For all of the traditional nuances that make Major League Baseball great, there are far more that impede its efforts to once again be America’s past time. The latest league-wide fiasco is bad calls on home run balls, something that seems to be an issue now that the lack of steroids in Major League Baseball has balls barely clearing the fence.
But there’s no reason to stop there. Baseball’s ‘human element’ allure has long lost its luster, and if the sport hopes to polish its tarnished image, it has to do more than clean off the HGH residue and defog the glasses of its umpires. It should be compelled to do something about inconsistent strike zones, and game etiquette.
One their worst day, offensive fouls in the NBA and pass interference in the NFL don’t come close to balls and strikes in the Major Leagues. Every ref has a strike that is a diverse as their punch out histrionics, and it severely takes away from the game. Perhaps its more fun for fans and umps alike to be kept guessing about which way umpires will judge pitches, but no other sport has as much room for bad calls as those of the MLB. And with all of the motion-sensor technology, you would think it would be the first sport to fully ensure consistent calls, and less room for interpretation.
Which leads to the next point. Fighting in Major League Baseball is viewed by many as a time-honored tradition reserved for a beaning or retaliatory beaning. But the truth is that no other sports aside from hockey could last a SportsCenter minute if fighting was a part of its culture. The NBA used to be cool with fighting, but the last time a decent brawl broke out, Carmelo Anthony was made to look like Sonny Corleone.
Same thing for managers and players openly berating umpires. No other sport employs such a democracy when it comes to the mistreatment of game officials. Sure, the umps have the final say on any given matter, but its more of a rallying cry to get tossed for making an umpire look like a sucker.
Some may decry these elements of the game being taken away, but they probably are the same racist hypocrites that believe the NBA and NFL are full of thugs, while Major League Baseball happened to get the best of the genetic pool. And if you present the lame excuse that baseball is not as close to the fans as the NBA or NFL, you tell me when is the last time a fan impacted the outcome of a playoff game in either of those sports.
There’s a lot of things wrong with Major League Baseball, so as long as the sport is genuinely attempting to get things right, it needs to root out the stale aspects of its historic existence.
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