By Max Miller — Reporter
There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of options for how to start the 2020 baseball season. This is a proposal that Michael Miller, my father, decided to put together. He wanted to create a fan perspective on what he thinks the MLB should do to start the regular season.
- Issues
With creating a proposal as deep as this, fans need to realize the many issues that will need to be addressed at the start. The first and main issue that the league will run into is ownership and player approval. Without either of these, the league will not resume in any fashion.
There are many other issues that will need to be discussed in order for the league to go on but another main issue is where will the teams play games. Over the past few weeks, the MLB has been publicly discussing a possible plan to play games in Florida and Arizona at various minor league ballparks.
My dad was able to find multiple issues with that idea. With lots of stadiums being outdoors, weather becomes a major problem. Miller’s idea of utilizing the MLB parks that have a roof or retractable dome, this issue goes away.
- Divisions/venues/opponents
With the Florida, Arizona plan out of the picture, my dad designed a four-round season. The plan he created would be completed with a champion crowned at the beginning of November. With a late start to the season, a full 162 games for every team is not possible. What he suggests is that each division would only play against themselves at an indoor venue used by a team in that division. With a few divisions having multiple indoor stadiums, my dad picked the venue that was statistically at the lowest risk of the pandemic.
AL West: Minute Maid Park — Houston, Texas
AL Central: Globe Life Park** — Arlington, Texas (AL Central does not have a team with an indoor stadium so the venue is picked based on time zone)
AL East: Rogers Centre — Toronto
NL West: Chase Field — Phoenix, Ariz.
NL Central: Miller Park — Milwaukee, Wis.
NL East: Marlins Park — Miami, Fla.
With the venues set for games, part one of the season would begin. Each division would stay in its respective stadium and play each team eight times. Games would be held every day with either two or three games played each day. After each team completes 40 games, the top two teams from each division would then move on to part two of the season.
With each league now only having six teams left, the next change would be to have only two divisions, an AL division and NL division. The venues for these new divisions would be dependent on which location each team advanced from. The same rules will apply for the number of games for each team.
Playoffs:
With this being such a different season, my dad figured that there shouldn’t be a World Series but rather a champion of this one season. This also prompted him to change the playoff format. Because of his new plan and the time frame in which it takes place, he made sure that it would allow for two seven-game playoff series. The top two teams from each division would meet. But this time — with only four teams remaining — they would meet in one venue.
At this point, the hope would be that there would be some relaxing of social distancing rules, that would allow for a venue like Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles or Petco Park in San Diego to be the choice of the playoffs. This would allow for better broadcasting and social media presence.
The biggest change in the playoffs would be that the top AL top seed would play the second-place NL team and vice-versa with the NL top seed and the AL second seed. After each series completes, the winners would play another seven-game series to find out who the champion would be. Since this is such a different season a “World Series” champion should not be crowned.
3. Roster relief:
The last part of the season that needs to be discussed is how each team’s roster would be made up. Instead of the regular 26-man roster, my dad suggested that rosters should be expanded to 30.
The key to this would be that during every game each team would have 25 active and 5 inactive players. My dad explained that because of the shortened preparation for the season, many pitchers will not have the proper ability to be used in a normal fashion.
With an expanded roster, any pitcher that is deemed “unavailable” will be able to be declared inactive by teams, which could now use the players that weren’t active before.
Position players are often not considered unavailable unless they are dealing with an injury. This expanded roster will allow players much needed days off with fewer days off during the season.
Professional sports have a lot to figure out in a very short amount of time. My dad has gone to New York Yankees fantasy camp and has created a friendship with many former Yankees players. He has also gained friends there who have introduced him to public relations departments around the MLB.
My dad emailed this plan to PR representatives for various organizations, as well as local Bay Area and New York radio stations. Although he never expects a response from anyone it is an interesting idea that the MLB can look into.
Follow Max on Twitter @SJSUMaxMiller