Report: MLB floating idea of letting trailing team bat anyone they want in 9th
Major League Baseball has been searching for ways in recent years to improve pace of play and inject more drama into games, but one idea that an MLB executive floated this week seems downright preposterous.
During Tuesday’s edition of “The Rich Eisen Show,” Eisen revealed that he was told by an MLB executive that one idea that has been proposed to make baseball more exciting is to allow the trailing team to send any three batters it wants to the plate in the ninth inning.
There's an idea being floated in MLB of a manager being allowed to bat whoever he wants when trailing in the 9th.
MLB exec: "No other sport has the best players sitting on the bench in the final minutes of a game. Imagine LeBron, Brady, Renaldo watching from the sidelines" https://t.co/JGts5naG4U
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) February 21, 2018
Here’s the full video where Eisen explains the details behind the seemingly ludicrous proposal:
One #MLB executive told @richeisen about an idea to improve excitement in the game by allowing managers to put anyone up to bat in the 9th inning if trailing. Good idea or crazy? pic.twitter.com/IgM6Zrofer
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) February 20, 2018
Imagine the Yankees being able to send Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton to the plate anytime they were trailing in the 9th inning? While the idea might excite some casual fans, you’re talking about changing the entire landscape of the game.
As one of Eisen’s colleagues mentioned, what happens if a pitcher has a perfect game going? Should he be penalized for mowing through an entire opposing lineup for eight innings and only leaving himself the seventh, eighth and ninth hitters to retire in order to finish off the feat?
If you thought the new rules regarding mound visits were crazy, we apparently ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Chances are, the 9th inning thing will never happen.