Although the 2023 MLB season feels like it just got underway, each team has played over 90 games before the season came to a brief halt for the All-Star Game.
It may be nostalgia, but the MLB hasn’t felt this electric since the Cubs finally won the 2016 World Series.
This season has a different feel, and reluctantly, I point to the new rules as a colossal benefactor.
The quicker pace and larger bases keep the game so enticing that it’s tough to look away, even for a second.
The new shift rules make it so groundouts should be a solid base hit, are solid base hits once again. The game seems more fun.
Not to mention the clear elephant in the room: The balls seeming to fly further than they have in the past years. My tinfoil hat is on very tightly on this. The baseball has been under severe scrutiny since 2019. When Major League Baseball landed in hot water after reports surfaced accusing the MLB of juicing the baseballs.
Reports in 2021 explained two balls were in circulation during regular season games. One of which had a center weight of 2.5 grams heavier than the other.
In 2022, another ball was added to the mix. Splitting the difference, the ‘Goldilocks’ ball was 1.5 grams lighter than the ‘juiced’ ball and one gram heavier than the ‘dead’ ball.
These rumors have never completely gone away, and this season is adding to the fire that is fueling these rumors.
This season isn’t on pace to break the jaw-dropping 6,776 home runs hit in 2019, but it is on pace to smash the second-place record by more than 200 home runs. The second-place year was set just two years prior, in 2017 more than 6,000 home runs were hit in a single season for the first time in history. Taking up the last spot on the podium takes place in the heat of these allegations. 2021 was knocking on the door of reaching 6k but fell just 60 home runs short.
Now I’m not saying this is a bad thing. In reality, I am all for this. Home runs are fun and it is simple as that. I just find it weird how it’s being hidden.
It feels as if Commissioner Rob Manfred saw his chance. He made a lot of changes to the rules and is expecting a spike in ratings as well as attendance, but maintaining the spike is a different monster. He had to require these people to have a good time and would want to return or watch another game.
This is when the balls come into play. Fans have more fun when a higher-scoring, more exciting game is being played. So when the ball is flying further than it would 10 years ago, something cooler is going to happen. Maybe the ball gets over the fence, maybe it gets over the outfielder’s head for an extra-base hit.
This all came to fruition on July 18th. Obscure baseball history was made, to the excitement of every baseball nerd including myself. For the first time in the Modern Era (since 1900) 12 teams scored more than 10 runs in a day and four games saw both teams score more than 10 runs. It hasn’t been done in baseball history since July 4th, 1894.
This may have nothing to do with the baseballs, but a conspiracy theorist like myself needs evidence, no matter how irrelevant.
