Baseball: How to fix the game from the persepctive of a Randy Philosopher King

This blog is the only place on the internet where sane minded people have come together to discuss how we can fix the game of baseball. I am sad to say that there aren't many people who share our viewpoints on the subject. It has come to my attention that the MLB is going to try to expand the playoffs thus further diminishing the value of the regular season. Baseball currently has at most 17 playoff games a team can play versus a 162 game season (12% of regular season), NFL has 4 against 16 (25%), and the NBA has 21 games against 82 (26%). The playoffs in the MLB just do not truly represent the real journey that is the regular season and expanding them will only take away from that journey. Here is what I currently want to do to fix the game (much of this has been discussed by myself and Jeremy before and a lot of credit goes to his trailblazing attitude towards the sport).


This plan can be rolled out in tiers. Here is tier 1 and includes the first order corrections.

1. Fire Bud Selig. He supports the expansion of the playoffs. He acted too slowly on the steroid issue. He makes more than 10 million dollars a year. 
2. Even up the leagues by moving one NL team to the AL. This is obvious. I would suggest moving the Milwaukee Brewers to the AL Central and The Kansas City Royals to the AL West because the Brewers are a historically AL team. 
3. No more "Blackouts". Do not alienate the fan base by not allowing them to watch their favorite teams when they want to. 

Tier 2. Second order corrections. These have been discussed previously.

1. No more "it counts" with the All-Star game. Make the home field advantage in the World Series go back to alternating between the AL and NL in alternating years. 
2. Get rid of all Interleague play. Interleague is unfair and it simultaneously draws away from the AL/NL separation that I think is actually something of an interesting dynamic. Why have the AL or the NL if they play each other all the time? The AL and NL should only meet in the All-Star game and during the World Series.

Tier 3. These require some balls.

1. Get rid of divisions. If there are no divisions, then there are no stupid divisional races to mess up the chase for the pennant. Instead of teams running away with the division in July, the pennant races will certainly go the distance. 
2. Get rid of the playoffs all together. There never used to be playoffs and the winners of the pennants would meet each other in the World Series. By eliminating the playoffs, the regular season regains its value.
3. Shorten the season. The season is too long. If we do get rid of divisions, we would need the leagues to be evenly divided. In a 15 team league, each team could play the other 14 teams 11 times each (three 3 game series and one 2 game series) for a total of 154 games. If 162 games were necessary, then the other 8 could be used for rotating series or something.

Tier 4. These are more "out there" ideas.

1. Do not allow trades between leagues during the season. Again, the only way the postseason will matter again is if we have a much clearer divide between the leagues. 
2. Have radically different umpire uniforms in each league. This will help to subtly differentiate between the leagues. 

Basically, my thoughts are that we need to fix the little things and then we can move onto the bigger issues. I do feel that there is no longer a difference between the AL and the NL and the postseasons suffers for it (along with being very underwhelming), but due to the rich history and rivalries in each league we can save the game by separating the two leagues so that way the World Series is truly a big deal when the AL and NL champions come together. For example, if the Yankees meet the Cubs in the World Series it would be a huge deal, but the excitement would be muted if they had played each other in interleague play that year or in recent years.


For your health/ love of the game