Name 5 things you would do if you were MLB Commissioner

[fredgmuggs]

5. Free beer.

You have earned my vote.

[Eldee5]

4. Revenue sharing MUST be used on team's payroll.

Yes. This is huge.

BTW, great idea for a thread, BB.

[ieddyi]

Ban Selig from baseball- lifetime w/ no chance of reinstatement

[Bosox Guy in Chitown]

4. Contract the Nationals and Royal, put Brewers in AL

Not to burst your bubble, but the Royals won't go anywhere. Last summer Jackson County, MO sold $400 million plus of bonds to renovate the Truman Sports Complex and it came with an agreement from MLB not to contract the Royals while the bonds remain outstanding (20 years or so).

[ruthianblast]

1. Eliminate the DH - It's just a bad thing

2. Revenue sharing must be spent on the team, not necessarily in payroll, but on team operations

3. Force a driver's license or other form of id be swiped for any alcoholic beverage, no person allowed more than any 3 of such beverages

4. 154 game schedule; double header every other Saturday from June 15 - Sept 1; Opening day pushed back to Mid-April.

5. All-Star takes place in Phoenix/Los Angeles/Miami/Somewhere else in the south every year rotating between 5 cities, with the ticket sales going to the boys/girls club (or rotate a national charity every 5/10 years) with the game taking place the 2nd Saturday of November.

[BillBuckner]

3. Force a driver's license or other form of id be swiped for any alcoholic beverage, no person allowed more than any 3 of such beverages

Very clever.

[YankeePride1967]

1. Eliminate Interleague play with the exception of two series against one team (a natural rivalry).

2.) Add a second wild card. The two wild card teams would play a one game playoff to advance to the playoffs.

3.) As I feel the loss of future fans is more damaging to the game than the loss of revenue, at next TV contract negotiations, assure that the World Series games start NO LATER than 8:05 PM.

4.) With two wild card teams, I would eliminate the unbalanced schedule.

5.) Improve relations with the MLBPA.

[gdn]

What the heck is the problem with the DH? I enjoy the DH. I don't really want to see pitchers hitting.

[Kangamangus]

1. Raise the mound back to 15 inches.
2. Eliminate the DH in the AL.
3. Get rid of these un-balanced schedules.
4. Lose interleague play.
5. Ban Joe Buck and Tim Mccarver from baseball. No seriously, just get rid of them.

[YankeePride1967]

1.) Get rid of the DH in the American League.
2.) Establish a payroll minimum and a salary cap for all teams.
3.) Go back to the old balanced 154 game schedule.
4.) Force players who look like Kevin Youkillis to wear Elephant-man type masks, so has not to frighten younger fans.
5.) Scantily clad cheerleaders a requirement at all ballparks.

So, looking to shut down the game for a few years?

[The Comic Book Guy]

1. Home field in the WS decided by whichever team has the better record
2. Soft salary cap of $100M, hard salary floor of $50M (I guess revenue sharing can go to teams that can't reach the minimum...)
3. Raise the mound back to 15 inches
4. Lose interleague play
5. Move the Brewers back to the AL. I really think it's dumb to have 16 NL teams and 14 AL teams.

[YankeePride1967]

1. Home field in the WS decided by whichever team has the better record
2. Soft salary cap of $100M, hard salary floor of $50M (I guess revenue sharing can go to teams that can't reach the minimum...)
3. Raise the mound back to 15 inches
4. Lose interleague play
5. Move the Brewers back to the AL. I really think it's dumb to have 16 NL teams and 14 AL teams.

To do that, you either have to:

1.) have one team in each league off each day.

2.) Have an interleague series all the time.

[The Comic Book Guy]

To do that, you either have to:

1.) have one team in each league off each day.

2.) Have an interleague series all the time.

D'oh! Didn't think of that, though, it's still probably plausible to have 1 or 3 (or 5, or whatever depending on the situation) team off each day. I guess it does make scheduling easier.

I could just move the Brewers back to the AL and then contract a team from each league... Not a bad idea, actually; why not just get rid of the Florida teams? They get Spring Training in Florida, after all

[CardNYY]

1.) Eliminate the All Star Game rule on WS HFA...
2.) World Series games on Saturday and Sunday must be played during the day
3.) Shorten the season to 154 games
4.) Eliminate the DH
5.) Move the Brewers back to the AL and move the Royals to the NL Central..

[Sam18]

Laura Posada

[bibigon]

1. Institute a rule about the thickness of bat handles, mandating that the minimum increases a bit every couple of years until we're back to the 1950s type bats being used. This would serve to reduce strikeouts, and home runs, as a great deal of the strikeout/homerun increase we've seen in baseball is the result of the whip handled bats we see today.

2. Move the batters box back in a similar fashion. Guys are standing closer to the plate than ever right now, preventing pitches from using the inside of the plate effectively. This would give the inside of the plate back to the pitchers. Again, this would serve to reduce offense overall, hopefully without increasing strikeouts. The last thing baseball needs is more strikeouts; they're boring - a ball in play for an out is much more exciting than a strikeout. This is why proposals to decrease offense via raising the mound are ill conceived - we do not want a game where Johan Santana is regularly striking out 15 batters, and even Carlos Silva is a 7 to 8 strikeout per 9 guy.

3. Institute a limit to the number of times a guy can throw to 1B per inning. Say three times per, and after that, he's assessed a ball every time he goes back.

4. Enforce the timelimit on how long a pitcher has to throw the next pitch. The Steve Trachsels of the world really do break up the rhythm of the game, even if you don't actively notice it. A brisk game is much more enjoyable than a game where we're waiting 45 seconds between pitches.

5. Eliminate all current revenue sharing other than the luxury tax. Instead, mandate that the visiting team for every game gets half the gate receipts, and half the TV money. We would still have larger revenues in NY, since we'd get half of 81 Yankee stadium/YES games, but it would be done in a more natural and elegant way that we currently do it. If the small market teams had their wits, they'd demand this anyways, as they could just refuse to play us until we gave in. We have more to lose from not playing a game than they do ultimately.

[ChinMusic]

1. Home field in the WS decided by whichever team has the better record
2. Soft salary cap of $100M, hard salary floor of $50M (I guess revenue sharing can go to teams that can't reach the minimum...)
3. Raise the mound back to 15 inches
4. Lose interleague play
5. Move the Brewers back to the AL. I really think it's dumb to have 16 NL teams and 14 AL teams.

Arent 4 and 5 mutually exclusive?

[BillBuckner]

3. Institute a limit to the number of times a guy can throw to 1B per inning. Say three times per, and after that, he's assessed a ball every time he goes back.

That would be absurdly unfair to the team on defense. Especially if it's an extremely gifted base stealer.

[ChinMusic]

1. Paint all the foul pouls red and white (like a barber pole)
2.Players no longer allowed to pick their nose on national TV (did you ever wonder why every time the camera cuts to a player in the dugout, he always starts picking his nose?)
3.have to be 8 women on the roster and 3 in the field at all times
4. Have strippers do a pole dance on aforementioned foulpoles in place of 7th inning stretch.
5.Tie games settled by cage match, instead of extra innings

[BillBuckner]

2.Players no longer allowed to pick their nose on national TV (did you ever wonder why every time the camera cuts to a player in the dugout, he always starts picking his nose?)

If you want to eliminate a bad habit that no one wants to see, it might as well be them constantly grabbing their crotch.

[bibigon]

That would be absurdly unfair to the team on defense. Especially if it's an extremely gifted base stealer.

I'm fine with a large increase in stolen bases. Steals are exciting - we shouldn't be discouraging them. Throws over to 1B are not exciting - they again disrupt the flow of the batter/pitcher confrontation.

[Yankeeah]

That would be absurdly unfair to the team on defense. Especially if it's an extremely gifted base stealer.

Most of the things propsed can't happen.

[YankeePride1967]

The BEST thing about baseball is that you can't lose because of time. I am adamently opposed to rules to shorten the game that DIRECTLY impact the game. If they want to pass rules to keep the batter in the box (sans injury, etc.) Fine. If they want to enforce the rule that when no one is on base, the pitcher has to throw a pitch within a set time fine. But to limit throws to a base, no.

[BillBuckner]

I'm fine with a large increase in stolen bases. Steals are exciting - we shouldn't be discouraging them. Throws over to 1B are not exciting - they again disrupt the flow of the batter/pitcher confrontation.

So the baserunner can just keep taking insane leads, forcing the pitcher to either ignore him or use up all of this throws so he can practically stand in inch off of second? I don't see how that's at all the least bit rational. All because the game needs to be sped up. To me, little things like a pitcher throwing over to first to keep a short lead are wake make up the game. It's an art. If it's not fast enough for you, then watch another sport.

[YankeePride1967]

So the baserunner can just keep taking insane leads, forcing the pitcher to either ignore him or use up all of this throws so he can practically stand in inch off of second? I don't see how that's at all the least bit rational. All because the game needs to be sped up. To me, little things like a pitcher throwing over to first to keep a short lead are wake make up the game. It's an art. If it's not fast enough for you, then watch another sport.

If that rule were put in place, the runner could basically walk to second and third after the allotted throws over.