12/22/24
July 10, 2002
If soccer is going to be more popular than baseball, make baseball more like soccer!: Playing the All-Star Game to a tie is unsatisfying, but Curt Schilling has the answer:"[P]lay nine innings no matter what. Tell everybody from the start. And then, if it's tied, each team picks one guy, and you decide it with a Home Run Derby. How great would THAT be?"
posted by outside counsel to baseball at 12:30 PM - 3 comments
Thanks for the link...I like Schilling's idea.
posted by msacheson at 11:47 AM on July 11, 2002
At this point, I don't see why soccer needs to do anything. With an impending strike, public displays of bad management at the highest level, teams on the brink of bankruptcy, baseball is doing all the damage. Sensible salaries, dedicated players, dynamic gameplay, a diverse and youthful fan base ... play on, MLS, play on!
posted by worldcup2002 at 10:48 AM on July 12, 2002
Schilling, of course, is exactly right. There's no reason the all-star game needs to have the same rules as a regular game. 9 innings and done would be perfectly acceptable to the vast majority of baseball fans. I'm not so sure that the home run derby would be a good tiebreaker, or even necessary. A tie in the all-star game would be fine, as long as that was the rule before the game started. Changing rules in mid-game is, frankly, bush-league, not major league. It's exactly this sort of making-it-up-as-we-go-along decision which, in my opinion, characterizes Bud's reign as commisioner. And Stark is also right. Schilling for commissioner!