Apparently, there is nothing to absurd for MLB’s fanboy culture.

Excuse me, I have to get back to penning my Change.org petition to Selig demanding each team have a Dugout Dance Team by Spring Training 2013.

Apparently, sarcasm truly is lost on the HBT crowd. Apparently points that aren’t literally stated – zoom completely over and behind the head of many HBT readers.

The fictitious (but oh so truthy) exchange I penned above was NOT a commentary on whether or not the 12-second rule should be enforced. It was a lampooning of the non-controversial, unquestioning goofballs that populate MLB broadcast booths, and how they become propagandists for the agenda that the Fraud Commissioner has set for MLB since being anointed as Chief Executive Officer of MLB (there is no real Commissioner anymore).

While Selig, the owner’s mouthpiece (not the impartial reverent judicial types that the Commissioner’s Office is supposed to be led by), certainly has done some good, he has made changes to the game that can likely never be reversed, and which ruined what was unique about baseball versus other major sports. Inter-league and the completely indefensible and adolescent decision to award home field in the World Series to the winner of the ASG . . . being first and foremost on my list.

And when these monumental changes occur . . . those who interface with the public the most . . . the guys in the booth (Local as well as National) have virtually no leverage to express their own thoughts and feelings without fear of reprimand from their employers . . . the franchises that make up MLB and pay Selig to be their chief propagandist.

The average fan is then fed, through a familiar affable face, a steady line of MLB corporate propaganda. And the average fan, just trying to relax and enjoy a game, eventually just accepts the change without protest.

So, not to be ungrateful, but save your rulebook citations for someone who needs the remedial help. I do not.

But since you chose to make an issue of the 12-second rule . . . let’s just air that out for a moment, shall we? It’s not enforced by umpires because the rule is UNREALISTIC. Watch any game tonight, time the pitchers on both sides, then switch to another game and do the same. VERY VERY FEW come anywhere close to delivering the next pitch within 12 seconds of receiving the ball.

But some idiot on MLB Network gets a hair up his ass and begins berating Beckett (who I strongly dislike as a person, btw, but will defend here) because he will sometimes take 22 second, or 33 seconds or 27 seconds between pitches. And to that Beckett has the correct answer:

“What is pitching? Pitching is upsetting the timing of hitting. What is hitting? Hitting is timing the pitcher,” Beckett said. “So for me, instead of standing on the rubber already and waiting for their whole walk-up song, [expletive] it. I can play the waiting game. I’m going to be out there for 110 pitches anyway.”

If you truly understand the game, you completely get and respect that pitching philosophy . . . if you are some hardball fanboy, you’ll be irritated waiting for the next pitch.

But the rest of your plan is just one more version of “ooops, here’s another convoluted way to get us out of this mess we created, with 15 teams in each league”.

(and altho this might be inevitable no matter what….) you’ve set it up so the “2-game series” will now be the norm, where currently those are pretty much only “schedule-fillers” that almost always cause teams difficulties. That may be fine for your ‘east coast shuttling’, but methinx the AL & NL West teams will quickly get tired of constant 4 hour red-eye flights on gameday.

You’d also need to address “tie-breakers”? Your schedule is now too tight. Rainouts, rain delays and re-schedules will be bad enough. You CAN’T have extra innings screwing things up too! Bud will have to declare the new “10-inning rule”. Teams still tied after that do a 10 minute “home run derby”, til we have a winner. LOL.

This would give division teams a reasonable look at each other, would allow every team to see every other team for a quick series, thereby allowing fans to see favorite opponents every other year for a 2 game series, and allow for natural rivals to see each other at home for 2 games each year.

2. (same first two questions, then)….the NBA does it? NFL/NHL does it? really? They play 3 and 4 game series before they leave each town? Or are you saying you want your baseball series to be one and done (or maybe 2 games)? really?

3. As for the NFL’s sorta-dynamic “cross town rivalries”, that currently works extremely well because those games are NOT force-fit into the schedule every year. They are “occasional scheduling wonderments” that then get (properly?) hyped as something special. I don’t think anybody would have a problem if baseball “fell” into that as well. Yankees & Mets HAPPEN to meet every 3 years or so? works for me!

Team plays each of 10 other NL teams 7 times, = 70 games.

Team plays each of 5 AL East teams 4 times (2 home, 2 away) = 20 games.

Team plays each of 10 other AL teams 2 times (AL Central home one year, away next, AL West the opposite) = 20 games.

Total 162. No local “natural” rivalries, and 40 inter-league games per team allows for constant inter-league play.

It shocks me that Mets owner Fred Wilpon doesn’t put his foot down and tell the Commissioner’s office that enough is enough: either the other teams in the NL East play the Yankees as often as the Mets do, or the Mets will not play the Yankees at all, extra revenue be damned.

Not sure how I’d like it on the MLB level. But when there are 6 baseball games on the same diamond in one day it keeps things moving along and I liek it.

Of course, MLB isn’t really interested in speeding up the game. Not when 5-hour Yankees-Red Sox games and World Series games lasting past Midnight draw the highest ratings.

In-division games: 14 games x 4 teams = 56
Non-division games: 6 games x 10 teams = 60
Interleague non-natural rival games: 3 games x 14 teams = 42
Interleague natural rival games: 4 games x 1 team = 4

You’d have 3 and 4 game home-and-home series with each of your division rivals, and a 3 game home-and-home series with each non-division team. You’d only play your natural rival 1 extra game, and except for that 1 game, it would be balanced within the division. The 4 games against your natural rival could be split into 2 home-and-home sets, or 1 4-game set with home team alternating each year.

“they will also play a home and home every year with every other team in the American league just like every other team in the national league. Just like the mets play basically a home and home with the teams from every division in the NL but the east.”

A home & home with every team from the opposite league is 90 games. (6 games * 15 teams).
Toss in the 14 home and home with the teams in your own league (6 games * 14 teams) and it is an additional 84 games. Quick total of 174 games. Then I’m assuming that for a division to be relevant you’d want to play 12-18 games against each division foe, assuming the 6 that are already accounted for with each opponent, you need to play 6-12 more against each opponent (6 * 4 teams = 24, 12*4 teams = 48) take the middle of the road at 36. 174+36=210. Toss in the postseason, a max of 1+5+7+7=20 more games. Looking at 230 games a year. While I did this mainly to show how incredibly wrong you are, i’ll just leave it at 230 games a year. Gives about 2 weeks between the conclusion of the WS and when pitchers and catchers report. For the sake of all of us, I hope your thinking is wrong.

America is always on the move. I remember about 3 season ago the Cubs visited the Rays. I know there has to be more that just a few Cub fans in Tampa. I am also willing to bet that these fans would like to see their team more than once every 50 years. Case in point, that same season New York Yankees visited the Pirates… That the was the first time the Yankees visited the pirates since the 60′s.