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He shoots, he SCORES!

I don’t think Baseball wants to give up the strikeout, either. Related to the K’s marketing value in highlight clip packages, I think a key reason has to do with how video games, combat sports , and superhero movies have led young guys to crave mano-a-mano competitions. Me against you. I die or you die. I strike you out or you hit a homer. A fight to the death every at bat. Baseball is trying to capture the demo that loves that stuff. I would bet if you did a two-question survey, “Which do you like better” and the two choices were “Either home run or strikeout” and “Any ball in play”, the former would have a really good chance of winning among under-35s. I think pitchers really like the high strikeout era, too, in part because it gets them paid, and in part because it makes them look historically great striking out so many more guys than even the black-and-white Hall of Fame pitchers did. If any starting pitcher today had the same K/9 rate Bob Feller did, they wouldn’t even have a job. Freddy Peralta has one of the top 50 K/9 seasons in history. How else could he ever get on an historical Top 50 list? That’s a pretty decent brag.

I’ve seen player interviews in which they’ve said they like it, and it’s easy to see why: it gets them off work sooner.

One more thing I would do for baseball: in the outfield, I would have a series of randomly-placed landmines. “There’s Marshall, settling under that ball …” KABOOOOM! “Holy SHT!”

I've won a few bets on the sausage race because you can tell which one is likely to win just by watching their legs, how they move, and how limber up beforehand.

That song would have sucked ass has he used strings.

I read that they added strings. Phil Spector is looking up and laughing.

This stands with some of the best work in their deep, deep catalog.

Ok I’ll bite: the Tigers struck lightning already how?

Ties were always replayed and not part of the record. I do r think I’d want to see replays of several tie games every year, or just have those games disappear from the record.

Talk about "not baseball"! 🤣

I get where you're coming from, but I don't see how having Tatis gets us deeper into the playoffs than I think having the ace without Tatis would. I don't think even with Tatis, a battery of decent starters going four-five innings coupled with a gaggle of meh-to-decent bullpen pieces gets us into November.

I'd be OK with it in a modified form. There is precedent for the zombie-runner rule—it's existed in international baseball since the 2008 Olympics, and I saw it in action when I went to Cuba in 2015. Only at that point it was runners on first and second, and starting in the 11th inning, not tenth. If we have to have it, I would prefer to see zombie runner starting in the 11th inning instead of the tenth, runner only on second. I would like to see the tenth inning played as normal, and in 2019, 44% of all extra innings games ended in the tenth. Another 28% of games ended in the 11th that season, so starting the extra runner in the 12th would suit me fine, too. I think I've come around to preferring either one of these to no zombie runner at all. But either way, I definitely want the rule to be the same for both playoffs and regular season.

They are getting uncomfortably close to doing this on every big league broadcast all year.

This is not a commentary on you—you’re a pretty good poster and you’re in the running for rookie of the year here—but I simply despise the term “manfred man’. One, because it’s just so cutesy-poo and it makes me cringe just hearing it. But, also, it suggests an joyful embracing of the concept itself, and I’m not sure I’m completely there yet, at least in its current form.

I conked out between the 10th and 11th innings. Timing. Obligatory unsolicited opinion: I don’t like that the zombie-runner rule is different in the playoffs than during the regular season. It’s a tacit admission that they are not 100% behind the rule itself—if they were behind it, it wouldn’t be different. Baseball should either always use it, never use it, or modify it such that they become 100% behind it. Pick a lane.

He may get an actor Oscar for it, probably Supporting.

Every once in a while a guy comes along who is absolutely magic for a short period of time. It’s Adolis Garcia’s turn now. And good for him—not everyone gets that.

Coincidentally, the same odds as being struck by lightning at some point in your life.

If we’re getting Tatis in order to WIN NOW!, then why are we giving them our ace?

Until he starts acting out during a down year.