Part of the ambience of watching football in person has long been the layers of warm clothing glove

[CaliCuse]

Lets not forget the proverbial flask filled with dad's' favorite warm up drink. This ,however should not be a baseball standard. The length of the season is too long so they start the season before mother nature has declared spring nationally and even that comes within on a consistent amount of days. If the game is losing popularity it might be time for adjustments. Those include time for hitting ready to hit and pitch. A batter has his time in the on deck area . Once the ump signals for his appearance the batter should hustle up and get in the box and be ready within 15 seconds . Pitcher in many cases have an area near the dugout or in the Yankees case down a short walk in back of the dug out to keep warm On the third out or the Imps call him i.e. the pitcher needs to be ready to pitch within one minute.Commercials need to be shortened. Yes there is money in commercials but losing your fans to watch something else. The season should be shorten. Now you have fans coming to a game to see their favorite player both at bat and in the field and sit down and discover your player is either DHing or not playing at all.

The DH is another issue . Make it the official spittoon the line-up universally in all leagues.Watching interrelate play is not enjoyable when the DH league now must put the pitcher at the plate and there have been more than a few pitchers who get injured on the base paths and even at the plate. Muscles never used suddenly get stretched and contracted in a body not accustomed to the actions they must now face. Its no wonder that football and fast approaching basketball are making big gains in "Americas game". the world may love soccer but this game only gets interesting if and when an American team competes well in the Olympics or the world games.

 

[SWC75]

Reinstate Sunday double headers and you could play the same number of games and carve 2-3 weeks off the season

I am non-committal on the DH. I used to be a big advocate of it but watching Mets games I no longer see the need. I don't think it ruins the game, however. Both leagues should be playing the same game. The fans should vote on which they want both leagues should conform to the result.