New MLB Commish: End the shift

Actually, in basketball, the two rules in the last 30 years intended to boost offensive prouction have had precisely the opposite effect.

1. The 3-point shot has resulted in nobody taking any shots besides layups, dunks or wide-open 3's.

2. The shot clock (in college) has done away with the handful of teams a season who would run a full-fledged four-corners stall for five minutes at a time, but instead virtually every single team in the entire goddamn sport holds the ball for a utter minimum of 30 seconds on every goddamn posession.

Put together the result is that everyone milks the clock for nearly every second of every possession, before firing up 3s as ths shot clock goes off. Scoring goes down.




In baseball I suppose you could put in a rule requiring defensive players to be somewhere within specific position zones when the pitch is released -- which would require the field to be covered with cartoonish-looking circle markings. That'll never fly.

 

No game should, playoffs or not.

 

I'm not sure that's how it would be implemented. word the rule that "when the pitch is delivered, at least three defensive players must be to the left of second base." The leftfielder, shortstop and thirdbaseman. The home plate umpire is looking straight at second and can easily count to three.

 

That would be easy to fudge; you could just have the SS line up on the left side, take a running start as the pitcher delivers the pitch, and by the time the ball crossed the plate he'd be 10 steps to the right of the base. CF could do the same.

 

Almost sounds like teams shift in volleyball to keep in rotation and get the big hitters in the right place for the kill.

 

I might have missed it, but does ANYONE think this is a good idea?

 

Jay Bruce's agent?

 

Mark Teixeira