Do modern times require larger fields?

For MLB, shorten the season a bit. Going back to 154 game schedule would mean and extra day off every 2 weeks. Given the fragility of starting pitchers or the love of the pitch count in reducing the amount of work they actually do, it would allow the better pitchers to actually produce more by reducing the number of starts the weakest pitchers get.

 

Changing the playing field is something that should not be done. Can you imagine how much different baseball would be with first base 95 feet away (batting champion hits .280 most years)? Or 85 feet away (batting champion hits .380 most years)? I agree with Football Bat about historical continuity.

 

Would that also allow for a four-man rotation? Just wondering.

 

Well, do you like the sound of "Spahn, Sain and three days of rain"?

 

This place is starting to sound like a NHL General Manager's meeting where they feel compelled to change at least one rule a year. Now Burke wants one minute minor penalties in OT.

43 Man Squamish!

http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/index-quiz_olympics.html

 

Dooles, hasn't baseball changed the height of the pitching mounds? Obviously that's had an effect on pitchers' ERAs.

 

Burke was wrong about the 3-2-1-0 points system last year and he's wrong this year.

 

The rim is fine at 10 feet. No way is anything going to be done to take the dunk out of the game--fans (and their wallets) like the dunk.

Widen the NBA basketball court, at the NBA level at least. The length of the court is fine, but they need to widen it to allow more space. It's not only the size of the players, but perhaps more importantly, the speed that makes it easy to cover the existing space. Widen it and I think you allow for much more creativity in the offensive end.

Hockey rinks need to be wider as well, although as markvid notes, getting the owners to agree to coughing up that revenue isn't going to happen. At the very least, any new stadiums ought to be built to bigger ice surface specifications.

At some point in the future, this will need to happen or they will have to go to 4 on 4.

 

That was like, 1969. Different factors since then have caused ERAs to fluctuate.

 

Going to an international ice surface for NHL hockey is a bad idea.

People complain about the lack of hitting now. It would disappear on a larger ice surface.

Bigger ice means more places for players to hide.

Think of a Swedish Elite regular season game where the shots are 18-14 and as our very own FoF said, the players are not trained to trap, they're genetically encoded.

 

I think basketball courts should stay at 94 feet, and basketball goals at 10 feet, and football fields at 100 yards, but I think both sports should consider widening the playing field. I think baseball is fine the way it is. Spacing doesn't seem to be a problem in baseball, but it's making NBA basketball more difficult to watch, in my humble opinion.

 

I can see the argument as to why the NBA court should be a bit wider -- although teams with good spacing seem to have plenty of room. There is no reason at all to change the rim height.