We've Now Found the Dumbest Possible Baseball Rules Tweak

" One #MLB executive told @richeisen about an idea to improve excitement in the game by allowing managers to put anyone up to bat in the 9th inning if trailing. Good idea or crazy? pic.twitter.com/IgM6Zrofer — Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) February 20, 2018 "

Baseball, the most beautiful of all the sports, is far from perfect. Those who love the game should always listen to ideas aimed at improving it with an open mind. In recent years we’ve seen some things long considered revolutionary introduced and the product has remained largely the same. Baseball’s DNA has not been tinkered with to the extent a dangerous mutant is created.

But if this proposal, which Rich Eisen says is floating around, were to be adopted, that would all change. I’m getting sick just imagining it.

The wild rule floating around the ecosystem and relayed to Eisen by a Major League Baseball executive would allow managers to send any batter up in the ninth inning of a game. You know, completely invalidating the minor concept of a batting order. You know, pesky baseball stuff.

A team’s 3-4-5 hitters are retired in the eighth? No big deal. This change would allow the 3-4-5 hitters to bat again in the ninth. Or the 1-6-3 batters. Whatever. Let’s get nuts.

I’d like to know just how dank the dorm room was when this idea was concocted. This is such an offensive and preposterous proposal that the myriad unintended consequences need not be explored.

The main, and most convincing argument, is that it wouldn’t be baseball. Please tell me that’s enough of a reason to kill this movement immediately, no matter where it is in the pipeline.