Commissioner for a day

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

In response to all the recent discussion regarding the NBA and the need to change the existing playoff structure, I got to thinking about possible tinkering that could be done in other sports. Everyone seems to have their own opinions regarding changes that would "fix" aspects of their sports.

 

So I figured we could open up a discussion about what we might change about our favorite sports. I thought that this could be a fun topic. Here are the rules:

 

- Pick any professional sport that you want

- Make up to three changes to the sport without fear of passing it through the union or owners. These changes can be to the game, salaries, revenue sharing, league structures or any other aspect of the league that you want

- The changes are permanent, as are all possible repercussions

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

The NHL:

Get rid of the shootout. I feel bad for saying this but regular season OT should be handled like the playoffs.

Limit the league to 24 teams. The other teams should be in a separate league. Somewhere between the AHL and NHL.

Get rid of the salary cap. Let's face it, the GM's are overpaying players even with the salary cap. I hate losing players because of it.

 

I have more. Are we just limited to three?

 

 

I'm going to do baseball to piss people off.

 

The All Star Game will not determine the home field advantage of the WS.

There will be more interleague play especially between regional rivals.

Every team and every jersey must have name and number on the back. This isn't the 1920's.

[vivalaultra 0]

Baseball:

 

Get rid of the fuckin' DH! I love David Ortiz, but if he's getting paid $10 million a season, he should play the field.

I would say something like get rid of interleague play or stop with the 'this time...it COUNTS!' thing with the All-Star Game, but if you get rid of the DH, that would eliminate some of the disparity between divisions so it wouldn't be so slanted toward the AL all the time.

I'm tempted to say something about setting a salary cap, but looking back over the last few years, the Oakland A's have gotten to the playoffs with a small payroll and other teams on the lower end of the payroll have been competitive (ie: the Marlins) while the Yankees and their $250 million dollar payroll have not won a WS despite their free-spending ways. I do think, perhaps, a minimum salary should be instituted which would force owners to spend more to make their teams more competitive.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

The NHL:

Get rid of the shootout. I feel bad for saying this but regular season OT should be handled like the playoffs.

Limit the league to 24 teams. The other teams should be in a separate league. Somewhere between the AHL and NHL.

Get rid of the salary cap. Let's face it, the GM's are overpaying players even with the salary cap. I hate losing players because of it.

 

I have more. Are we just limited to three?

 

 

I'm going to do baseball to piss people off.

 

The All Star Game will not determine the home field advantage of the WS.

There will be more interleague play especially between regional rivals.

Every team and every jersey must have name and number on the back. This isn't the 1920's.

 

I agree with that one. I'd return the All-Star game to North America vs. The World. I'd try and return to ESPN. No matter the economics of a sport, they are legitimate if they are shown on ESPN. Even if ESPN2 was made the home of the NHL, it is still better than what Versus can give them.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

NBA

 

1. Cut the number of playoff teams to 4 per conference (three division winners and one wild card). Use traditional 1/4 and 2/3 seeding, unless a team is matched against someone from their own division.

 

2. Adopt a similar contract structure to the NFL (non-guaranteed contracts with guaranteed bonus money). No penalty for cutting players.

 

3. No soft cap. You forfeit your draft picks if you go over the salary max.

 

MLB

 

1. Cancel interleague play

 

2. Extend the divisional series to best of 7 (to accomplish this, restrict the regular season to 154 games)

 

3. Add the DH to the National League. It's not the 1920s anymore. Pitchers are far too specialized to expect hitting as a skillset.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I'll do all four sports later on.

 

Cheech, in response to number two, how would you feel about eliminating a travel day from each series? There's no reason teams can't play five days in a row in October.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I'll do all four sports later on.

 

Cheech, in response to number two, how would you feel about eliminating a travel day from each series? There's no reason teams can't play five days in a row in October.

From a baseball standpoint, I don't think 5 days in a row is a problem. However, with television contracts, travelling media, late start times for west coasters and all the other inherent problems with postseason scheduling, the extra travel days are necessary.

[Guest]

The NHL

 

Take steps to make fighting more a part of the game.

 

Eliminate the instigator rule.

 

Hits from behind where the head goes straight into the glass are an automatic 10 minute misconduct.

 

Add a franchise tag so that you can keep one of your players even if you are over the salary cap, so that it can circumvent the salary cap and allow you to pay them. 7 million dollar per year, 4 year deal minimum contract to make sure you think before you do it. With the franchise tag, a no-movement clause comes with it.

 

Get the ESPN deal back.

 

White jerseys at home, colors on the road.

 

 

The NBA

 

No luxury tax or soft cap. Make the cap high and hard.

 

Go back to NBC.

 

Reseeded playoff structure.

 

5 game first round.

 

Lower ticket prices. It costs me a fuckin' arm and leg to get out to Staples just to see the Clippers.

 

 

MLB

 

Hard salary cap.

 

One series of interleague play for regional rivals, 4 game series where 2 games take place at each stadium. Hell, call it two, two game series if you want and separate the games. I don't care.

 

"All Star Game counts!" That fucking sucks.

 

 

NFL

 

Get a team in Los Angeles.

 

More Super Bowl sites, not the same old, same old.

 

Bring touchdown celebrations back. Let the guys celebrate how they please as long as it isn't direct taunting.

 

Suspend Michael Vick.

 

Eliminate the intentional grounding rule.

 

Since I'd only be commish for a day, I'd start a referee training program.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

NFL

 

1. Cut the layoff between Conference championships and Super Bowl to one week instead of two.

 

2. Shorten the preseason to two games instead of four.

 

3. Move Pro Bowl to mid-season or axe it all together. It currently serves no purpose.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

NFL

 

In regards to the Pro Bowl, put it during the off week between the Championship games and the Super Bowl . . . if a player is in the Super Bowl, he will not play and alternate(s) will be chosen. This should go towards eliminating the "snub" factor.

 

NBA

 

Starting at the 4th foul in under 2:00 of the half/game, a player will be awarded 3 shots for a foul rather than 2. Hopefully, this will eliminate some of the unnecessary fouls at the end of a game.

 

MLB

 

Expand the amount of teams in the postseason in each league to at least 6 per league. Shorten the season to supplement this. There are way too many baseball games and too few teams in the postseason for fans in most markets to give a shit come August/September.

[Bored 0]

MLB

 

1. Go back to a balanced schedule. The idea of having teams play more of their division "rivals" is nice in theory but doesn't help establish who are the best teams in each league. And for my own selfish reasons it will eliminate some Yankee/Red Sox games clogging up national television.

 

2. Eliminate interleague all together or make it a special event that only happens every four years.

 

3. Don't have the All-Star Game decide the homefield advantage in the World Series. The players still don't care and the ratings aren't going to get any better because of it. Either go back to having the World Series homefield alternate between the leagues or have the team with the better record get homefield. Add to that a Wild Card team should never have homefield in the World Series. Also with the All-Star Game get rid of the archaic one player per team rule. It was created back when there was only eight teams in each league, now all it does is guarentee that undeserving players will get in the game. The only team that should be guarenteed a rep is the one hosting the game.

 

Okay there were multiple things in item 3 but they all sort of related.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Boxing:

 

1. Actually be a central governing body instead of a selection of corrupt promoters.

2. 15 ROUNDS FOR CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHTS

3. Bye-bye alphabet soup.

4. High-profile TV deal with fights on national tv year-round. There's enough money in boxing to make this happen and every fighter wants to be in the spotlight.

[CanadianChris 0]

NHL:

 

1 -- Adopt the NBA schedule. Every team plays each team in the other conference twice, each team in their own division five times, and the other teams three or four times. Every fan in every city should have the opportunity to see every other team in the league at least once.

 

2 -- Greatly reduce the size of goalie equipment. They tried to do this after the lockout, but I haven't seen much change. Skaters need more open space to shoot at if scoring is to increase. The only other solution would be to make the nets bigger, which I don't support.

 

3 -- Get rid of the instigator rule. All it has done is increased stickwork, clutching and grabbing, etc., and really promoted a lack of respect for other players amongst certain players, knowing there won't be any retribution. It created more problems than it solved.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

The NHL

Add a franchise tag so that you can keep one of your players even if you are over the salary cap, so that it can circumvent the salary cap and allow you to pay them. 7 million dollar per year, 4 year deal minimum contract to make sure you think before you do it. With the franchise tag, a no-movement clause comes with it.

 

I like this idea as well. Although to simplify it I would just say that a "franchise" player's salary doesn't count against the salary cap.

[Guest Smues]

MLB:

1 - Homefield in the World Series is like the NBA and NHL, best record gets it. Not this "THIS ONE COUNTS, NO WE REALLY MEAN IT PLEASE WATCH SO FOX WON'T GET ANGRY WITH US" bullshit with the all-star game.

 

2 - Names and numbers on all jerseys. Glad to see I'm not the only one that likes it that way.

 

3 - Get rid of the DH in the AL.

 

NBA:

1 - Hard salary cap. It's a joke how many teams are far over the cap. If you want a cap, enforce it. I like the idea of losing your draft picks if you go over the cap.

 

2 - Make the first round of the playoffs 5 games again like it used to be.

 

3 - Go back to 4 divisions instead of 6.

 

NFL:

1 - Some kind of guarenteed contracts. I get angry when every large deal is backloaded so that they don't pay shit the first couple of years, and then just cut the guy when he's about to get a large amount of cash. If you sign the large deal, you have to pay it.

 

2 - Coaches can wear suits. It's a joke that it isn't ok to wear a suit if you want to look nice, but Bill Belichek can look like a homeless man and it's a-ok.

 

3 - Stadiums can pipe in whatever music they choose within reason. EG Playing who let the dogs out for Michael Vick should be a-ok.

[Guest]

The NHL

Add a franchise tag so that you can keep one of your players even if you are over the salary cap, so that it can circumvent the salary cap and allow you to pay them. 7 million dollar per year, 4 year deal minimum contract to make sure you think before you do it. With the franchise tag, a no-movement clause comes with it.

 

I like this idea as well. Although to simplify it I would just say that a "franchise" player's salary doesn't count against the salary cap.

Yeah, that's basically what I was trying to say.

[TheSSNintendo 0]

NBA:

 

Get rid of the ping-pong balls to decide draft positioning. Worst team in the league should get the #1 pick.

 

 

MLB:

 

Eliminate fan voting for All-Star game. Just about every year we see Nomar in there, and he doesn't do squat during the season.

 

Force Peter Angelos to sell the Orioles to someone who is dedicated to winning.

[Ripper 0]

I am sorry but quite of few of you would kill the NBA with some of your ideas.

 

I say:

 

1: Change the first round back to a 5 game series.

2: Adopt the college system of freethrow shooting in the 4th. One and one before the bonus. It will make the game quicker and more exciting.

3: Non playoff teams play a tournament for the order of the draft. Winner gets first pick, runner up gets second and so on and so on for all non-playoff teams. And this comes before the playoffs. It gives all playoff teams a week before the playoffs start to rest up and get a good start and it lets the other teams in the league get some TV time regardless.

4: Return to the oldschool pacing of playoff games with only one game rest in between the games. No reason the playoffs should take 4 months.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I'm okay with most of the leagues as is, or with the rules posted above. I particularly agree about the instigator rule in the NHL, and these two:

 

2 - Coaches can wear suits. It's a joke that it isn't ok to wear a suit if you want to look nice, but Bill Belichek can look like a homeless man and it's a-ok.

Bring touchdown celebrations back. Let the guys celebrate how they please as long as it isn't direct taunting.

 

As a third thing, I would also bring a "touchdowns only" policy to overtime. Still sudden death, just no field goals. I hate kickers deciding games in football.

 

For the NBA, I love this idea:

3: Non playoff teams play a tournament for the order of the draft. Winner gets first pick, runner up gets second and so on and so on for all non-playoff teams. And this comes before the playoffs. It gives all playoff teams a week before the playoffs start to rest up and get a good start and it lets the other teams in the league get some TV time regardless.

The only problem with this is that some of the non-qualifying teams might kill some of the other ones who would need a first overall pick a lot more.

[KingPK 0]

MLB

 

- Add the DH to the NL.

- Balance the schedule again. We don't need 19 4+ hour Red Sox/Yankees games each year.

- Best record gets homefield for the entire playoffs (including the WS). The All-Star Game is fine as a fun little exhibition that draws decent ratings.

 

NFL

 

- Put Super Bowls in outdoor northern climates (New York, Pittsburgh, New England). If the VIPs are too cold, give them another sweater.

[MFer 0]

MLB

 

1. Expand playoffs to 6 teams in each league and have the format mirror the NFL's. There can't be too many things that make a team feel worse than winning 95-100 out of 162 games and still missing the playoffs, especially when you consider that teams at or below .500 make the playoffs in the NBA, NHL, and NFL almost every year.

 

2. Everyone plays everyone at least once. There's 162 fucking games, there's reason this can't happen when the NBA does this playing half as many games. If some of these series have to be two-game sets, so be it.

 

3. Like everyone else said, can the home-field B.S. in the All-Star game. Team with the best record gets home-field in every round.

 

NBA

 

1. Playoff teams are seeded by record regardless of whether they win the division or not.

 

2. One day of rest between playoff games except when it's between Game 2 and 3 in every round and Game 5 and 6 in the Finals, in those cases, two days rest.

 

3. Adopt the NFL draft formula. I don't think there's any way to stop tanking unless you instill strict penalties against tanking (which will open a pandora's box since there's no way to 100% know when a team is tanking) so you might as well put the draft in that format.

 

NFL

 

1. Change the pass interference penalty to 15 yards instead of a spot foul (except for the last 2 minutes of each half, in that scenario, the spot foul rule still applies). It's so cheap when a team chucks the ball 60 yards and gets bailed out on a questionable call. If a team's secondary sucks that bad, those 15-yard penalties will eventually add up.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

MLB (because it's the only sport I follow consistently enough):

 

- Move one of the Florida teams...hate to say it, but probably the Marlins, even though they've won two championships. Move them out west to Las Vegas or Portland or something. Get them to switch to the AL and put them in the West. Move the Pirates to the NL East. There, you've got six divisions of five teams each (rather than having one with four, and one with six).

 

- Yes, this would dictate interleague play throughout the season, which I'm fine with. Lessen the artificial divide between the two leagues. No one but the most ardent baseball purist buys into this separation of the two leagues thing.

 

- Find a way to give the team with the best record the World Series home field advantage. MLB claims they can't do it with all the hotel accomodations and such that have to be booked, but other sports don't seem to have a problem with this. (For the record, I don't mind the All-Star game thing, but this would make more sense).

 

- Speaking of the All-Star Game, lessen the importance of fan voting...make sure the most deserving players at least start. I still feel each team should have at least one player. It would suck to be a fan of a team with no All-Star representative.

 

- I'd keep the playoffs as is. I think MLB has the best playoff system of the four major sports. We don't need half the league getting into the post season.

 

- Salary cap...or significantly increase the luxury tax.

 

- An international draft. It's not fair that only a handful of teams get the chance to acquire the top prospects from overseas. It's time to open up these players to everyone.

 

- Force the umpires to utilize the Questec (or whatever system) for balls and strikes. The umpires would still relay the calls from the system, so none of them would lose a job or anything.

 

- Limit the amount of special uniform days or other such things. It's getting out of hand with pink bats, armed forces baseball caps, Negro League uniforms, retro days, etc. Limit each team to four gameday uniforms and that's it.

 

- Do whatever possible to expand youth baseball development programs. I don't think baseball is on the big decline with kids like some people think, but every bit can help.

[Guest George's Box]

No offense, but most of your baseball ideas are fucking dogshit terrible. I'm addressing half of you, not just Invader. Vivalaultra came out as today's big winner, though, so good for him having some sense.

 

There can't be too many things that make a team feel worse than winning 95-100 out of 162 games and still missing the playoffs especially when you consider that teams at or below .500 make the playoffs in the NBA, NHL, and NFL almost every year.

Then maybe they should play in the NHL. Like you said, there are one hundred and sixty-two games to justify your spot in the postseason. Again, like you said, the NBA plays half as many games, so you could argue that they can have twice as many qualifiers. If you can't win your division or finish first out of the other thirteen teams, then you're golfing. No sympathy.

 

- Salary cap...or significantly increase the luxury tax.

I'm surprised you of all people would want anything that restricts the free market. The correlation between payroll and success isn't high enough to warrant this. Terry Ryan and Billy Beane don't need you to protect them from Jim Hendry.

 

3. Add the DH to the National League. It's not the 1920s anymore. Pitchers are far too specialized to expect hitting as a skillset.

The designated hitter is a bastard position. Keep that shit out of the NL. Carlos Zambrano can hit just fine, thanks, be it with a bat or a fist.

 

Expand the amount of teams in the postseason in each league to at least 6 per league. Shorten the season to supplement this.

See above w/r/t expansion, and as for shortening the season, I know my biggest problem with Busch, Wrigley, Fenway, and Yankee Stadium is how they keep filling up the joint 81 times a year and bringing in all those shitloads of money and bringing traffic to adjacent businesses. It's a real bitch, believe me. I'm being sarcastic. Sell your blood.

 

Every team and every jersey must have name and number on the back. This isn't the 1920's.

What's this whole "HELL-LOOOOH, IT'S LIKE TOTALLY NOT THE 1920s" thing, anyway? Frankly, I wish it was sometimes, because the 1920s were a pretty kickass decade of American history. We've seen what happens when baseball attempts to be sartorially progressive, if our retinas weren't singed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in yellow polyester elastic-waist pants, the periwinkle-clad 1990s Angels, and about half of what the Chicago White Sox have ever worn. Maybe callbacks to the 1920s aren't such a bad thing after all.

 

15 and 15 doesn't work because full-year interleague scares the crap out of me.

[the max 0]

15 and 15 doesn't work because full-year interleague scares the crap out of me.

 

You ardent baseball purist!

[Guest George's Box]

Why is being a baseball purist a bad thing? Of all big four, it evolves at the slowest clip, and most people seem to like it that way. Feeling that the same nine players that bat should take the field isn't wrong at all.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

To be fair Czech, my 1920s comment was a call-back to the earlier 1920s comment. I was just being a dick. As far as the DH goes, I just want symmetry. Get rid of it in both or add it to the NL. I tend to think it's sort of cheap in the NL that there is an automatic out every 9 players.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Personally, I'm fine with keeping the DH in one league, and one league only. The different style of play between the two leagues isn't a bad thing, but I think every team can adapt once in a while for interleague games.

[MFer 0]

So it's perfectly acceptable for a team like the Orlando Magic or the Kansas City Chiefs to toil around for most of the regular season to only end up as playoff fodder, but adding a 5th and 6th team to the playoffs in each league in baseball is the end of the world? If anything, those extra teams would have proved far more than the ones mentioned above. Teams have missed the playoffs before with winning percentages equivalent to the #1 seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference. Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't seem right. As far as interleague goes, is it such a bad thing to see every possible matchup every year? Is it really gonna kill the game of baseball? Think of all the classic championship series/games in the other pro sports. In many of those cases, those teams met at least once during the regular season. In the end, it didn't diminish anything so I don't see why it would in baseball. I'm reasonably sure that the Celtics/Lakers regular season matchups in the 80's didn't deter from the gretaness that occurred in the Finals. If you balance the schedules, you won't have guys like Chipper Jones complaining about teams having unfair advantages. I guess I'm just one of those people who'll never understand why baseball has to put itself above everything, America's pastime or not.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

1. Speed up the game. Don't allow batters to step out of the box between pitches. Limit mid-inning pitching changes. Limit pickoff throws. It's not that three hours is too long, but there is too much dead space in it.

 

2. Start postseason games earlier. 8:30pm is excessive when the game involves two East Coast teams. If it's Angels/A's, go ahead and start it later, that's fair. Weekend games should start in the afternoon. If baseball is good enough, viewers will adjust their schedules to accommodate the game. Also, eliminate one off day from each series. Teams can travel quickly by plane now. In addition, it would reward the team with deeper rosters.

 

3. Eliminate interleague play and the unbalanced schedule. First off, it would make creating the schedule easier. Second, it would make the races, particularly the wild card, fair for each team. The main benefit is to schedule each team around 12 times, a good number without overexposing a single opponent. 19 times against the Nationals is too much.

 

4. End the arcane blackout restrictions.

 

There's a lot of little things (All Star voting, etc.) that you could address, but those things don't really affect the overall health of the game.

 

To address the above, under no circumstances should baseball add more playoff teams. The NFL, NBA and NHL also have too many playoff teams. Yeah, it sucks to win a lot of games and miss the playoffs. The regular season, however, is a portion of the playoff format in itself. You have to win your division to get a playoff berth, or finish best among the second-place teams. If you can't do that, why should you have a chance to be the number 1 team in your sport? If anything, baseball needs to return to four teams. But that's radical and wouldn't make good business sense.

[vivalaultra 0]

Another thing that I'd like to introduce is that baseball should have limited instant replay. I'm not completely in favor of the Questec system because, personally, I kinda like the arguements/discussion that comes with umpires and their various strike zones, but I think that limited instant replay on homeruns/fair or foul calls down the lines would be a good thing. Especially in the regular season when you don't have the umpires down the lines, it can be hard for them to waddle their way from first or third base to make a ruling on a ball that might or might not touch the yellow line or bunch off the chalk in fair/foul territory. I think a system where each team gets two challenges a game would work well...and it would make Clint Hurdle happy.

 

About the DH: I grew up watching NL ball and personally, I just enjoy games a lot more when there's not a designated slugger that gets paid billions of dollars a year just to hit the long ball. I find the game is more interesting and compelling to watch when there isn't a DH because there's more strategy involved. The pitcher and catcher deciding whether to pitch around the 8-hole hitter to load the bases with two outs because the pitcher's on deck...but wait...the pitcher's Carlos Zambrano so what to do? Or the batting team is down by by a run in the 8th inning, a runner at second, 1 out, the pitcher's spot is due up. Do you pinch hit for the pitcher, even though he's only thrown 80 pitches and he's retired 12 in a row....just things like that make the game more of a chess match and more interesting, at least in my opinion. To me, the DH is kinda like the designated player in girls' softball and, come on guys...aren't we better than women? Seriously...