Hence the bright ideas of pitch clocks and relievers facing a minimum three batters to expedite the game. Nobody was enamored with those four-hour Yankees-Red Sox marathons of a decade ago, but Manfred toyed too much, and sometimes the game is not even recognizable.
While we enjoy the Red Sox’ run without supposedly their best player, the future of the sport is uneasy because the powers that be are determined to modernize a game that doesn’t need any more meddling.
Does baseball need two more teams when nearly half of the current 30 have essentially no chance to win a World Series because they don’t want to spend the money or can’t afford a lofty payroll? Are Nashville, Salt Lake City, Portland, Ore., or Charlotte, N.C., really going to foster the growth of the sport?
Remember when Tampa/St. Petersburg and Miami were sizzling potential destinations, so much so that the Giants were precariously close to moving 30 years ago? The Florida teams were 28th and 29th last season in attendance, averaging fewer than 30,000 fans per game combined. Sixteen major league teams averaged more than 30,000 fans on their own.
Realignment to resemble the NBA and NFL is a terrible idea. The Yankees and Mets in the same division? The Red Sox and Phillies playing 15 times a year? There used to be something novel and pristine about the American and National Leagues minding their own business until the World Series. Then former commissioner Bud Selig became consumed with interleague play, and today we have interleague series all season, which have done little to create new rivalries.
How many Bostonians were enthralled with the Marlins, or Rockies, or Pirates coming to Fenway Park? All three are forgettable series at best, except for when generational talent Paul Skenes took the mound for Pittsburgh on Friday.
In the heat of the pennant race, the Sox have an inappropriate three-game series with the Diamondbacks this week. Instead of playing an AL contender, they face an NL team that doesn’t even hint at a rivalry. Perhaps Selig believed interleague play would create more intense matchups as time passed. It really hasn’t. The Red Sox have no true NL rival, and they aren’t alone. Interleague games have become so common that they no longer contain any buzz or excitement. Mixing the leagues hasn’t worked.
The best idea would be to have the teams with natural interleague rivals — Dodgers-Angels, Yankees-Mets, Nationals-Orioles, Giants-A’s, Cubs-White Sox — play six times a year, while the remaining teams play two interleague opponents three games each. The other 156 games would be within your league.
In what world do the Yankees and Red Sox not play until June 6, and only play 13 times in a season? This world, this year. Growing up a Dodgers fan, this writer relished the time when division opponents played each other 18 times a season and road series had symmetry. The Dodgers, Padres, and Giants would head east to play the Mets, Phillies, and Expos in mostly three-game series, then alternate.
If you were on the road, your biggest division rival was probably on the road, too. This past week in the AL East, the Sox played at Baltimore, the Yankees hosted their bitter rivals the Nationals, the Blue Jays hosted the Twins, and the Rays played at the Guardians. How’s that for a harmonious schedule?
In Philadelphia, the Phillies are fighting to hold off the Mets in the NL East, and six of their final 15 games are against the Royals and Twins. Shouldn’t that final month be lined up with division foes? Not in Manfred’s baseball reality.
Traditionalists already have had to accept the Little League rule of placing a runner at second base to begin extra innings. (I’d rather hear the Kars4Kids commercial on infinite repeat.) We’ve been subjected to seeing two major league teams play games in minor league parks. Manfred signed off on the A’s playing three years in Sacramento but not calling themselves the Sacramento A’s. They’re just the Athletics, like Prince, Madonna, and Cher, I guess.
We’ve watched the White Sox and Rockies almost take pride in chasing the 1899 Cleveland Spiders’ 134 losses in a season, but are supposed to believe MLB needs two more teams. We’ve seen Manfred somehow try to rationalize losing the ESPN contract, as if no televised baseball on the world’s most popular network is somehow good for the sport.
Please, stop messing with the game. No expansion. No realignment, much less interleague. Make teams actually score runs the hard way in extra innings. (They’re pros, right?) Attempt to bring some tradition and heritage back to the game we all love.
Most of us fell in love with the game the way it used to be. It used to be pretty cool.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
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