Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/804369
5 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP PLAY BALL THE GAME immediatechanges.Andwhen Manfred also proposed a pitch clock, limited mound visits and strike zone changes, the players refused. So those changes may have to wait until next season, when after a year, Manfred can impose them unilaterally. It's all pretty jarring, although Manfred says the purists need not worry. He has claimed that the extra-inning-extra-baserunner rule is only meant to save arms at the minor league level and that "we never expect it will make it to the big-league level." But you can bet he will reconsider if the rule proves popular — and if it makes network television partners hap - pier because MLB can promise way fewer 18-inning marathon games that cut into the late-night news. If that should occur, the purists' heads might explode. For the record, I say let the heads go boom. I believe that baseball purists get much too good a rap. They are often treated as sacred horsehide monks or something. The truth is, the pur - ists can be just as annoying as the baseball rules disrupters. There's nothing sacred about the rule book. And the game today hardly looks like it did when it was invented 180 years ago. Most rules changes have been helpful. For example, you can hardly argue that the introduction of such radical ideas as "gloves" and "night games" were horrible concepts. Also, in the early years of the game, fielders could get baserunners out by throwing the ball and hitting them — any - where. When that rule went away, I presume that the 19th-century baseball purists were outraged. I presume the baserunners weren't. The same goes for the new automatic intentional walk, which will kick in on Opening Day. Think about it. When a football team accepts or declines a penalty, it must do so immediately rather than go through the motions of lining up for a center snap and waiting for the 40 seconds on the play clock to run before making the decision. So why does baseball make teams go through the motions of pretending to pitch to batters with no intention of having any of those pitches be a strike? To be sure, there is inher - ent drama in making a pitcher execute all four deliveries of an intentional base on balls to a batter, as the crowd hoots and an- ticipates what will happen when the on-deck hitter steps into the batters' box. But if the mission is to speed up the pace of the game, this is a small and simple way to do so. What else, then? While still respecting the Hunter Pence "per - fect game" worldview, let's take a pragmatic look at some things baseball could do to make the "perfect game" even more perfect: RECALIBRATING THE STRIKE ZONE — REGULARLY It's interesting how "zone creep" happens. For instance, everyone agrees that over the past decade or so, umpires are general - ly calling more "low strikes" than ever and that the zone is a couple of inches closer to the dirt than it was. This is a big advantage for any pitcher who can hit that spot be - cause odds are, batters will either take the pitch for a called strike or hit the ball into the ground. So the instructions have gone out to bring the zone upward. That should increase offense. Technology today would allow for automated balls and strikes calls. But no one wants to lose the human element of umpiring. My question: If video officials from MLB are watching every game for replay purposes — and they are — then why not have them monitor the strike zone and alert an umpire between innings if he's allowing too many low (or high) strikes?. QUICKER VIDEO REPLAY REVIEWS Self-explanatory. This includes forcing managers to make their challenges quicker, without the ridiculous kabuki-theater stalling as they wait for an assistant in the clubhouse to watch a broad - cast replay and advise the dugout what to do. Likewise, there's no reason for umpires to view a replay longer than 60 seconds before issuing a ruling. Manfred's rule, which with the players' approval will take effect this season, gives them twice as long. I guess we can live with that. A REAL PITCH CLOCK Ever since a 2014 directive, umpires have been good about making pitchers and batters stick to business. But it's not uniform. Some pitchers still get away with dawdling — and batters still can be slow getting to the box. There's no reason a scoreboard clock — with a buzzer — couldn't be used to force a pitcher to deliver the ball within 20 seconds if the bases are unoccupied. I can totally see fans getting into this, even counting down the seconds for a slow opposing pitcher. Wouldn't that be fun? That would be fun. REVAMP COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTIONS We all know the main reasons games are longer. It's the time spent between half innings on advertising, promos and whatev - er. Once, that stuff lasted a single minute. Now, it's two or three times that long. Meanwhile, people at the ballpark are waiting, waiting, waiting. Sure, bills have to be paid. But what would be wrong with using picture-in-picture for the last 30 seconds of each break, even if it bleeds into the first pitch or two? Or how about a trade-off, with advertisers allowed to buy space for their logos on uniforms as a substitute for a 30-second advertisement that could then be eliminated? I know. No chance. GROUND-RULE DOUBLE DISCRETION Just as described above by Crawford, Belt and Panik. So many times, a runner at first base winds up being held at third base by the umps on a ground rule double when everyone in the place knows he would have scored if the ball had not bounced over the wall. Give the umpires a choice whether to allow the runner to score. DESIGNATED HITTER IN BOTH LEAGUES I know, I know. It's the third rail of all baseball discussions. But if Manfred's goal is to pick up the pace of games and have more balls put into play, as he claims, then one way is to eliminate so many at-bats where pitchers go to the plate and stand with the bats on their shoulders. According to MLB's own statis - tics, 40 years ago the ball was in play for 77.2 percent of plate ap- pearances. Last season, that had dropped to 69.2 percent of plate appearances. Also last season, a ball was put into play once every 3 minutes, 25.2 seconds. That's 23.4 seconds more than 10 years ago. There were 9,287 fewer balls in play last year than in 2006. More specialized relief pitching is to blame for some of this, as well as the strikeout-or-home-run plate approach of more batters but I do know that designated hitters put more balls into play than pitchers who bat .074. QUIETER BETWEEN- INNING SCOREBOARDS This is a personal pet peeve. Believe it or not, kids, the be- tween-innings activity at ball- park once included just pleasant organ music. Now, it's loud video and loud music and loud adver- tisements and loud, loud, loud everything. In the old days, people could converse between innings about the game and strategy and what - ever. Now, they have to scream to make themselves heard. If some sponsor decided to pay for a "si- lent intermission" break between innings, I would order a case of whatever that sponsor was selling. I'd settle for just one or two of these changes, but it'd be terrific if all of them were adopted, don't you think? Just have someone else break the news to Hunter Pence. MarkPurdyisa sports columnist for the Bay Area News Group. He joined the organization's Mercury News in 1984 and has covered 14 Olympic Games, more than 30 Super Bowls and more than 20 World Series. He concentrates mostly on the Bay Area's professional teams but covers all sports. He was there for the first Sharks' game at the Cow Palace in 1991 and documented the team's 2016 Stanley Cup playoff run.