A Letter to Rob

Brett Philips: the hills are alive with the sound of victory (Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty)

 

Rob Manfred 
Major League Baseball Office of the Commissioner of Baseball 
245 Park Avenue 31st Floor New York, NY 10167

cc: Tony Clark and fans of baseball

Dear Commissioner Manfred:

I don't need to tell you that we had quite a baseball game last night, but allow me to anyway. 

The Rays were down to their last out but Randy Arozarena walked on a 3-2 pitch (that's a full count, if you don't know*) and Brett Philps hit a 1-2 pitch (not a full count) into shallow right center field for a game-tying hit. Of course, Dodgers center fielder Chris Taylor bobbled the ball to allow Arozarena to motor around third.

Then, he stumbled, like Daniel Jones did in the Giants/Eagles on Thursday night.

But, lo and behold, the relay throw that should have been easily snagged by catcher Will Smith instead disappeared like sanity in Will Smith's marriage to Jada Pinkett.

Oh, right. Different Will Smith.

Anyway, Arozarena scored and those who watched lost their marbles. Perhaps you did also.

My son strolled out to where I was watching and said, "What just happened?" 

Honestly, I wasn't sure I could explain it.

The Rays won. 

Respectfully, Commissioner, dammit but it was beautiful. That's baseball, as they say. The Rays looked done. The Dodgers sat on the verge of a 3-1 World Series lead with a chance to win their first title in 32 years tonight. Instead, we're back to even.

I feel for my Dodgers friends, of course, but I do love some drama, which baseball knows how to produce. Dane Iorg, Dave Freese, Don Larsen, Luis Sojo, Pat Borders, and others headline the list of unlikely World Series heroes.

We don't need clocks. We don't need to stall. We need to put the ball in play.

I realize we once saw games that were played within two hours and you think that the best thing we can do is keep shaving, but you realize a lot of the initiatives have little to do with between the lines, right?

Pitchers being forced to throw to three batters? Maybe not a huge deal but still seems unnecessary.

Putting a runner on base in extra innings to start the inning? Might shorten extra innings and save arms, I suppose, but why change the game?

The automatic intentional walk? Just...why? 

Just a few head-scratchers.

Sir, let's start with commercials. Yes, it's a business and you work for the owners but there's a huge problem right there. Game 7 of the 1924 World Series, which went 12 innings before the Senators beat the Giants, took three hours exactly.

The two teams used eight pitchers but there was only a radio broadcast with no commercials (tape hadn't been invented) and no TV. 

Last night's game took 4:10. There were 13 pitchers and myriad mound visits. Yes, you've limited mound visits but what good has it really done?

Let's look at the batter/pitcher dynamic. Batters are allowed to stroll to the plate to hear their walkup song. Then they exchange whatever pleasantries, while getting signs sent to them via the third base coach which is coming from the dugout which is (sometimes) coming from the front office.

The pitcher, in the meantime, is doing a lot of the same. Nah, he doesn't want to throw that pitch. Cycle through the signs again. Then shake off the catcher. 

The batter steps out to adjust the myriad guards.

Maybe we'll eventually get to throwing a pitch.

What it comes down to is the pitcher needs to toe the rubber and make a decision. The batter needs to do his part.

That's it.

Why screw it all up? Just make it flow better.

But we need more help than that. Last night was glorious in a lot of ways but, as I highlighted, could have been better. What could FOX have been running on a Saturday night that made starting the game at 8 p.m. so fantastic? Was there another reality show? A ridiculously, unnecessarily long pregame show?

If you're going to have a four-hour game starting at 8 p.m. in the east, then I'm likely going to fall asleep, which I did. Fortunately I was back for the bottom of the ninth.

And the marketing of the sport is terrible.

Last night should be celebrated for what it was. Despite everything else, when all was said and done, it came down to a pitcher who couldn't finish the job, administering a two-out walk, followed by a clutch base hit, compounded by some Keystone Cops errors.

The Rays are back in the Series. The Dodgers have to forget the whole thing.

And you should be forgetting about messing with Minor League Baseball today (I'd like a little guidance there, sir, as it impacts my life) and other things that you and the owners are trying screw up.

Instead, you should be banging the drum around the world to promote your game -- my game -- to get eyeballs to their device (and, ahem, radio) tonight for Game 5.

I have to work overnight. I'll be watching on an iPad.

I'll love it.

Let's grab coffee soon!

Take me out to the ballgame!
Rob

*There was a thread in the Facebook Play-by-Play group yesterday about nuisances and pet peeves. I chimed in with my displeasure on the use of "full count, three-and-two." Well someone called it redundant but necessary to explain the game. Look, I'm all for educating (as you know) but do I need to explain what a full count -- a fundamental piece of baseball since 1889 -- is? I've been told myriad times people learn things listening to me but nobody has ever inquired about my explaining such a basic piece of information. My head is still shaking over this nonsense. If that's how you want to conduct your broadcast, have at it. Safe to say we have very different styles, but it's very simple. Allow me to demonstrate.

"The 2-2 pitch is outside. Full count. (Shouldn't one conclude NOW that it's 3-and-2, thus being a FULL COUNT?)

"It's 3-1, Renegades, top of the seventh at Dutchess Stadium. (Do I need to explain anything more here? Like, "seventh" what or anything else?)

"Three balls, two strikes on Gonzalez. Johnson peers in, gets his sign, kicks and brings the payoff pitch home..."

For the love of Babe Ruth, what was so hard about that? We're done here.