BASEBALL'S CHANGING! BASEBALL PURISTS TO THE RESCUE!

I happen to agree with Rich Gossage and Lou Piniella. Call me old school, but there have been so many changes over the years to speed the game up or to make it more profitable for MLB, it's kind of annoying and disgusting.

The latest of course is the 'mercy rule' idea. An idea floated, but highly unlikely in the MLB. Still though, after the Yankees got demolished by the Indians the other night... there's talk, and it makes me sick.  Here's some from Deadspin:

"Aaron Boone wasn’t happy on Thursday. He didn’t like that his team was getting whooped by Cleveland, he didn’t like how his players performed on the way to the eventual 19-5 loss, and he especially didn’t like that he had to send first baseman Mike Ford to the mound to pitch through the final two innings of the game... Boone, however, believes the decision to put a non-pitcher on the mound does less to save the arms in the rotation, and more to transfer injury risk onto that player. With the Little League World Series approaching, he offers up the idea of a mercy rule to limit that risk.

'I think there would be a lot of benefits to that,' Boone said about the mercy rule. 'I think you’d probably eliminate a lot of unwritten rules; the people running and swinging at 3-0 pitches in the ‘wrong scores.’ If you get to this point after seven innings or whatever... there might be something to that, some merit to that and worth exploring.'”

And then of course comes Gossage and Piniella all hot and heavy on how the game is changing. And you know what? It is... it is, big time and it's not for the better. NJ.com here...

Read this:

"It’s no secret that there are many problems plaguing MLB in 2019. From the ridiculous number of home runs being hit to the number of relief pitchers it takes to finish a game and the expanding use of infield shifts, baseball isn’t what it used to be. No one knows that more than ex-Yankees reliever Goose Gossage. Now, Gossage has never been afraid to speak his mind. From ripping closers Mariano Rivera and Aroldis Chapman as one-inning wonders to targeting general manager Brian Cashman as a baseball “nerd," Gossage longs for the good old days of baseball.

'I can’t watch these games anymore,’ Gossage said. 'It’s not baseball. It’s unwatchable. A lot of the strategy of the game, the beauty of the game, it’s all gone. It’s like a video game now. It’s home run derby with their (expletive) launch angle every night.’ Gossage isn’t alone.

Former Yankees outfielder and manager Lou Piniella isn’t a fan of today’s baseball. Per USA Today:

'All anybody wants to do is launch the ball,’ Piniella said. 'They’re making the ballparks smaller, the balls tighter, and all we’re seeing is home runs. There are no hit-and-runs. No stolen bases. Nothing. I managed 3,400 games in the big leagues, and never once did I put on a full shift on anybody. Not once. And I think I won a few games without having to shift.'’’

Not sure if you remember, but I spoke about the changing of the closer role in an amNew York story about a month ago speaking about Mariano Rivera changing the game for closers everywhere when he showed up in the mid-90's.

"Rivera quickly was shifted to a relief pitching role and wowed with his low ERA, huge strikeouts and clutch performances, which ultimately led to his role as the closer beginning in 1997. Casey said Rivera's performances on the mound during his 19 years in pinstripes came at a time when bullpens prepared their relief pitchers to specifically focus on those final outs. 

'Mariano capitalized on that, became extremely dominant with that cutter and kept getting those hitters,' he said. 'He helped reinvent the closer role in baseball.'"

While Mo made the Yankees winners and a success... it was the changing of that role that helped that happen. Who knows if a closer like Goose pitching 3 innings would have had the same impact in this day and age.

Look, I just like that these old timers spoke out in general. There are problems in the MLB this year. I don't think Manfred is being truthful with the baseballs and the home runs and I hate the changing of the game each year just to "speed it up".

The whole idea of baseball is you come to the game and the game could take hours and hours for all you know. It could also be very quick. And that's the fun of it. At some point, you really have to keep the game structured the way it was invented.  Sure, I understand baseball is a business and with ad space and TV things change... but don't lose sight of the big picture when it's all over... IT'S A GAME. And we should never lose site of that.