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Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn
2. Prohibit the batter from stepping out of the box. If the batter steps out of the box for any reason he must be PH for.
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They should have to ask the umpire for permission. Sometimes there's a legit reason. If it's just to adjust their glove, or prance about stretching, then no.
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3. Prohibit mound visits by players or coaches. Either you replace the pitcher or not. (not sure about this one)
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I wouldn't support prohibiting them. Maybe rationing and timing them, though. Have coach visits limited to once per inning. Give catchers unlimited visits but for a max of 15 seconds.
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4. Eliminate God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch. Just keep it to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Yes, yes, we are all patriotic. Can we speed up the game please?
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I totally agree here. Pointless waste of time. Have it before the game if you want (european sports usually do, but even then only for international games and cup finals), but not part way through.
Especially if you want to internationalise the game and attract interest from foreign markets.
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5. Use a challenge flag like the NFL. Does the manager really need to walk all the way to the infield? If a manager ever leaves the dug-out for any reason he is automatically ejected.
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Agree with this totally. Especially guys like poor Clint Hurdle last season who took half an hour to get there.
Managers should be able to visit the mound sporadically as I said earlier, but they shouldn't need to every time they wanted to challenge a decision.
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7. EDIT: I don't care that there could be a wild pitch or that the batter could swing. Let the intentional walk be automatic.
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No. No, no, no, no, no. Nope. No.
One thing that I hate about baseball is pitchers throwing to bases time and time again. But you can't really stop that without making radical changes to the rules.