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No major sports league in America has made as many significant rule changes to its game in recent years as Major League Baseball. You’ve got the extra innings ghost runner, the pitch clock, and batter minimums for relief pitchers.
Admittedly, I was not always a big fan of those changes. I felt the batter minimum and pitch clock were unnecessary changes that would make the product worse, same with the ghost runner. While I’m still not a huge fan of the changes, I can admit that I don’t feel like they’ve made a dramatic change to the viewing experience.
But now the league is exploring is a new, dramatic change to way baseball has worked for over a century. Introducing the “Golden at-bat,” AKA the worst proposed rule change in MLB history.
Jayson Stark of The Athletic reports that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred discussed the potential change on a recent podcast appearance with John Ourand of Puck.
“There are a variety of (rule change ideas) that are being talked about out there,” Manfred said. “One of them — there was a little buzz around it at an owners’ meeting — was the idea of a Golden At-Bat.”
Explaining MLB’s Ridiculous New ‘Golden At-Bat’ Rule That Fans Seem To Hate
So, “What the heck is a Golden at-bat?” We’re glad you asked!
Essentially, teams could swap out any hitter in their lineup with anyone else, allowing for a superstar player to step up to the plate in place of someone else.
Major League Baseball isn’t exactly sure how the rule would work.. But here are some of the hypotheticals they’ve discussed according to Stark.
-“Each team gets to pick one at-bat — at any point in the game, but only once — to play its Golden AB card.”
-“Each team gets one Golden AB per game — except only in the seventh inning or later.”
-“Only a team that is trailing (or tied) in the ninth or later gets to use a Golden AB.”
Stark also proposes a scenario where a superstar player could bat twice in a row: once as the Golden at-bat batter, and then again if their spot in the lineup is up next.
All of the suggestions are terrible. And, unsurprisingly, baseball fans let their displeasure be known.
“Would be Manfred’s worst idea ever and the bar was already very low,” one fan wrote.
“Rob Manfred is the worst thing that has ever happened to MLB. This rule should die at the ‘conversation-only stage,'” said another.
The proposed rule is amateurish. It flies in the face of everything we know about the sport and lineup construction. It’s Banana Ball nonsense (and we love the Savannah Bananas!) that belongs nowhere near Major League Baseball, and hopefully, the idea dies a quick death.