Seven years ago, I went on national television and proposed a new rule for baseball. I said I couldn’t save 10 minutes of play in every game, but I sure could lose 10 minutes of play in a lot of games. My rule proposal would be to eliminate the top of the 9th if the visiting team had more than a five-run lead.
I was trying to eliminate hundreds of meaningless at-bats over the course of the season. My reasoning was that we’ve played 8 ½-inning games for more than 125 years (when the home team leads, there is no bottom of the ninth).