This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Charles Curtis.
As a lifelong baseball fan, I was bummed to hear that the so-called “ghost runner” rule for extra innings — in which a runner is put on second to start innings after the ninth — would become permanent in MLB games.
Every older fan — I include myself in this as a 40-year-old — I’ve spoken to about this and the other rule changes meant to speed up games has given a solid thumbs down about them.
“It ruins the game! The joy of baseball is it can last 16 innings! It’s supposed to be slow!” they say.
And I always have the same response: “These rules aren’t meant for us.”
That’s really the answer here. A pitch clock, ghost runners, getting rid of the defensive shift (my take: “Don’t want to hit into the shift? Learn how to go opposite field!” but I know that opens a can of worms about analytics and strategy) … they’re all an attempt to make baseball faster, with more action, more hitting, more runs and speedier games.
As our Prince Grimes wrote about this on Monday:
MLB is in the unenviable position of trying to appeal to these newer audiences while also keeping core fans satisfied. And the gap between those two seem to be bigger in baseball than any other sport. Bridging that divide sometimes that means ticking off existing fans who may threaten to stop watching when they don’t like something, but MLB knows those people aren’t going anywhere.
Yep. Exactly.
Because if those changes aren’t made, baseball will slowly die, or at least take massive steps back, and make less money in ticket sales and TV deals. If you’re a baseball fan like me, you know you don’t want that.
So I say to purists and the casuals alike: Let these things happen. I would rather have baseball than not have baseball. And baseball needs this.
Quick hits: NFL offseason begins … Nate Burelson is prescient … Happy Valentine’s Day … and more
— The NFL offseason has begun, and here’s the final draft order as well as the cap space for every team. Good news for Chicago Bears fans in both.
— Nate Burleson predicted the exact final score and winner of Super Bowl 57. WOW.
— Some romantic movies to watch on Netflix tonight!
— JuJu Smith-Schuster’s reaction to hit $1 million Super Bowl bonus was priceless.