Baseball is back.
Let me repeat that.
Baseball is freakin’ back.
Ahh yes, the sweet smell of freshly trimmed grass and the popping sound of catchers’ mitts has finally returned. America’s pastime is here to save us all from seeing any more tweets about Donald Trump — because we all know we need it.
In case you’ve been living under some un-American rock, this week marks the time when major league pitchers and catchers report to Florida and Arizona for spring training.
College baseball also starts back up, with the Gators opening their season tomorrow at McKethan Stadium against William & Mary.
I could go on and on about why you should be ecstatic that the greatest sport in the world will soon dominate much of ESPN and the rest of your TV channels.
But I won’t.
I’d rather discuss a topic MLB has recently focused on under commissioner Rob Manfred: speeding up the game.
The league has considered a few ways to do this.
One is to introduce a pitch clock, which would limit the amount of time a pitcher has between tossing each pitch. This rule has already been in effect in Triple-A and Double-A.
Another way is to start each extra inning with a runner on second, an idea that would almost surely speed up the game.
Both are bad ideas.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against change. Even Alexander Cartwright, the credited inventor of baseball, would probably agree with some modifications now.
But I fear MLB may be falling down a road similar to that of the NFL, which has been ridiculed for many of its rules. An obvious example are the absurd rules for overtime, which is basically decided by a coin flip (Super Bowl LI, anyone?).
And yeah, I get the reasoning behind placing a runner on second — to shorten games so you don’t have any more of these 20-inning affairs in which coaches have exhausted their bullpens and have turned to position players on the mound.
But hello, watching Ichiro Suzuki strike someone out is 10 times more enjoyable than if any run-of-the-mill reliever did it.
Oh, and consider Game 7 of last year’s World Series, an iconic extra-inning contest that even featured a rain delay. Only some 40 million-or-so viewers tuned in to see the Chicago Cubs make history that night.
Baseball is boring.
There’s not enough action.
Too much standing around.
That’s what you commonly hear from detractors of the game, those with no patience or appreciation for the finer details involved on the diamond. You know, for things like the mental guessing game pitchers and hitters play when facing each other.
But there’s no other sport quite like baseball.
You can’t take a knee or run out the clock. Anything can happen at any given moment, including during the final few pitches.
Let’s not mess with it.
Patrick Pinak is the online sports editor. His column appears on Thursdays. Contact him at ppinak@alligator.org, and follow him on Twitter @pinakk12.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred speaks during a news conference following a meeting with MLB owners, Friday, Feb. 3, 2017, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
