A topic of conversation recently in the world of baseball, has been a proposal from commissioner Rob Manfred, called The Golden Bat rule. It’s not the first time Manfred has suggested something like this, and like any progressive idea, baseball purists absolutely hate the idea. He shouldn’t care about those fans though, because they are old, and won’t be here much longer. He is trying to attract a younger, more casual fan, and ideas like this are a great way to do that.
Baseball is, and has always been, a slow game with only brief moments of excitement. It’s not designed to hold the attention of fans who can watch 10 videos in 60 seconds on their phone. Anyone who still refers to it as “America’s Pastime” is either ignorant or lying to themselves. Football has long passed baseball as America’s favorite sport. If baseball is serious about getting some of that ground back, they need to embrace some of Manfred’s crazy, outside-the-box ideas.
The short version of the rule, is that it would allow a manager to substitute any hitter into the game, regardless of batting order or substitutions. They would be able to do this only once during the game, and they could play the card at a time when they feel it’s most advantageous for their team. It could be in the third inning, with bases loaded and no one out. If a team’s nine hitter is coming up in that situation, maybe play the golden bat card to bring up the three hitter.
The card could be played late in the game, especially a close game, when a hit or run is desperately needed. There would be no rule about when or how a team could use the golden bat card, which would add another layer of strategy into the game. In order for the new rule to be more than a gimmick, there would have to be a subset of rules to go with it.
The first rule that would be needed to make sense of the Golden Bat rule would be about how it affects batting order. Manfred proposed a rule similar to this years ago, and it involved a swap in the order, rather than a straight up substitution. If a team’s eight hitter is up, and they want to swap him out for the cleanup hitter, the two players would swap in the batting order for the remainder of the game.
In that scenario, when the cleanup hitter was due up again, it would be the eight hitter in that spot, since he swapped places with the cleanup hitter to satisfy the golden bat rule. This sort of swap would make it crucial to not play the card too early. A team would not want to get into the late innings of a close game, with their eight hitter bating behind their three hitter.
The other rule that would need to go with this, would be that the Golden Bat card could be used to block, as well as used offensively. Each team gets one card that they can use whenever they want. If the opposing team still has their card available, they could use it to block the substitution, instead of using it for a substitution themselves. That would be their only use of the card, and in that situation, no golden bat substitution would take place that game.
There is additional strategy involved in that play as well. A manager might want to block a golden bat substitution, but they may also have the weakest part of their lineup coming up the following inning, and may allow the substitution, so they can substitute when they are up. The term strategy can’t be used enough when describing the impact of a rule like this.
Baseball purists try to keep the game from being fun. That is their sole purpose on this planet. They hated electronic scoreboards, they protested the designated hitter, they want human umpires calling balls and strikes with 70% accuracy instead of an automated strike zone that would have 100% accuracy. Naturally, they are against the golden bat suggestion.
The truth is, this would not alter the fabric of the game, like some drama queens in the media have suggested. It adds a little excitement to the game for a brief moment. It’s not going to inflate statistics in any way, shape, or form. The truth is, that the best hitter in the league, if substituted via golden bat, will still have a 65-70% chance of failure. That is the law of averages. A .350 hitter is almost twice as likely to become an out, as they are to get on base.
Whether this rule comes to fruition or not, time will tell. Even if it is a variation of the rule, Manfred deserves a standing ovation for thinking outside the box. He shouldn’t give a second thought to angering or losing his die hard fan base, because their average age is 91, and he was gonna lose them in the next couple years anyways, no matter what rules come out. Baseball is a great game, and if it takes a golden bat to get more eyes on it, it’s worth it, and there is no downside to doing it, whatsoever.
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