Monday, February 05, 2007

a modest baseball proposal

Re-raise the mounds to the 1968 levels. I readily admit that the last two decades have produced some of the finest pitchers in history. While luminaries such as Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, and Pedro Martinez proved that it is still possible to post multiple years with ERAs below 2.00 despite the boom in modern offensive production, the league average is well over 4.00. When Pedro Martinez posted a 1.74 ERA in 2000, the second-best was Clemens' 3.70. In the interests of returning baseball to a proper equilibrium, the obvious solution is to raise the mound back up to 18 inches to offset the improvements in modern offensive technique. Sure, kids like to see dingers, but the refined and educated prefer 1-0 pitchers' duels. They are even better when spun from the fingers of a wizard like Mr Maddux, but I'm willing to accept some diminution of actual pitching quality in those duels in order to see more of them simply because there usually isn't that much to appreciate in a typical 8-5 game. Discuss?

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