Bears News: Manfred's 'Golden At-Bat' would ruin baseball |
There is no denying that MLB has some issues to fix. One of the most glaring is its sport's accessibility. Statistics show that baseball is missing the boat on younger fans; thus, viewership has declined.
MLB made a few decisions to combat these issues by listening to the younger viewers and following metrics. Implementing a three-batcher minimum rule, a pitch clock, bigger bases, and banning the shift, all pointed to a more concise game featuring a higher percentage of the action. As a result, baseball’s average game time has decreased exponentially, and viewership is on the way up. However, one of the easiest ways to grow the sport and fix the league's glaring problem would be to make the game more accessible. Fans, especially young ones, consume most of their content through streaming services. MLB’s streaming service, MLB AtBat, is known for having blackout restrictions. For example, if you pay a yearly subscription to MLB AtBat and live in Chicago, you can watch every MLB game besides the Cubs or White Sox since the game is “available” on cable. However, with a greater percentage of fans in the country moving away from cable, baseball should look for a way to resolve this issue, or it risks losing thousands upon thousands of fans who can’t watch the games. You would think MLB commissioner Rob Manfred would analyze those flaws and try to correct them before the 2025 season, right? Wrong. Instead, Rob Manfred has proposed a new rule to the rest of MLB’s owners: the Golden At-Bat. What’s that? The rule proposes that every MLB manager gets one Golden At-Bat per game, which means in any situation, the manager can choose any hitter to take his spot and take the at-bat. Bases loaded, 7th inning with Miles Mastrobuoni due up in the No. 9 hole? Fear not, Seiya Suzuki can hit. The rule sounds fun in theory, but probably something a little more the Savannah Bananas speed. But let’s debunk what makes this idea ridiculous. Let’s use our theory that Miles Mastrobuoni is due up, and the Cubs elect to use Sieya Suzuki as their Golden At-Bat. Let’s say Suzuki comes through but is the No. 2 hitter in the Cubs’ due-up lineup. What do they do when he is standing on second base when his regular at-bat comes around? Does Mastrobuoni try his spot after the Golden At-Bat, or does he get skipped altogether? What if you’re the New York Yankees and Juan Soto is on second base and Aaron Judge is on first, and you want to use one of Juan Soto or Aaron Judge to bat, but they’re already on base? How would that work? Could Soto hit a three-run homer and drive himself in twice? How will that count in the scorebook? This isn’t wiffle ball in the backyard with ghost runners; this is MLB. How will it work for stats if one player gets to bat an extra time with runners on base every game? How will it impact MVP races? Can a manager respond by putting any pitcher in to face him? MLB has had a recent connection with gambling. How would that work? What if you bet the over on a player’s hit total, but in his third at-bat, his at-bat was the Golden At-bat for a different player? What if a manager uses their Golden At-Bat and the pitcher walks the hitter? Was it just a waste? Do you get to re-use it? Do you reclaim your Golden At-Bat if a baserunner gets picked off during the Golden At-Bat? I’m just getting warmed up. It just would never work.
