[ARETE] Sport and Society - Golden Baseball

[richard crepeau]

SPORT AND SOCIETY FOR ARETE
DECEMBER 7, 2024

We are now well into baseballs off season. Baseball fanatics are already into their annual countdown to the day  pitchers and catchers report for spring training. As for me, I am beginning the countdown to one billion dollars, the figure that the Dodgers seem to be aspiring to, once again, as they seek to guarantee their right to another World Series win. There is little doubt they can find a way to spend that much and perhaps even more.
More startling was a headline this week that contained the phrase “Golden At-Bat.” When I determined the meaning of this, I began to look at the calendar to see if somehow it was April 1. This was a similar reaction that I had to reading a headline proclaiming that Matt Gaetz was Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General.
It turns out both headlines were accurate. John McEnroe’s favorite phrase seems to be the most appropriate reaction to both. It could be that only the Baseball Commissioner, Rob Manford, was serious.
In case you haven’t heard about it yet, the Golden At-Bat appears to be a proposed baseball rule that will allow a team to use a substitute batter, presumably the best hitter on the team, to be inserted into the game another hitter in one at bat once each game. That way when the bases are loaded in a game breaking situation the best hitter will come out and hit in place of the one who is hovering just below the Mendoza Line.
What will this accomplish? First, it will guarantee that the fantastic moment when a weak hitter hits a game deciding grand slam, or even a single, will never take place. It will lower the possibility that a pitcher can get out of jam by retiring a weak hitter. It will unbalance a game deciding situation in favor of the hitter over the pitcher just as Abner Doubleday intended.
All that needs to be done is alter the offensive/defensive balance of the game for one itty-biddy at bat. What could possibly be wrong with that? This Manfred guy is a bleeping genius. Perhaps this would even determine the recipient of Manfred’s "piece of metal," once known as the World Championship Trophy.
Perhaps the Commissioner would like to consider allowing a team on offense to remove one defensive player from the field, but of course, only for one, or maybe two, at-bats per game. That should add offense and excitement to what the Commissioner seems to regard as a dull and boring major league sport.
One wonders just how many sports could make use of some similar genius rules. How about football? Let’s remove two defensive players from any team that has a lead of more than ten points.  Hockey could put a team trailing by more than two goals on a continuous power play. Indeed, the removal of one player under prescribed circumstances from nearly any team sport to produce closer and more exciting games seems reasonable in the Manfred Universe.
Individual sports offer a bigger challenge, but presumably  someone of Manfred’s caliber could come up with some rule changes to make every contest more competitive or more exciting. Perhaps there are lessons to be gleaned from the past. One might look back to the Roman Coliseum for inspiration.
We are so lucky to be living in a time when Rob Manfred is the Commissioner of Baseball. Soon he will perfect the game.
Thank you, Mr. Commissioner. Now retire.
On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don’t have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.

Copyright 2024 by Richard C. Crepeau

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