Well, since they will be playing all 162, I have simmered down. But I still won't buy a ticket to a game. Knowing the cable company, if you try to get rid of something to lower your bill, they raise the price on one of the other services you're getting. That's why I still have an IP phone though I never use it.
Yes, they have some new rules. The DH in the NL was inevitable. It was only a matter of time. With inter-league play for almost a quarter of a century, the NL has been using the DH a lot anyway. And then there's the post-season.
I'm glad in a year or 2 there might be a limit on the defensive shift. I'm not a fan of the shift, but shame on the batters for not trying to hit it through the hole, or lay down a bunt. That's what Phil Rizzuto would have done.
I'm not sure how they can enforce it, though. It will open up a can of worms. At the end of the day, bringing the infield in, or the outfield in with less than 2 outs and a runner on third in the bottom of the 9th, is a sorta/kinda defensive "shift". I guess they will say the 3rd baseman and SS have to play to the left of 2nd base, and the 1st baseman and 2nd basemen have to play to the right. Are they allowed to back up onto the grass? See, it gets tricky. In any case, they won't be eliminating it -- just limiting it to x number of times per game -- sort of like the video replay challenge.
When I was playing on a local softball team about 10 years ago, I was up at bat, and the previous 2 times I hit a single right up the middle. So the catcher yells to the SS and 2nd baseman to cheat a little toward the middle. So I opened up my stance, and hit a hard grounder through the hole for a base hit.
