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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Baseball Lords Ready To Fix Something That Isn’t Broken

Dave Kindred Sporting News

Someone has convinced the lords of baseball that the game is too slow. So there are new rules designed to hurry things up.

These rules, which go into effect July 28, belong on baseball’s list of 1,001 Dumb Things We Have Done Lately.

Between pitches, a hitter will be allowed to stray no more than 3 feet from the batter’s box. A pitcher will have 12 seconds to throw to a hitter who takes his stance with no one on base. A manager making a second trip to the mound must call for a new pitcher as he leaves the dugout. The first pitch of a new half-inning must be thrown within 2 minutes and 5 seconds of a third out.

Proposals rejected included the raising of the strike zone and raising the height of the pitcher’s mound. All of which makes a guy wanna holler: Come back, Fay Vincent, all is forgiven!

As commissioner of baseball, Vincent was a flawed leader in a position of no real power. Yet a cabal of owners ran him out of town. They feared Vincent because he cared about baseball for baseball’s sake and would use his bully pulpit to shape an image of the games, such as: These slow games, who’s complaining? Not the customers. Until the shameless owners provoked a strike by players last August, fans for a decade had driven attendance to unimagined numbers. Nor did players complain. For their time, they are well paid. Nor did anyone hear the owners complain. After all, the longer a game, the more stuff they sell.

Nevertheless, someone persuaded owners and players to accept new rules. Not that the rules mean much. They’re so silly as to be ignored. What’s worrisome is the mindset revealed by the rules. We see baseball’s eagerness to fix what ain’t broken even as we are daily reminded - still no collective-bargaining agreement - of baseball’s inability to fix what is broken. The game is fine. Leave it alone. For, as the sainted Red Smith said, “Baseball is dull only to those with dull minds.”