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New Blog Topic: HERE COMES THE HOME RUN DERBY

The one would almost be funny if it wasn’t so frightening. Funny because when baseball announced last year that it would put a runner on second base to start an extra-inning, I joked with a friend that the next thing might be to hold a home run derby to decide the game. After all, hockey does it with their shootout. Well, much to my chagrin, the joke’s on me. A home run derby to decide a tie game has suddenly stuck its intrusive foot in the door, and that means that someone at MLB might be considering the latest experiment in radicalizing baseball’s rules and destroying the game we all love.

Oh yes, it’s here all right, just announced a few days ago. It seems that the independent Pioneer League – not surprisingly designated as an MLB Partner League – made the announcement that they were instituting a “Knock Out” rule this season. The rule was simple. At the end of nine innings of a tie game, the outcome would be decided by the sudden-death home run derby. This is how the league explained it.

“Under the rule, each team designates a hitter who receives five pitches, with the game determined by the most home runs hit. If still tied after the first “Knock Out” round, another hitter is selected for the sudden-death home run faceoff until a winner is declared.”

So there it is, a brand new definition for a designated hitter. Or should it be designated home run hitter? I wonder if they’ll still call the home run derby the

10^th inning. And what if it remains tied after three or four of these “Knock Out” rounds? Maybe then they’ll have to count a home run on the first of the five pitches, or the last . . . or both, as worth two runs, or points, or homers, or whatever they decide to call it.

Then there’s a question of who pitches. Do they have a guy lobbing the ball in, as they do in the annual Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game? And if a hitter gets just five pitches, what if none are over the plate? Does he have to swing?  If it’s a legit pitcher or one-inning closer, he isn’t likely to yield a home run that easily. And that also begs another question. If a game ends via the Knock Out rule, is there a winning and losing pitcher? Or is it simply a game without one? Really sounds like baseball, doesn’t it?

And, of course, the Pioneer League experiments aren’t ending there. The league will also institute a designated pinch hitter rule. This one will allow a pinch hitter to enter the game, and at the end of the inning, the player who was removed for

the pinch hitter will be allowed to return to his original defensive position for the remainder of the game. Hey, if it’s a good-field, no-hit guy, maybe they can pinch-hit for him every time up with the same pinch hitter. Then a team could have two or three designated pinch hitters with the good fielders continuing to remain in the game. See where all this is leading?

But they still ain’t through. The league will also experiment with a designated pinch-runner rule, allowing a slow-footed player to be removed for a pinch-runner only to return to his defensive position and bat again later in the game. In addition, the league will allow a hitter to appeal a check-swing strike to a base umpire. As of now, only the catcher can appeal a check swing ball. Put this rule in and there will undoubtedly be an appeal on every check swing, one way or another. More sound baseball.

So you see the pattern here. Recently MLB announced a partnership with the independent Atlantic League to test several rule changes, including the moving of the pitching back one foot and a “double-hook” rule in which a team would lose its designated hitter when it removes the starting pitcher. We’ve already talked about these possible rule changes.

As for the home run derby, MLB and its analytics departments have already shown that they’re in love with the home run, otherwise, the game would not have devolved into the home run or strikeout game it has so often become. Players are being taught the proper “launch angle” to get the ball in the air and hopefully over the fences. If they feel it’s the home run that really turns on the modern fan, perhaps someday baseball will become a nine-inning home run derby, with each batter trying to hit home runs. After nine innings, the team with the most home runs wins the game.

And then we can really say, welcome to the new world of baseball. It used to be a beautiful game.

Bill Gutman

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