For millions of sports fans, the Super Bowl game was three days ago, then came a day of retrospection on that game followed by the celebration of Valentine’s Day with one’s significant other – – or insignificant other as the case may be. Lest you think that is the end of the “eventness” in the sports world for a while, let me be sure to make you aware that as of today:
- Pitchers and catchers have begun to report to Spring Training!
Please ignore any and all genuflections in the direction of a rodent who supposedly has mystical powers of weather prognostications; that whole “rodent-holiday” is built on nothing more than the gullibility of the American public and the fact that we have become accustomed to having any and all weather forecasts turn out to be not much more than uneducated guesses. Today is THE official and inalterable harbinger of Spring in North America. Today sets in motion the processes that will culminate in late October/early November of this year and will provide every US sport fan with the certainty of Spring as the new set of climatological seasons.
Here in the Mid-Atlantic region of the eastern US, we have had a mild winter with only marginal amounts of snowfall. Nevertheless, we have been experiencing winter in terms of cloud cover and short-duration days for about the last ten weeks and most folks are ready to flip the page and get on to whatever comes next. My long-suffering wife and I will be heading to Arizona at the end of this month to visit good friends from grad school days – – back just after they were requiring dissertations to be done on stone tablets – – and where I will be able to take in three Spring Training games in person to assure myself that Spring is indeed just around the corner. Frankly, to me it is far more important an occurrence than sighting the first robin redbreast in my backyard.
The 2023 MLB season will bring with it some rule changes that are intended to be a big deal; we shall see how it all pans out. I like some of the new rules but not all of them:
- The bases themselves – other than home plate – will be larger in 2023 than they have been since William Jennings Bryant worried about “crucifying mankind upon a cross of gold.” The intent is to encourage base-stealing tries which adds to in-game action. Will it succeed? It seems to have worked in the minor leagues where it has been tried. On balance, I like the idea, but I would not say I am ecstatic about it.
- There will be a pitch clock for the first time in MLB. When pitchers get the ball on the mound from the catcher or umpire or teammate, they have 14 seconds to get in motion to throw the next pitch. If there are baserunners, the pitcher gets 19 seconds. Hopefully, this will obviate the strolls around the pitchers’ mound and the contemplative moments with the gods of pitching that some hurlers seem to need between every pitch. I like this new rule; I have seen it in effect in minor league games; it makes the game flow faster and better.
- The placement of a “ghost runner” on second base to start every extra inning has been made a permanent rule. I think that rule sucks and should never have seen the light of day – – but the MLB mavens seem to like it. Whatever…
- There will be new limitations on position players who are brought in to pitch. The new criteria for when a team can use a position player on the mound are these:
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- Teams must be ahead by 10 runs or more in the ninth inning to be allowed to use a position player to pitch the presumably final inning.
- Trailing teams can use a position player as a pitcher any anytime that team is down by 8 runs or more.
- In extra innings, any team can use any position player as a pitcher at any time.
- None of the above applies to Shohei Otani.
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The Toronto Blue Jays have announced that they are going to make their home park more friendly to hitters. The fences are being moved in by anywhere between 10-15 feet with ever-so-slightly higher walls at the new distances from home plate. It never seemed to me that the Rogers Centre was a “pitcher’s paradise”, but some folks in the Jays’ braintrust have concluded that the team needs more of a “hitting advantage”. We shall see once again…
Not everything related to MLB and the upcoming season is new and inspiring. There are two old-time issues that have been festering for a while and which should be addressed – – as the Romans might have said – – quam celerrime – – or ASAP. Those two issues seem to have had some positive movements in the past couple of months:
- The mayor of St. Petersburg, FL has signed onto a proposal by the Rays for a new stadium and development plans surrounding that new stadium in the downtown St. Petersburg area. That agreement does not mean this is a done deal; there are still areas of negotiation to iron out such as tax abatements for the team and naming rights and the like. But this is a positive step for the Rays who need something – – maybe anything – – to goose their home attendance to a level that matches the team’s achievements on the field.
- The Rays announced that they continue to work with city officials in Tampa lest the momentum in St. Petersburg is not conserved…
- Out west, the city fathers in Las Vegas have declared the city to be fully behind a move by the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas. The concept is for the A’s – – or perhaps an expansion team somewhere down the line? – – to have a stadium on the north end of The Strip opposite the stadium used by the Raiders at the south end.
- Meanwhile the ongoing negotiations between the A’s and the city of Oakland and State of California interests continue to move along at a snail’s pace.
It is certainly in the interest of both the Rays and the A’s to find better local economic conditions for the teams. It is also certainly in the best interests of MLB to resolve these attendance eyesores if it intends to expand MLB from 30 to 32 teams any time soon.
As I said, things are looking up when compared to six months ago – – but there are still real hurdles to overcome along with “barriers’ and “problem areas” that will turn out to be not much more than having to pole vault over mouse turds.
Finally, since I mentioned William Jennings Bryant above, let me conclude with this portion of his speech to the National Democratic Convention in 1896 as he was nominated to run for the US Presidency:
“The humblest citizen of all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of Error.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………