Sorry, pitchers. But MLB should absolutely be juicing baseballs.
Boo-freaking-hoo, pitchers.
If you’ve watched Major League Baseball games at all this year you might have noticed all the home runs that are flying out of ballparks.
It’s happening at a record pace, which makes it hard to ignore. So far there have been 3,691 home runs, which means the record of 6,105 in 2017 will most definitely be broken.
Which is great news for us, the fans.
But probably not such great news for pitchers.
Justin Verlander, who will start for the American League in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game in Cleveland, is one of those pitchers who is not happy at all about the baseballs, which he feels MLB has been intentionally juicing.
Verlander went off on Monday, saying: “It’s a f—ing joke. Major League Baseball’s turning this game into a joke.”
And while I can feel for him – because I’d be upset if someone introduced something that made it easier for people in my line of work to be better than me and, in turn, make my job more difficult – I’m also a fan of the game and I’d prefer to watch balls sail out of the yard than seeing a 2-1 pitchers’ duel during a random regular season game in May.
Baseball is at its best when runs are being scored and home runs are being hit. We fans do dig the long ball, which is perfectly fine and normal.
Remember back when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire saved the game with their home-run record chase in the summer of in 1998? That was tons of fun, until we found out the players were juiced.
So what better way to ensure player safety while making the game more entertaining than by juicing the baseballs instead?
It’s pretty obvious MLB, which owns Rawlings, the makers of the baseballs, has likely done something to the balls this year.
It’s also pretty obvious the game has been more fun to watch this year because of it.
The Los Angeles Dodges have had walk-off home runs just about every game this season, much to the delight of their fans.
The Yankees hit at least one home run in 31 straight games this season, which was a MLB record.
Pitchers like Verlander, who has given up 26 home runs thus far (30 is his career high for a season) have had the advantage over hitters for far too long and have thus become coddled. They are usually more successful than the hitters 75 percent of the time, so boo-freaking-hoo if the hitters are now getting a little help.
Maybe the best way for this to go is to have the juiced baseballs used during the regular season, because let’s face it, 162 games is a long time and things can get rather boring at times, especially for teams that stink.
Then once the playoffs begin and things start getting really serious they bring out some less-juiced balls that will bring the game back on the rails a bit and make things more tense for everyone involved.
Or maybe pitchers can be a little better at their jobs.
Either way, let the home runs continue to fly.