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Bud Selig is usually so quick to remind everyone that such concepts as the wild card and interleague play were added to Major League Baseball during his commissionership that one fears he might blow out a rotator cuff while vigorously patting himself on the back. However, with attendance falling and television ratings down, Selig is admitting that the grand old game has some problems. On Tuesday, he announced the formation of a 14-person special committee for on-field matters that includes field managers, general managers, and club owners, among others. Glaring in their omission were players and umpires.

The committee’s charge is to review and examine all on-field issues related to MLB. It is tentatively scheduled to meet for the first time January 13-14 during the quarterly owners meetings in Phoenix, and the pace of the game will top the initial agenda. Selig also expects to get input on the possibility of extending the use of instant replay, ways to improve umpiring, and ideas on making both the regular-season and post-season schedules more manageable.

“There will be no sacred cows,” Selig said. “We’re open to talk about anything. I’ve had this in mind for a long time. This is a very blunt group. They are opinionated people and they are not afraid to give their opinions, which is good. I want to sit there and listen. If there’s anything we can do to improve this game, I want to hear about it and discuss it. I will be guided by what this committee comes up with. I have that much respect for this group.”

Managers Tony La Russa of the Cardinals, Jim Leyland of the Tigers, Mike Scioscia of the Angels, and Joe Torre of the Dodgers headline a committee that includes Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail, Twins senior advisor Terry Ryan, Braves club president John Schuerholz, Indians GM Mark Shapiro, Mariners COO Chuck Armstrong, Blue Jays president Paul Beeston, Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., Phillies CEO Dave Montgomery, Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, and the ubiquitous columnist/broadcaster George Will, who, along with Bob Costas, was appointed the co-conscience of baseball at some point, albeit without an official announcement.

“This is an exceptional group of people who have devoted their lives to the game of baseball and its central mission, which is to act in the best interest of the game,” Selig said.

Major League Baseball got its share of bad publicity during the postseason this year. Seemingly every game included a blown call by umpires, and that caused an outcry from people inside and outside baseball to broaden the use of instant replay, which was instituted in 2008 and is used only to determine boundary calls on potential home runs.

Scioscia was at the forefront of a wave of criticism about the postseason dragging too long as MLB bows to the wishes of Fox and Turner Broadcasting System by building extra days off into the schedule. The Yankees played 15 post-season games on their way to the World Series title this year. However, those 15 games were played over the span of 31 days after the end of the regular season.

“This is not a reaction to some of the things that happened during the playoffs,” Selig nevertheless insisted. “I’m not saying that it didn’t keep moving me along in this direction because it did, but frankly I had this in mind for a long time. I don’t know how these issues are going to be addressed, but I know I want to hear from the committee. It’s up to me once we decide what we want to do. I’ll listen to the recommendations of the group and take it from there.”

It seems certain the designated hitter rule will be a topic of discussion. La Russa and Schuerholz joined Selig on a conference call with the media, and when asked what rule they would change if they could be commissioner for a day, both answered the DH. The DH has been used in American League games since 1973 while pitchers bat for themselves in the National League.

“I think the game is more complete without the DH,” La Russa said. Added Schuerholz, “It’s the issue that’s been around the longest and has been the most profound topic. It’s a great topic of conversation for the fans. When I was in the American League with the Royals (as GM), I was in favor of it. Since I’ve been over in the National League, I may have taken a different position on it. I’ve come to the conclusion that the DH can flourish by using it in its different ways.”

The DH and other rule changes have to be collectively bargained with the players, which makes it surprising that no one from the Major League Baseball Players Association was appointed to the committee. “We can’t have every constituency involved at first,” Selig noted. “I like the group we have as it is currently constituted and feel that a year of two from now we’ll look back and realize how important this was.”

The group led by Pittsburgh lawyer Chuck Greenberg did not make the highest bid to purchase majority ownership of the Rangers from Tom Hicks, a source familiar with the process said. However, Greenberg did have Nolan Ryan on his side, and that is why he was chosen late Tuesday night to negotiate exclusively with Hicks.

Ryan, the Rangers’ club president and Hall of Fame pitcher, said he would not remain with the franchise if Hicks chose groups led by White Sox special assistant and former player-agent Dennis Gilbert or Houston businessman Jim Crane. “There was no way Bud Selig was going to let the sale of the Rangers move forward without Nolan Ryan being part of the franchise,” the source said. “Nolan is the Rangers, and Bud knows it.”

Greenberg owns two minor-league franchises, Myrtle Beach in the High-A Carolina League, and State College in the short-season New York-Penn League. He also serves on Minor League Baseball’s board of directors and has a spot on the board of Baseball Internet Rights, Co. along with Reid Ryan, Nolan’s son, who operates Round Rock in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Reid Ryan told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram‘s Jeff Wilson that his father and Greenberg immediately hit it off. “They aligned for a lot of the same reasons,” Reid Ryan said. “This isn’t a deal where they’re trying to build up so they can flip or sell to someone else. They want to own a baseball team. They want to win a championship.”

Greenberg and Hicks, who would remain part of the ownership group, have a little less than a month to work out details of the sale, which would then be put to a vote of the other 29 MLB owners in Phoenix next month. “There’s a lot of work to do, but I’m confident we can get this done soon,” Greenberg said.

Greenberg doesn’t plan to make many changes if the sale is completed. “I think the franchise has a good plan in place with a lot of good young talent at the major-league level and an outstanding farm system,” Greenberg said. “I would just want to add to the stability and keep everything headed in the same direction it is currently going. I really believe the Rangers have a chance to be one of the premier franchises in the game. They play in a great market and have a lot of good people working for them.”

Meanwhile, Crane is now expected to make another bid to buy his hometown Astros after nearly striking a deal to purchase a 51 percent stake in the club from Drayton McLane two years ago.

The most enduring memories I’ll take from the Winter Meetings at Indianapolis last week were trying to keep from freezing to death while walking back and forth from the Courtyard to the Marriott, and watching a head-on BlackBerry/iPhone collision.

The PDA-induced accident summed up modern-day baseball in the final days of the first decade of the new millennium. With the names changed to protect the innocent, I watched as an executive from one club, who was intently tapping away on his iPhone, walked directly into a media member, who was just as enraptured as he thumb-typed on his BlackBerry. No one was hurt, and neither was deterred as they kept staring at their phones.

Now I wasn’t there when the first-ever Winter Meetings were held, but I’m guessing the aforementioned collision wasn’t quite the same scene as when everyone actually sat around a hot stove in the lobby of a hotel and talked trade. However, with mlbtraderumors.com constantly churning out reports of potential player moves by every news source in the world and nearly every baseball writer having a Twitter account, it seemed everyone was checking their mobile devices around the clock. Tim Dierkes, founder of MLB Trade Rumors, told the Seattle Times‘ Geoff Baker that his site had 6.1 million separate page views during the four days of the meetings. In a normal month, traffic is about 9 million views.

It is impossible to know how many of the rumors had any basis in fact and how many were false reports floated by agents or club executives to serve their own purposes. Until recently, many club executives got upset when news of trade talks or free agent negotiations leaked. Now, they seem resigned to it.

“It’s the information age,” Cubs GM Jim Hendry said. “Personally, I think it’s good for baseball. The more rumors, the better. I think it generates fan interest. People who follow baseball really care about that kind of stuff. I don’t see how it can be bad for the game in any way when it creates so much interest.”

Neal Huntington is about as tech-savvy as any GM, but he was not pleased when word got out via the information superhighway that the Pirates were strongly considering not tendering closer Matt Capps a contract by last Saturday’s deadline. The Pirates did indeed non-tender Capps, and Huntington claimed clubs quit trying to trade for the right-hander once they read the reports online because they knew they could attempt to sign him as a free agent.


MLB Rumors and Rumblings:
Free-agent outfielder Jason Bay is conflicted between signing with the Mets for more money or with the Mariners so he can play in his adopted hometown. … Capps has received interest from more than half the 30 major-league clubs, and the Cubs and Diamondbacks have reportedly made aggressive offers. … The Mets appear to be the frontrunner to sign free agent right-hander Kelvim Escobar, who wants to work in relief to preserve his arm after undergoing shoulder surgery this year. … The Red Sox are again pursuing Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez in a trade, but they would have to give up right-hander Clay Buchholz and top pitching prospect Casey Kelly to make a deal.

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eas9898
12/16
Regarding potential changes to increase (or recover) interest in baseball, I vote that they do something about the ridiculous amounts of commercials that seem to appear, particularly during the playoffs.

Baseball is already a slow game, and long commercial breaks every few minutes only exacerbate that.
billm21
12/16
It would also be good for them to address the "quality" of the commercials that are being shown. Having TBS and Fox incessantly promote their low brow TV shows has been a MAJOR turnoff for me, so much so that I started watching the games on ESPN Deportes just so I wouldn't be subjected to still another promotion for Wanda Sykes or George Lopez.
BurrRutledge
12/16
To the esteemed members of the committee, below please find one fan's modest proposals to improve the game:

1) No body armor. The inside half of the plate is neutral territory, and ballplayers shouldn't look like mechanized infantry in order to control it.

2) It's embarassing to let umpires blow calls that affect/determine the outcome of the game. Fix it. Balls-strikes. Fair/foul. Tags & force plays at any base. You name it, they can review it. Two full time umpires upstairs with complete control of f/x and all camera replays. They have 15 seconds to overturn a call on the field.

3) Unless the NL wants to adopt the DH because they feel it is imbalancing competition, MLB should keep the DH in the AL only.

Speed of play:
a) Enforce the time limit between pitches.
b) No more than one catcher-pitcher chat per half-inning.
c) No more than one "time out" by a batter per at-bat.

Thanks for your consideration!
Burr Rutledge, longtime fan
ashitaka
12/16
RE #1: How about letting players wear body armor, but if they get hit on any part of the armor, it's a ball and not a hit-by-pitch?
rbross
12/16
An addendum to #1: enforce MLB rule 6.08 b (2) whereby players are not awarded first base if they make no attempt to get out of the way of a pitch. Turning your body so that a fleshier, rather than a bonier, part of your body gets hit does not constitute an attempt to get out of the way.
Kongos
12/16
No umpires, no players, no-one representing the union -- basically a committee of senior executives. The sort of group you'd expect will come up with incremental tweaks, not new viewpoints or radical innovations. The committee would be stronger if its members were more varied.
TheRedsMan
12/16
Somebody needs to tell Selig that getting the Old Boys Club together is not the prescription for keeping MLB up with the times. I don't doubt that the group he's outlined has the best interests of the game in mind, but they all come from a very similar perspective. A bit of diversity of perspective on that panel would be a very good thing and I'm less than convinced that those people understand the perspective of the fan under the age of 40, to say nothing about those of us in our mid 20's and younger...
baserip4
12/16
I hope they discuss the stupid DH rule... and expand it to the National League. I do not want to see pitchers "hit".

There is one simple rule change that would affect nothing but the pace of play: forbid batters from stepping out of the batter's box by requiring at least one foot in the box at all times. High schools and colleges already have this rule in place, and it makes a big difference.
Arrian
12/16
I'm in!
dianagramr
12/16
Dear Jason Bay ... the Ms are much closer to the playoffs in 2010 than the Mets will be in 2010-11 … and even though both ballparks swallow up fly balls that might otherwise be homers, I suggest you give up a few bucks and play in your adopted hometown.
ScottBehson
12/17
As a Mets fan, I would hope Bay comes to NY. But if I were looking at it from Bay's point of view, I would choose Seattle if the money is even remotely close. The Mets organization is well... not good... and there may be sweeping chnages made in the next year or two. The media is relentless and the fans boo anyone who goes 0 for 8. Then again, there's nothing like living in NYC!!!!
prhood
12/16
While I'm not a big fan of the DH, the fact that it's in place in the AL means that it won't be going away. There are too many player's who career depends on it for that to happen. I'd rather see it adopted by the NL and end the silly dichotomy that exists. Perhaps it will lead to a reduction in the existing disparity bewteen the two leagues.
dianagramr
12/16
How about we phase the DH out in 5 years ... gives current DHs a heads-up, and they'll "attrit" out.
JoeSky60
12/16
The DH rule is what makes the "junior circuit" SUPERIOR to the hide-bound NL. The only reason the DH hasn't been adopted in the NL, is that it was thought up by the AL. When are the egomaniacs in the NL going to realize that fans like offense, and really dislike the virtually automatic out, at the bottom of the lineup. Another fact, worth mentioning, is that it can prolong the careers of some great hitters, who cannot(or never could) play defense.
LlarryA
12/17
From 1901 through the '50s, there were noticeable differences between the AL and NL. Differences in play style, and fan following (though often driven at least partly by media availability), aided by the fact that teams from opposing leagues only really saw each other a little in spring training and in the World Series. (Interleague has changed that, and not for the better -- the novelty is over, get rid of Interleague!). I believe this split was good for the game. Through the '60s and into the '70s, these differences waned, the DH re-established them. Keeping it in just one league is the way to go.
tmangell
12/16
Growing up in St. Louis, I'm biased concerning Costas, who I heard call Spirit of St. Louis games in the ABA in the mid-70s, so I believe he's a good "conscience" of the game. But, by all that's holy, why would Bud put George Will on the committee? This is a man who wrote a recent column celebrating the fact that he's only purchased one pair of jeans in his life! He's supposed to represent the common fan? Is his claim to fame and reason for membership on this committee that he wrote an overhyped "Men at Work?" Roger Angell or Peter Gammons he is not. I actually don't mind having Scioscia, TLR, et al. on the committee, but, Bud, put a former superstar like Ripken, Gwynn, Biggio, or Brett on the committee instead of Will.

What do others think?
tradeatape
12/16
Bud's being politically correct by acting affirmatively to have a conservative commentator on his committee.

siegeljs
12/16
To be fair to Will, if memory serves he was the first member of the (more or less) MSM to bring the work of Bill James to the general public. And, now that I think of it, that alone probably makes him over-qualified for this group.
holgado
12/16
I don't think that's correct, siegeljs. Not to get all Doubleday-Cartwright about it, but I'm fairly sure it was Dan Okrent who brought James' work to a national audience during his time at Sports Illustrated.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1124493/index.htm

And of course, Michael Lewis's discussion of James (and Billy Beane's admiration of him) in "Moneyball" brought his work to a whole new generation of fans.

If George Will has written extensively on Bill James, I have not seen it. Of course, I've tended to avoid his work given his political leanings, global warming denials, etc. And I tend to agree with tmangell that his place at this table is not well deserved. Costas, yes. But Gammons, or heck, Doris Kearns Goodwin, should have Will's seat.

And now that we've mentioned James, it would have been nice to see him invited to this summit on behalf of the Sox. If ever there was someone with a lot of well-formed (and well-reasoned) opinions on how to fix various aspects of the game, it's him. E.g., I believe in his New Historical Abstract, he proposed addressing the pace issue in a number of ways, including limiting pickoff attempts, eliminating the batter's ability to call time out once he enters the box, and preventing managers from making a second pitching change in a single inning unless a run has scored.

But then I guess that would defeat the purpose of this meeting: to create the illusion of being open to new ideas without actually having to confront any. After all, the only "new idea" mentioned above is LaRussa's proposal to eliminate the DH. And that's not an idea, per se, but rather a reactionary stance towards what had once been a new idea.
ashitaka
12/16
"I think the game is more complete without the DH," La Russa said.

This basically means "I like not having a DH because it insulates me from criticism over excessive pitching changes."
mattymatty2000
12/16
If La Russa doesn't like it then I am for it.
husier
12/16
I would use replay for everything except balls and strikes.

Get rid of the DH. If you swing the bat, you've got to wear the glove.

Speed up the games in any way possible, including strict enforcement of the rules regarding time between pitches.
mikebuetow
12/17
I'd say the glaring omission would be the fans, aka the "customers."

But what the hell do we know?
Tderrick17
12/17
They should let fans have a vote on this commission for individual issues (like the DH, etc.) - use MLB.com and a good PR campaign. win-win.