Video: Stop complaining about extra innings in baseball

Mike Oz

We’re in an age where it seems like anything in baseball might get tinkered with. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is one of those guys who will usually say he’s open to any good idea. Generally, that’s not a bad thing. Progress is great. Making the game more interesting and more marketable, those are noble plights.

In the past few years, we’ve seen things like video replay and slide rules radically alter the game. We’ve also had potentially game-changing discussions about pitch clocks, shifts and new extra-innings rules.

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Look, I’m far from a baseball traditionalist — bring on the bat flips, I say — but there’s one place where I draw the line: ties. Baseball doesn’t, and shouldn’t, do ties.

That’s the topic of this week’s Open Mike video. There’s been a lot of complaining about extra innings lately as we’ve seen a number of loooooong games this season. Like that 18-inning affair recently between the Cubs and the Yankees. With that complaining has come the notion that it might be OK to start allowing ties.

The Cubs and Yankees played 18 innings recently and that got people talking about allowing ties. (AP)
The Cubs and Yankees played 18 innings recently and that got people talking about allowing ties. (AP)

I don’t often clutch my pearls, but for that idea I will. If baseball starts allowing ties, then that puts us on a slippery slope to becoming more like the NFL and, ugh, please stop.

The only ties in baseball are the ones that go to the runner. That’s it. End of story. Those long extra innings games might get boring and deplete bullpens, but they’re a necessary evil. Sometimes you gotta suffer through those.

I say this as someone who sat through the 2-0, 13-inning All-Star game in 1987. You never know what a baseball game is going to bring you. Might be a no-hitter. Might be a slugfest. Might be a five-hour, extra-innings affair where three reserve outfielders and a backup catch are forced to pitch.

That’s one of the beautiful parts of the game. Anything can happen on any given night.

Some parts of the game just shouldn’t be touched. And changing up the extra-innings rules to allow ties? You might as well start having four outs an inning too.

PREVIOUSLY ON OPEN MIKE:
– Why Aaron Judge should grow a bear — seriously
– The $127M baseball team that won’t play a single inning this season

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!