The SanityPrompt

This blog represents some small and occasional efforts to add a note of sanity to discussions of politics and policy. This blog best viewed with Internet Explorer @ 1024x768

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Black Tuesday

Yankees are out and the week after always sucks. Typical exit for this team in the last five years -- complete choke by the pitching staff and meltdown by the middle of the order. Matsui strands 8 runners on base (of the 11 the Yankees left). The Yankees outhit the Angels but muster only 3 runs. Rodriguez manages to bat below .150 for the series and drive in only one run. The only bright notes are that Jeter continues to cement his place in the Hall of Fame. Other than that who knows what is in store. My own preference would be for them to dump Matsui for a better clutch hitter. And buy A-Rod some psycho-therapy so he can deal with his inability to hit in the clutch and in pressure packed situations. He was so obviously pressing.

In other thoughts -- my first proclamations if I could be an old-style commissioner like Kennesaw Mountain Landis.

1) From now on, the season is 154 games long. It's too long today and 162 games is a luxury we can't afford with a 19 game post season. Baseball ought not to be played in November. It snowed yesterday in Denver. I don't want to see baseball players breathing steam. That's for football.
2) there will be 15 teams in each league. It makes no sense that the NL Central has 6 teams and the AL West has 4. But then the teams' schedules don't match up you say? That's what interleague play ought to be for. Instead of having it at the same time each year, rotate it around -- more like the NFL -- to balance the schedule. The current system leads to unfair differences in the schedule that aren't based on records (as they are in the NFL) but only on history. I would rather see the Yankees play the Dodgers and Giants than the Mets. But maybe that's my ham side.
3) No DH in the AL. Nuff said. Make the managers manage. Make the players field.
4) Pitchers have to make their pitch within a certain amount of time. The games take way too long as it is and need to move quicker.
5) Teams get to keep their gate receipts, but the League divvies up all TV money -- both local and national contracts. This can lead to more revenue sharing and maybe more league parity -- and the TV product is a combined product anyway. But the Yankees attract 4 million fans and ought to benefit from that. Tampa Bay can't attract a crowd to their crummy ball park and that's their problem.
6) TV rights ought to be sold locally for games throughout the nation. I turned on Fox the other night -- there were three playoff games going. And I was watching some alien show. Where's the baseball? If the networks don't want to run it, let some local station do it. And I don't mean ESPN which the cable companies hoard into their premium packages to make you dish out $50 a month to watch TV. I mean a local broadcast station with an antenna. If my local TV station wants to show a Yankees game, let em buy the rights.