Jim Bowden Has 12 Suggestions to Make the Game Better

12 Changes Baseball Needs

I usually don't agree with Bowden on much, but I'm on board with quite a few of these...

12. DRASTIC GEOGRAPHIC REALIGNMENT AFTER EXPANSION

After baseball expands to 32 teams and takes my recommendation of expanding in both Montreal and Las Vegas, I would take advantage of that time to realign baseball divisions into eight four team divisions inside of two conferences. This would be done geographically which would allow for early season warm schedules, even playing fields in terms of scheduling, reduce the amount of travel needed for all teams and promote more rivalries based on geography which should improve both TV rating and attendance in most markets. Here would be my specific break-down which would include two city teams all playing in the same divisions. There would be eight division champions and no wild card teams. Teams with the best records get home field and opponent advantages in match-ups.

Here is my specific recommendation:

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL LEAGUE (ONE LEAGUE)

AMERICAN CONFERENCE

EASTERN DIVISION: Boston, Montreal, NY Mets, NY Yankees

NORTHERN DIVISON: Detroit, Cleveland, Minnesota, Toronto

MIDATLANTIC DIVISION: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington

MIDWEST DIVISION: Chicago (AL), Chicago (NL), St. Louis, Milwaukee

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

SOUTHERN DIVISION: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, Tampa

SOUTHWEST DIVISION: Colorado, Kansas City, Houston, Texas

NORTHWEST DIVSIION: Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Las Vegas

WESTERN DIVISION: LA Dodgers, LA Angels, San Diego, Arizona

Well, I can understand a homer wanting Cincinnati with Atlanta, Miami and Tampa instead of Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Chicago.

Jim Bowden also says leather pants are a good look.

I'm on board with #1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 11, & 12 (although not necessarily the divisions as he has them).

Because this says rivalry right here.

SOUTHERN DIVISION: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, Tampa

Because this says rivalry right here.

 

 

SOUTHERN DIVISION: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, Tampa

May not say rivalry, but it says competitive to me.

7. ONE RULE EITHER DH OR NO DH

This one is interesting:

2. THROWING AT PLAYERS HEAD SUSPENSIONS SHOULD GO FROM 4 TO 30 GAMES

This past week the Commissioner’s office suspended Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes for 4 games for throwing near the head of the Orioles Manny Machado in retaliation of Machado’s hard slide into Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. The slide was clean and the retaliation was uncalled for. I’m not sure whether Barnes was instructed to throw at Machado by his Manager or not but I am sure Pedroia knew nothing about it nor did he condone the decision. Barnes said he didn’t meant to throw at his head, but he did mean to throw at Machado which is something the game doesn’t need anymore. Players are making tens of millions of dollars and to see a player lose his career, eye sight or brain to retaliate for some base running slide is just plain stupid, sad, ridiciculous and archaic thinking. Shame on Red Sox leadership if they ordered it, shame on Barnes for throwing it regardless if anyone asked him to. However, we all understand that’s part of “old school” thinking, so instead of debating this with the Rich Gossage’s Bob Gibson and fans of those generations, let’s just fix it for this generation. Give the Commissioner discretionary power here and let him do his thing. If they think a player purposedly threw at baseball at or near someone’s head a 30-game suspension without pay will help discourage this behavior in the future.

hmmmmmm

I like the 30 man roster with 25 active each night. I also like the PED penalty and expansion to 8 divisions of 4 teams as well as a uniform DH rule. I'm also in favor of the robot balls and strikes. I like the extra inning rule for regular season games but I'd start it in the 12th inning. I don't like the division alignments that he came up with. The cities with 2 teams would really get tired off seeing the same 2 teams from their division each season.

Because this says rivalry right here.

 

 

SOUTHERN DIVISION: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, Tampa

I grew up with them being rivals in the in NL West, I'd be fine with them being in the same division again.