The gold medal for women's Olympic hockey was just decided by a shootout (the U.S. defeated Canada 3-2 while you were sleeping or ignoring). This isn't disimilar to baseball ending a game with a home-run contest, basketball with a round of "HORSE" or college football with, yes, each offense starting with the ball on the 25-yard line.
Not a fan. I’m not big on anything that turns a sport into a carnival game.
But baseball recognizes it has a problem. Games have stretched to three or three and a half hours from the original two and a half. Some of this is caused by TV commercials, but they’re not going away. So MLB is looking for ways to widen its appeal to a declining younger audience.
One goofy idea being floated would allow a trailing team to bat any player it wants in the ninth inning. Think about that. Say the Braves’ Freddie Freeman homers with two outs in the eighth inning to narrow the score to 3-2. He could come back to lead off the ninth!
Suddenly, rock/paper/scissors seems like a legitimate tiebreaker.
There are several avenues baseball can take to shorten games, and new Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos is in favor of almost any of them: pitch clock, limiting mound visits, anything that limits stalling techniques by batters.
“I’m for almost anything that eliminates the dead time in the game,” he said. “I’ve heard some fans argue that the dead time is when you can relax and talk to your friends and things like that. But in terms of what side of the fence I’m on, anything that cuts down the time of the game, I’m for.
“I understand the purist and traditionalist who says, ‘We don’t have a clock. I don’t care how long it takes. But the games have gotten longer and shortening things up to keep them under three hours would be a good thing.”
Anthopoulos said any rule “probably have to be tweaked along the way” because some of the stalling techniques by batters or even pitchers is part of their strategy to get an edge.
As for a tiebreaker to limit extra-inning games, Anthopoulos said he hasn’t had enough time to process all of the options yet.
“A million thoughts go through your mind,” he said. “The NHL has a shootout. College football has its thing. In baseball I’ve heard everything from putting a runner in scoring position to a home-run contest to this thing” of letting a trailing team bat any player it desires. I don’t know that I have strong feeling about them.”
While we’re at it, commissioner Rob Manfred should fix the travesty of the designated hitter. Either get rid of it altogether (preferred) or put it in both leagues. It’s like the NBA and old ABA playing with different rules, but under the same umbrella.
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