February 14th, 2023 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka On Monday morning, Major League Baseball announced that beginning this season (and apparently until the end of time), every tied MLB game after the regulation nine innings will begin each extra inning with an automatic runner (often referred to as a ‘ghost runner’) on second base.
The rule change comes as a surprise to no one, as it has actually been in place on a ‘temporary basis’ since the 2020 season, when it was instituted in an effort to preserve player health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season.
MLB’s 11-person joint competition committee, which is comprised of six team representatives, four player representatives, and one umpire representative, voted unanimously in favor of what they affectionately call ‘the extra-innings tiebreaker rule,’ – a rule which most diehard/old-school baseball fans vehemently oppose.
‘But Wait …There’s More!’
The joint competition committee also approved a rule which alters when a team can use a position player as a pitcher. During the 2022 season, position players (excluding those officially recognized as two-way players) could only appear as a pitcher in extra innings or if his team was trailing or winning by at least six runs. However, beginning in 2023, position players can only enter the game as a pitcher if:
- The game is in extra innings,
- A team is trailing by at least eight runs at any point,
- A team is leading by at least 10 runs in ninth inning.
For those aforementioned diehard/old-school baseball fans, the very obvious first thing that comes to mind is: Why mess with the rules of a game that have gone relatively unchanged for 154 years?
The first thing that comes to mind for diehard/old-school Dodgers fans is that it is impossible not to immediately wonder what beloved Hall of Fame Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda would have to say about these new rule changes. Whatever it would be, you know it would be colorful.
You can bet that Tommy is rolling over in his grave over this one.
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
I am fed up with Rob Manfred’s initiated rule changes (aka gimmicks). He is making this much more complicated and gimmicky than necessary to speed up the game when only one directive to umpires and teams is necessary: follow all of the current rules – which includes umpires strictly enforcing the strike zone.
If teams and players are concerned about the impact of extra inning games on pitching staffs there is a change to rosters that would not affect playing the game — add a taxi squad of players that could be used rather than forcing teams to option and recall players to the minors.
Of course, I am very old school and love the game as it has been played for decades before Manfred was born.
The three batters per pitcher minimum has backfired because there are more hits and games go longer and then there are the same number of pitching changes anyway. Manfred thinks it’s his prerogative to tinker with a near perfect game. What he has done by changing the way the baseball is made is truly horrible because it changes the game in completely unpredictable ways and distorts statistics and records and history and forces players to adjust their techniques one year only to have to change again the next. He also lies and makes changes without even telling anyone. I used to say that Bud Selig was a schmuck but at least he knew it. Manfred is way worse and has no idea how detrimental his raging ego and desire to market to people who don’t appreciate the game risks ruining it instead.
TV Networks calling the shots???
Why don’t we go to ties or a home run derby to determine the ot winner?? (I’m being sarcastic in disgust bout Manfred decision making).
Baseball needs to do what football has done and move out of areas like Tampa Bay and other places that don’t support the team and locate in Charlotte, Nashville Vegas ,Portland.
Baseball Prospectus picks the Dodgers to win the west and finish with the best record in the NL.
Smart people work there – 😀