Now I am an avid football fan. I also love basketball as well. I used to play football, and I used to wrestle as well. I have never played organized basketball, but still love the sport. I am a big fan of high school wrestling as well. However, baseball is a different sport to me. I have played since I was 4 years old and still do, and I love stepping on that diamond each and every day during the summer. I love baseball more than most things. Its special to me and I care a lot about it. After reading a certain article though, I was immediately in a state of disbelief. Check this article out.
Now what is your first reaction. I'll tell you mine. I was first mad. Then I was in a state of shock. Who says that the SEC has the right to change the rules of the national past time? Since when can you change the rules of a game just to fit your schedule and suit you better? This is a joke.
What wasn't mentioned in the article is the worst part. If the batter is not ready before that 20 second "play clock" is up, a strike is called. If the pitcher is not ready, a ball is called. Sorry, but the last time I checked, a strike could only be called on you if you were in the box and didn't swing at a called strike, or swung and missed, or fouled a pitch off. Not if you weren't ready. I know baseball games can take a long time, and there are certainly those that do not like how long the game takes. To me though, that's the beauty of the sport.
In basketball, you have a 24 or 35 seconds to shoot. You have 5 seconds to inbound the ball. You play four 12 minute quarters. Rules are different for different levels, but the one thing that remains the same, you are timed. There is a certain amount of time you have to make a play and to win a game.
In football, you have a certain amount of time before you are forced to run an offensive play, or you are penalized. You play four quarters. Again, you only have a certain amount of time to win a game.
In baseball though, you have 27 outs. You get as many or as little amount of swings you need, but its up to you to make the most of them. There is no time limit. The game is endless and you never face the pressure of having two minutes left on the clock down by 6 points. Instead, you have 3 outs left down by 1 run. Now those 3 outs can take as long as you want. You can have as long of an at bat as you want, but you decide whether you're getting on base or going back to the dugout.
Now I know these rule changes won't directly affect the score of a game, or will it? What if I'm batting. My team is down 2-1 in the 9th inning. We have 2 outs, and a runner on second. Its a 3-1 count. There is a lot of pressure on me, but I do not have to swing at the next pitch. If the next pitch is on the corner, I can wait for the next one and try to drive that. Now lets say I took just a second too long to get ready to hit in the batters box. Their is strike two, and I never even saw a pitch, thus I never had a chance to WIN THE GAME. Now its 3-2. I have to protect the plate. I have to swing at anything relatively close. I swing at that nasty curveball on the corner and I miss. I'm out, game over, we lose. What if that pitch was only the second strike though? Maybe I could have swung at the next pitch, looking for another sort of offspeed pitch that I can drive. Then maybe I tie the game. Maybe, just maybe, we win the game.
Whats worst about these rule changes are that no one knows how widely they will spread. The SEC is going to see how these changes affect the SEC tournament, and if the SEC likes what they see, they may implement the changes in to the regular season. Then maybe all of college baseball does it. Then maybe it trickles down to high school baseball. Maybe a new commissioner after Selig likes the idea, and adds it to the MLB. To be honest, I don't even like the idea of instant replay in baseball. I know i'm only 17, but I'm old fashioned. I like how the game was played in the early 1900's. If the ump calls a line drive fair and it ends up being the game winning hit, thats how the cookie crumbles sometimes. There shouldn't be an opportunity to double check whether the ump really got it right, because that to me is compromising the integrity of the game. Getting screwed over by an ump on a bad call is the way the game goes sometimes, and you just have to live with it. I know, I have been in that position hundreds of times before. Now there is talk of one day getting rid of umps and having a computer call balls and strikes. I could not be more against these changes. You are completely eliminating the entire human element of the game. Why not have robots play the game instead of humans?
Bottom line, leave baseball the way it was. When hot dogs and cracker jacks were ballpark favorites. When the losing team left the park complaining about how they got screwed on a terrible "strike 3" call. Leave baseball as it was, don't compromise the game just because oen generation lacks patience and the ability to find beauty in our national past time.
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