Commissioner Criticizes Union's Resistance to Rule Changes
Commissioner Criticizes Union's Resistance to Rule Changes:- Commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday decried a “lack of cooperation” from the Major League Baseball Players Association over rule changes he wanted to propose for this season. Although there will be no changes for 2017, Manfred said, he could impose new rules in 2018 even without the union’s agreement.
“I believe it’s a mistake to stick our head in the sand and ignore the fact that our game has changed and continues to change,” Manfred said.
He dismissed a suggestion by Tony Clark, the executive director of the players’ union, who said Sunday that he would rather educate fans on baseball’s nuances than make major changes.
Manfred said: “I’m firmly convinced both our avid fans and casual fans want us to respond to and manage the change that’s going on in the game. I’m certain that our job as stewards of the game is to be responsive to fans, and I reject the notion that we can ‘educate fans’ to embrace the game as it’s currently played.”
Manfred said home runs were up 32 percent and strikeouts up 67 percent since 1980, with balls in play at a record low. He said he planned to continue to push for changes such as a pitch clock, limits on visits to the mound, automatic intentional walks and the raising of the strike zone — a change that would theoretically force pitchers to throw more hittable strikes.
“I understand some were bigger than others that we had out there, but we couldn’t even make an agreement on limiting the number of times somebody goes to the mound,” he said. “It just doesn’t seem all that earth-shattering that we wouldn’t be able to make progress on that issue.”
Manfred reiterated his often-stated position that he was not concerned with the running time of games but with the pace, and with stimulating action. The running time of games could be easily reduced by compressing the breaks between innings, but that would mean fewer commercials and thus lower revenue.
Manfred said he wanted to be “comprehensive” in considering all ideas, but shorter commercial breaks would affect baseball’s agreements with national and local television partners.
As for the notion of starting extra innings with a runner on second base, to reach a quicker resolution to ties without games dragging on, Manfred said the idea would apply only to the rookie-level Gulf Coast and Arizona Leagues.
“It was not one that we thought at any time in the immediate future would be brought to Major League Baseball, even as a proposal,” Manfred said. “But as with every experiment in the minor leagues: Who knows? You might learn something.”
Source:- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/sports/commissioner-rob-manfred-criticizes-unions-resistance-to-rule-changes.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fsports&action=click&contentCollection=sports®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront
