowest "sport" out there. It's slower than golf.... Nothing exciting happens.

People who think baseball is boring should go back and watch the 9th inning of yesterday's 0-0 "snooze-fest" Marlins game.  I dare you to say it wasn't exciting.

Spider, I'm fine with your suspension theory but I was more talking about in-game penalization.  In football you can give away yards, basketball you give free throws (note, not points).  In hockey, you give a man-advantage.  What do you do in baseball?  Make them play without an outfielder for an inning?  They already give you a free base.  I guess immediate ejection is an option, but I don't like the idea of potentially costing a team their star ace starter in the 2nd inning based on a judgment call by the umpire on the spot with no available replay. 

NOTHING is slower than golf. You could televise the world championships of paint drying, and it would move faster than golf.

Baseball is fine at its current speed.

Football has not lost a game to a strike in over 25 years, so I'm not sure what you're referring to here.

As a non-baseball fan, I'd say there needs to be more pressure from the media on the absolute farce that is NL pitchers at the plate; for example, this (http://deadspin.com/francisco-liriano-gives-zero-fucks-about-having-to-hit-1148465377).  And I don't care that Mike Hampton (or whoever) is a great batter; every batter should be attempting to hit, and if they aren't, you need to think about what's wrong with your rules.

If you want to call out football, fine.  But for you to compare the last two minutes of a basketball game to an entire game of baseball is pretty silly.  The problem with baseball is not so much the actual length of the game; average game times are around 2h18m for NBA (http://weaksideawareness.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/real-time-duration-of-nba-games-in-2010-11/) and 2h58m for MLB (http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/06/08/why-baseball-games-take-long/wikaeRMGatBDGDefpbFE1H/story.html).  (FYI, average NHL games run about the same length as the NBA: 2h19m (http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26393).)

The bigger problem is that nothing is happening for the VAST MAJORITY of of an MLB game (http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/22773105/theres-about-18-minutes-of-action-in-your-average-mlb-game).  There is so much time wasted in baseball on completely untimed garbage.  To me, it seems like time between pitches is probably the worst offender, though the delay in changing pitchers is pretty horrible, too.

Going off what Spider said....

suspension of pitchers or even ejections won't work if you eject a starting pitcher in the fifth inning for beaning someone how much has he been punished?

And there should be some leeway for genuine wild pitches....so adopting a NBA style system.

The first time a pitcher that season hits a player, the player is awarded a single base.
The second and third time that same pitcher hits a player in a season, the player is awarded a double,
The third and fourth time....a triple.
Fifth and subsequent.... an automatic homerun. 

Fighting...automatic ejection.

In cases of attacks (e.g. hitter storms the pitchers mound) if initiated by an offensive player... end of the half inning.  If initiated by a defensive player batter advances home. 

In case of a player leaving the dugout for a fight....or entering the dugout of another team.... suspend for the rest of the season. 

The only problem I see with a system like that is that you would have batters scouting pitchers for their current position on the penalty chain and getting closer and closer to the plate.  A system like the above would also need to have some penalties added for batters that are too close to the plate.

I understand that wild pitches happen, and that pitchers need to be able to claim the inside of the plate.  I think that umpires and the league office should be able to intelligently tell the difference between a pitcher throwing a ball to an area he is entitled to, and a retaliation beanball.

OK, then let's say that they're on par (sorry) as both being equally slow and boring.

Too much time in a baseball game is dedicated to nothing.  Stepping in and out of the box, players talking to each other, arguing, etc.

I understand tradition, but get with the times.  A manager coming out and screaming in the ref's face is a viable and necessary tool in managing a game?  No.  Just end the crap and get with the times.

I get not shrinking the number of games (though I'd personally like it), but you have to speed up the pace of the game.  It's super tedious and incredibly boring to watch a player step out of a box, spit, adjust a croth, OCD over his hand placement on the bat, fix his gloves, step in the box, have the pitcher shake off the call, check the runner, repeat, then finally pitch -- Ball 2.  Jesus...

I agree that I find baseball boring but find it humorouw that a group of football fans complain about "dead" time spent during other sports. Do you know how much actual time is spent on plays in football? Replay just fits the sport of football easier so you do not notice it as much.

I have a 30-second skip button on my remote.  I can press it the moment a guy is tackled and it drops me right before the next snap.  Odd exceptions are when there are reviews, penalties, no huddle offense, etc.  I can watch an entire football game in 40-45 minutes.

I am not sure what the current rules are, but how about something like?.....

A batter may not place any part of his body (other than hands, arms and bat) over the plate or within 2 inches of being over the plate.  Any violation of this will result in a striking being called, even if the ball has not yet been released or if released even if it would have otherwise been called a ball instead of a strike.  If a ball hits the player in such an instance he will be automatically out.

It depends on what you call "plays".  Get rid of the concept of a ticking clock and what constitutes a play.  How much down time is there actually in football where the viewer is not engaged?  Of course, there is some.  ...but you have movement pre-snap, the play itself, and then generally relevant commentary and replays of what's happening.  Not counting commercials, the actual interesting relevant info spent during a telecast is a sizeable portion of the overall time spent.  Sure, it's not perfect and there are ways to speed things up, but overall, the viewer is engaged.

In baseball, the downtime is much more apparent.  And it's not just based on my particular interest-level.

Spoken like someone who has never faced down a 98 mph fastball... ;)

Facing it is different than watching it. Watching it, it's over in a second and then you repeat it with way too long between pitches. It's just a slow game, you can't get argue against that.

I honestly enjoy the pace of baseball...always have. I really don't need an in-my-face-every-second sensory barrage to get entertainment out of a sporting event.

Is this a variant on the "you just don't know how to appreciate a 0-0 tie" argument that soccer fans love to use?

I'll defer to the baseball experts on this one, but I'd say a rule like that would radically alter batting itself.  Seems to me that an overwhelming number of players crowd the plate, and if umpires starts giving out strikes based on that alone, the game would be totally different.

So you don't like to watch games live, then.

You're creating a straw man argument.  I'm not asking for baseball to be an in-your-face-every-second sensory barrage.  I just think that shaving a few seconds off between pitches and having batters commit to the box would increase the pace of the game....which would be better.

Or a hurry up offense. Your button seems nice but it does not equate to exact timing of a football play or baseball play.

I was accounting for this stuff in  my head but maybe did not express it well. If you include pre-snap movement, I would counter that the boring aspect of a runner leading off is the equivalent strategy wise. Nothing that accounts for the game itself has happened other than posturing and strategizing.

Except that you can't even see the runners on 99% of TV broadcasts, which are simple behind-the-pitcher views.

If you're talking about in person, maybe you have an argument.  Football is a lot better on TV where you can see replays during the huddle.  I don't think baseball uses replays nearly as much as football.

On the surface, I'd say they were second cousins, though my comment had a lot less judgmental snootiness than I take away from the "you just don't know how..." aspect of your example.