Baseball...of the FUTURE!

be surprised (and this is pure conjecture) if eventually live attendance of games was eventually phased out. With increasingly better HDTV and sound systems, and the rising prices of tickets, food, and travel, it’s more affordable to just stay at home. Even if all the games were eventually on a paid specialty channel, it still would probably be cheaper to stay at home.

Yes, the atmosphere of attending a game is impossible to replicate at home, but imagine a scenario where a fan could eventually buy a package where they’re right behind homeplate. Maybe instead of a normal projection tv, curved screens with multiple projectors will make it seem like we’re watching it 3D. Add piped in sound and it could be a pretty cool experience. Maybe teams or the league sell “skins” that you can buy to change what stadium it looks like you’re watching. That would be kind of cool.

I opened it, expecting to find information about baseball in the future, and instead, all I get is a bunch of ill-informed opinion and info on Vintage Base Ball.

1. Find a way to shorten games — like the NFL has done in recent years.

2. Clarify and simplify the balk rule. It’s ridiculous how obscure and ambiguous that rule is.

3. Some future commissioner will take it upon himself to standardize the rules across the league — either all pitchers will have to hit, or (more likely) the designated hitter will be shoved down the National League’s throat.

4. Do away with the pointless “this time it counts” aspect of the All Star Game, and return to alternating home field advantages each year. Or else give World Series teams HFA based on each league’s overall interleague performance, or each team’s final record during the regular season. But you can’t base HFA on a meaningless exhibition game in the middle of the season — by that time, many All Stars will undoubtedly be playing for teams with little or no realistic chance to contend. If you want to make sure the 2002 Midsummer Classic debacle doesn’t happen again, then ban ties.

[though I had wondered where the Fanshot went!] I am probably more surprised how *little8 the game of baseball has changed since it was originally created. The basics, such as the distance between the bases, is the same now as in Doubleday’s time, though obviously there have been modifications. Generally, these have been to keep the balance between pitchers and hitters level: I dread to think what the game would be like if hitters still had to get eight balls for a walk!

How baseball will adapt in future depends on that balance. Nutrition, training and medicine will continue to improve, but will it favor batters or hurlers more? My instinct is probably pitchers. The increase in average height, for example, definitely helps pitchers, who get to deliver the ball from closer to the plate, while it may be somewhat counterproductive for a hitter, since it leads to a bigger strike-zone they need to cover. I don’t think they’ll move the mound back but it could certainly be lowered. It’ll take someone posting a Gibsonesque ERA for that to happen though.

In terms of speeding up the game, I think they could probably do some things like waive the need to throw four wide ones when delivering an intentional walk. Perhaps restrict the number of times a pitcher throws over to first, while you’re at it: this especially irritates me, when it’s clear he’s only doing it, in order to give the bullpen additional time to get warmed up.

Enforcing the current rules on time between pitches, and batters who wander around home-plate before every at-bat, would be more effective than adding any new rules in this area. I don’t want them to speed the game up too much, however. Part of the appeal is definitely the rhythm: I find it very hard to watch a game on fast-forward. However, complaints about the speed of the game are hardly new:

The time has come to straighten out baseball. It is an exceedingly slow game full of dead spots and ridiculous delays — what in show business are called stage waits. It is especially dull when you watch it on TV.

 — Rex Lardner New York Times Magazine, July 25, 1967.

More generally, I can see MLB expanding beyond North America: Japan and Central America probably being the most obvious first destinations. Scheduling might become tricky, because of the additional travel, so this could lead either to fewer games, or spreading them over a slightly-longer season, to give more off-days.

I can see coverage becoming even more complete: watching things like Don Larsen’s perfect game on the MLB Network, the chasm between how games were televised then and now was the most striking change, more so than the game itself. Eventually, you’ll be able to choose the location you want to watch the game from, and the appropriate image will be streamed to your TV. Someday, they’ll have cameras inside the bat and the ball – as well as, probably, in the caps, the same way they do with QB helmets occasionally. That way, you can experience the game from the POV of a player.

Sponorship will become more prevalent and obvious: the Spiderman bases controversy of a few years back will eventually seem quaint. We already have it in Japan, where team names are company-oriented, and we will follow suit in America, some time. It may take a while before players look like NASCAR drivers, but I think it’ll happen sooner or later.

Just a few random thoughts, but I don’t think there’ll be anything radical. We can still watch vintage footage from almost a hundred years ago, and the sport is still immediately recognizable. I don’t think there’s anything major that needs fixing, so I imagine in 100 years, we’ll still be seeing much the same game.