Some questions that are begging for answers as MLB Opening Day gets underway.
Q: What's new?
A: The most drastic change hinges on the Houston Astros, who are
relocating from the formerly overcrowded Natonal League Central (which had six
teams) to the once underpopulated American League West (which had four), thus
giving each league three five-team divisions.
Q: So everybody's happy, right?
A: Of course not. In order to accommodate the Astros' move, interleague
play will be spread out over the entire schedule instead of crammed into May
and June. Fans who aren't sold on the concept of AL teams playing NL teams
during the regular season -- and there's at least one opponent in every
household -- are bemoaning the ubiquity of interleague competition.
What should be noted, though, is that more interleague games won't be
played in 2013. It'll just seem that way.
Q: Why are the Yankees appearing for only a single, three-game series at
Safeco Field?
A: Welcome to the revised schedule. Each team gets 19 games against each
of its divisional opponents, 20 interleague games, and 66 games against the
rest of the league. For the Mariners, as an example, that pencils out to six
dates with the Yankees: three at home, three in New York.
It can be argued 19 games against the Athletics -- and 19 against the
Rangers, Angels and Astros -- is too repetitive. But during the old days (the
really old days, before the AL expanded in 1961 and the NL followed suit in
1962), when there were eight teams in each league, opponents played each other
22 times.
I don't recall Pittsburgh fans grumbling about having to watch the
Pirates play, say, the Phillies 22 times a season. Then again, I don't recall
much of anything about eight-team leagues. I do know that old-school fans
remember it as baseball's "Golden Era."
Q: Any rules changes this season?
A: Unlike the NFL, whose competition committee relishes any chance to
revise its league's ever-evolving rulebook, MLB owners are reluctant to meddle
and tweak. But, yes, a few changes are in store.
Pitchers looking at baserunners on first and third no longer will be
allowed to fake a throw to third before attempting a genuine pickoff throw to
first. According to one unofficial estimation -- mine -- the
fake-throw-to-third-followed-by-the-pickoff-throw-to-first routine has worked
three times in 1.7 trillion attempts.
Anyway, the next pitcher to use the ruse will be charged with a balk,
meaning: the baserunner on third scores, and the baserunner on first advances
to second. Personally, I'd like to see a $150,000 delay-of-game fine also
imposed on the pitcher, but the balk penalty is a start.
Another rules change applies to the number of coaches a team can put in
uniform. It used to be six, now it's seven, allowing for the trend of the
hitting-coach job shared by a duo.
Finally, an interpreter can accompany a pitching coach or manager to the
mound to assist a pitcher who isn't fluent in English. But there's a caveat:
the interpreter must be a full-time employee, and almost all of MLB's
full-time interpreters are steeped in Asian languages rather than Spanish.
