Spring Cleaning

By: Mathias Woerner Sports Editor

While everyone here at USF might not be thrilled that we left spring break in the rearview mirror last week, baseball’s spring festivities are in full swing. The Major League Baseball (MLB) preseason began in late February with teams flocking to Arizona and Florida to prepare for another 162-game marathon. Seeing as we’re at about the halfway point of spring training, it’s about time to look at the season ahead.

For all of the emphasis on history and tradition that baseball touts, there are some new factors to consider for the 2023 season. Let’s start with the beginning: Opening Day. All major league teams will start the season on March 30, making it the first time that all 30 teams will start the season on the same day since 1968 according to www.yahoosports.com. For historical context, that is before regular season interleague play began.

For the first time ever, all 30 clubs will face one another at least one time during the season in an effort to make the sport more national for consumers. This is only one of many changes that are being made at the behest of Theo Epstein, former executive for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs who is now working for MLB to consult on the health and the future of baseball. Seeing some antiquated aspects of the sport, Epstein and others are working to modernize the game while keeping the essence and spirit intact.

game action like stolen bases and close calls, while also making the space safer for the athletes. Pitchers will now be allowed a maximum of two pick-off attempts per at-bat and position players are no longer being allowed to shift. Not everyone is on board with the new changes, like Alex Cora, the controversial manager of the Red Sox who scoffed at the change to the size of the bases, saying, “They look like pizza boxes.” These small changes do not compare to the fundamental main changes being introduced in the sport.

With emphasis on bringing more action and variability to the game, baseball is making all sorts of tweaks like increasing the size of the bases from 15 inches per side to 18 inches. The difference is slight but Epstein and MLB hope this will increase

Baseball has long been seen as the nation’s pastime but as mobile devices and social media have become the main passive entertainment in people’s lives, this concept has gone by the wayside and baseball is now adjusting. For the first time, baseball will be on a clock. Pitchers will have 20 seconds in between pitches to get the next delivery to the plate. The idea has been tested in the minor leagues and has yielded positive results in the eyes of policymakers, who saw the average game time decrease by 25 minutes according to www.espn.com.

One change that was introduced last season and will be made permanent this year is the ghost runner rule. The rule stipulates that every extra inning starts with a ‘ghost runner’ on second, with the runner being the player who made the last out of the previous inning. These alterations are always met with some resistance by fans, but the hope is that the blowback will not outweigh the interest drawn to the sport for this upcoming baseball season.