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I wish it had not been deemed necessary to ban the shift, and the long view was taken: eventually, we'll sacrifice a home run or three per season to spend a tiny portion of every player's formative years teaching him how to hit the ball where the fielders are not. If every slugger shifted against was able to spend a day or two relearning something he was taught in A-ball a decade ago and managed a clutch controlled bloop single that would have been an out except for the insane position of the infielders, that would eventually defeat the shift better than any rule. But now that we're stuck with the rule and the "HR or K" batters, maybe the way forward is to ban the golden sombrero: three strikeouts (in the first nine innings) is an automatic ejection.
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