Changes in Sports You'd Like to See/Would Make

Baseball: 1. Do away with the designated hitter. If you can't play defense, you don't belong on a Major League Baseball field.
2. Shorten the season to 142 games. Start spring training in March with exhibition games in April. Start the regular season in May.
3. Allow teams no more than three mound visits per game, including pitching changes, including an exception for injuries.
4. If a pitcher gets ejected from the game, his replacement can only have eight warmup tosses, not as many as he needs to get ready.
NBA: 1. Reduce timeouts to two per team per half (one 60-second timeout and one 20-second timeout). Do not allow them to carry over to the second half or overtime.
2. Flagrant fouls should constitute an automatic ejection.
NHL: 1. Fighting is a game misconduct and an automatic one-game suspension. In addition, the offended team should have a power play for the remainder of the game unless it commits an infraction.
2. Instigating a fight is a five-minute major for the first offense; a 10-minute "supermajor" for the second offense and a game misconduct an automatic one-game suspension for the third offense.
3. The 10-minute misconduct should be treated as a "supermajor" where the offending player sits in the penalty box for 10 minutes and the other team has a 10-minute power play.
NFL: 1. Two 15-yard penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct or personal fouls should automatically merit an ejection.
2. There should be a five-yard "running into the quarterback" penalty for "late" hits on a quarterback that aren't flagrant. It would not be an automatic first down.
3. Any field goal of 50 yards or longer should be worth four points.
4. Kickoffs should be from the 20-yard line.
5. Teams should get the ball at the 10 after a touchback.
6. Any pass interference penalty of less than 15 yards should be at least 15 yards. Pass interference penalties beyond 15 yards would be a spot foul.
All sports: 1. An ejection shall result in an automatic one-game suspension with the possibility that said ejection could result in a longer suspension.
2. If you appeal a suspension and the commissioner hears your case, he or she has the option to extend the suspension.
NCAA Football: Impose an eight-team playoff in Division 1-A.
NCAA Basketball: Reduce the number of teams allowed in to 32 from 68. Only allow conference champions to compete.

 

Two things:

. First off, a universal salary cap for all sports.

. Second, cheerleading and dancing are not sports. Plain and simple.

 

Baseball: Allow each team one instant replay challenge per game for safe/out calls.

Make each MLB team have two regularly scheduled doubleheaders a season.

NFL: In the case of fumbles where the runner is clearly not down, but the ref blows the whistle anyways, allow the team that recovers the ball to keep possession. This always bothers me when a team fumbles, the other team recovers, but the ref claims the runner's knee is down. They go to replay, see that the ref screwed up, but pull the "Oops, we blew the whistle too quick" excuse.

NBA: One 60-second timeout and one 20-second timeout per half. That's it.

College football/basketball: Either pay the players an actual salary, or make the coaches and administrators volunteers or teachers.

NASCAR: Cut down the schedule to 30 races. Give the drivers some more breaks so they don't get burned out. And don't allow them to drive in the Nationwide race (or whatever it's called). Leave that for the Nationwide drivers.

NHL: Can't really think of anything.

All sports: Enough with the third jerseys. I want to be able to recognize who's playing as soon as I see the team on the screen.

 

But if you apply to this to the Galarraga game, what if the Tigers had used their challenge in the second inning? Then they're sitting there at the end knowing that Joyce's call was wrong and there's no way to fix it.

 

MLB: Salary cap. Super Bowl titles are determined by the savvy of a front office... not the market a team plays in.

NFL: Put the QB in an alternate color jersey, and a play is dead as soon as he's touched. Like I've said before, quarterbacks have more no-touch zones than a first date. And frankly I think it's utterly ridiculous that a drive can be kept alive because a d-lineman, with a 350-pound guard on his back, brushed a guy's shin on the way to the ground. We're not too far away from this as it is. If quarterbacks are THAT fucking important, then just do it.

College fb: The clock doesn't stop with a first-down.

 

BASEBALL:
* Designated hitters in every league. The NL is about the only league without it.
* Automated strike zone like the fault line in tennis. A strike should be a strike, regardless of the team, pitcher or dumpire.
* Minimum and maximum salary caps per team. Beginning now. Every team has one year to get within the cap, either by releasing or trading.
* Maximum cap on ticket prices, parking and concessions.
* Maximum charge of $10 per autograph.
* All-star teams are voted on by the players and managers. You can't vote for your own teammates.
* Keep the every-team-gets-an-All-star rule.
* Instant-replay camera on the first-base sideline for base calls.

BASKETBALL:
* All fouls in the final two minutes shall be treated as flagrant (which they are): Two free throws and possession of the ball.
* Any fan that steps onto the court shall immediately be ejected and arrested, regardless of their fame or fortune.

FOOTBALL:
* Either get rid of the holding call or enforce it for all players and all teams.
* Kickoffs must be returned unless kicked out of bounds or out of the end zone. If you're tackled in the end zone, it's a safety. Why punish good kickers?
* Excessive end zone celebrations are met with ejection.

SOCCER:
* Make the damn field small enough that you can actually see from one side to the other. Some pitches have arcs so high you can only see the players' heads on the other side.

GENERAL:
* Each sports card manufacturer can produce just one basic set of cards for each sport, with just one parallel set. No more "1-of-1" cards and other scarce cards.

 

Too bad. The manager will have to strategize on the best time to use the challenge. You would hope most managers would save the challenge for the later stages of a game, rather than the first couple of innings.

 

If we applied it to the Galarraga game, I could be so very wrong here, but I'm thinking the Tigers would have still had their challenge come out 27.

 

I love the book that details how the balls Babe Ruth hit, plotted on a generic modern-day field, would have resulted in something like 1,100 home runs.

 

Great idea. Maybe every pro football and basketball franchise should also be in Canada; we invented those sports too. Oh yeah, and we have a plausible claim on baseball as well.