If I Were Commish (Act 2)

This is the second of three parts to a fantasy world where I act as commissioner of Baseball. That's right, I do live in a fantasy world most of the time. How else do you think I can cope? Anyway here are my next acts as commish.

2) Reschedule the World Baseball Classic

This world wide tournament is only played once every four years. Personally, I don't really understand the purpose; I mean isn't there a competition called the Olympics where international baseball is organized? Why have another all-world tournament? Also, Selig says that the point is to help promote baseball internationally. Alright, I can see the WBC as a marketing tool but the countries that participate already have a strong interest in baseball. I haven't heard of Estonia or Nigeria signing up. This is a weak argument on my part because the hope is that the WBC will spark interest in the kids watching their countries perform. Since this tournament is probably viable at some level in terms of entertaining an inspiring international youth, let's discuss when it should be played. As it stands, the WBC is played during the traditional spring training period of Major League Baseball. Owners of MLB clubs obviously have trepidation about sending players to participate. Player salaries are too great to risk injury for a promotional tournament. There are no simple solutions because the MLB season is so long.

As commissioner I would move this promotional tournament to December and January. Players will have had 2 months of rest (except for the World Series participants which is a small number of players) plus most of the players begin their off-season workouts during this time anyway. Keep in mind that many professionals play in winter leagues anyway. Once the tournament is over, these players can have a couple of weeks off before they report to spring training camp. But hey, if you want to just cancel it all together then I'll prepare my rubber stamp.

3) Drop Interleague Play

This will never happen because the revenue gets a huge boost during these games, especially for the small market teams as they enjoy the national interest the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cardinals generate. As commissioner I would just outlaw the fraternization of leagues. The main reason is to create an intrigue between the different styles of baseball represented by the two leagues. I remember as a kid watching the World Series and feeling the mystery of two teams facing off where the players are almost completely unknown to each other. Apart from scouting and video, the players don't possess an upper hand with experience. Watching the skills and play from the very best players in the world unfold naturally and spontaneously makes for great baseball.

If these games are dropped, the regular season schedule could become balanced and the divisional races become more important, especially to those second tier teams trying to earn a wild card bid. These interleague games would be replaced with divisional games. As it stands now, any particular team in a division could play just as many games against the opposing league than an opposing division within their own league. As a way to make this argument more credible I should provide an example. Commissioners don't normally skip the research stage but for now I must keep moving.

4) Drop Instant Replay

Instant replay is stupid. Period. Instant replay makes football stupid. If you want the umpires to make the right call the majority of the time then provide better training, performance based compensation and stronger accountability. Problem solved (although I don't believe there really is a problem).

One more to come...