New way to end tie games - HR Derby (Israel Baseball League)

[bedir than average]

UJC - Israel Baseball League to Open This Summer

The teams will play a 45-game schedule and most of the players will come from the United States and Latin America. Tryouts will be held next month in the Dominican Republic and in Israel in April.

Purists might cringe: In order to speed up the game, IBL officials have tweaked some of the rules. Games will only last seven innings, and ties will be broken by a home run derby. The designated hitter rule will be used but in a limited capacity.

Now, I'm a huge fan of International Baseball, my first mod role on FanHome was of the old International Baseball board, a board I helped demand be created. I'm excited that a formal professional league is entering the MidEast, as their are some decent Arab youth teams (with a distinct American involvement) and a couple of semi-pro teams in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Gulf States.

I personally don't like the rule for the tie-breaker, but can understand why the potentially infinite length of a game might deter fans in nations without the history of baseball. A seven inning game though should help keep games at two-ish hours or less.

[Nimajneb]

Home run derby... I can see the appeal from a non-traditional standpoint, but would explode in open revolt were any such rule enacted over here. There is, after all, a reason why only so many fans show up for batting practice, and glorifying it doesn't change a thing

*shudder*

[77smbg9177]

this rule the HR derby one i don't like at all. it is true most fans will probaly love to see that but its not fair to the teams because this saying means you must have a big bat in your line up so you can't just win a game on pitching and deffense now which is why i think this rule is not fair to all teams but hey we will soon find out

[RickJay]

The simple truth is that it's not necessary. Extra inning games just don't often go more than a few innings, and when they do it's kind of treated as a wonderful and unusual event.

Games that have had different sorts of tiebreaker systems, such as the shootout process in soccer, generally have them because they need them. Soccer has a LOT of tie games, and a game can remain tied for a very long time, so in a playoff situation where a decision must be reached a shootout at least is a useful option.

Baseball, on the other hand,

1. Doesn't actually have that many games ending in regulation ties - teams will generally average about six to ten percent of games going into extra innings, and

2. Generally resolves tie games fairly quickly.

[bedir than average]

I think this rule could only work in a non-traditional setting, such as Israel. But that doesn't mean the rule should ever be tried somewhere else.

[Rice4HoF]

I could see it being used in games that "don't matter". e.g. spring training games, all-star games, etc. A lot of exhibition games have time limits, and this would be a way that fans could go home having seen a winner.
Otherwise, I'd never want to see this for a game that counted.

[John F]

How do you make sure guys are using their standard bats and not their "Batting practice, for show" corked bats?

[BMW]

Originally Posted by John F

How do you make sure guys are using their standard bats and not their "Batting practice, for show" corked bats?

After each guy hits a home run they break his bat open to check it....haha, great for Louisville Slugger company, bad for environmentalists....eh, it happens. Seriously, it's not that absurd for a league that is resorting to this instead of extra innings.

Quite frankly, I am like an extra innings magnet, as almost every game (roughly 80%) I have gone to since I was living in Milwaukee over 8 years ago....Detroit-Cleveland went like 13 innings it was like a 18-16 game or something like that with fireworks afterwards at like 1am haha....then the Florida-New York World Series Game 4 (Roger Clemens last game supposedly), Brewers-Marlins twice two years ago....Brewers-Reds where Koskie got hurt last year....and there isn't anything better than getting extra innings..especially if you can only make it every once and awhile...

[bedir than average]

Al Jazeera English - Sport - Israel Launches Pro Baseball League

The league has opened play

The 45-game season will also be played at two other venues, a kibbutz founded by North Americans and a baseball complex in Tel Aviv, with the IBL adding a few unique rules to their league.

[nanwynnfan]

It's good to see that sports may be the ultimate way to some kind of sanity in the Middle East.

I'm an old-timer, but I'm not at all averse to game innovations, especially if they keep the game moving along. I don't like the home run derby idea, either, because it negates a full game effort of at least 18 players and should not end on a one shot.

I've toyed with a few ideas over the years that might get the game moving; and I don't believe I've ever expressed them, but here goes, FWIW:

1. Except for injury or broken equipment, or some such legitimate interruptive incident, a pitcher should have a set time limit between pitches to the plate, say 25 seconds;

2. So #1 does not intrude on stolen base strategies, I would apply that rule to deliveries to the plate or to whatever base a pick-off attempt is made;

3. A batter, for other than injury or foreign matter distraction, gnat swarm, sand in eye, etc. may step out of the box no more than once in any plate appearance; for those, he may ask for time [with cause] and get umpire concurrence;

4. A pitcher-catcher battery may conference only once per inning, except when some extraordinary event interrupts game progress; that will make being on the same page regarding signs imperative to both parties, or else;

5. Any fight, altercation, bench-clearing melee will result in not less than a $1,000 fine for any player leaving his position, coaching box, bullpen or dugout - automatically, with second or third, etc. offenses incremental by $1,000 each incident over a single season;

6. A manager or coach representing a manager may question 2 calls in a game, but never on balls and strikes; and the umps shall carry a stop watch that times them the second they start to approach to make their case ... at 45 seconds - it's over, or you're gone;

7. To cut down on these "beefs," MLB will institute an instant-replay camera for very close plays; and IF the camera makes a clear call, THAT call will stand; this will NOT apply to balls and strikes;

8. I know that radio and TV ads raise the revenue; but if there were a time limit of 90 seconds between the last out for one team in a half-inning and the first pitch to the first batter in the next half-inning, or extend it to 100 seconds, that's at least 4 20 second ads [or mix 'em up howevr you like]; then too, there's pre-game, post game, etc.

EXCEPTION: 7th inning stretch preserved.

I'd stick with 9 innings. When I was a kid, heck, even a young man, I'd see games at 1:27 meaning one hour, twenty-seven minutes occasionally; and 1:37 or 1:44 were not at all uncommon.

If extra innings are a real concern, I'd try something that forces managers and pitching coaches to manage their staffs professionally, perhaps even modifying the role of a closer.

Example: Any pitcher officially on the mound at the start of the 9th inning will pitch not less than 2 innings; and in any event, neither team may employ more than 2 pitchers in extra innings. Sounds nasty; but these guys make big bucks and should be able to hack a few innings now and again.

Just thinking out loud.