Arena Baseball

[chrisfostermusi]

Arena Football has been a popular sport in smaller markets. I was wondering if baseball could do something similar and try to gain popularity with a dirivitive of the current game.

Here is what I would suggest.

You play the game with 2 outfielders and 3 infielders, a pitcher and a catcher. (Of course the Electronic ump would be a must LOL)

The field would be totally enclosed with netting (no home runs) and possibly the bases moved closer together.

This sounds ridiculous but I love offensive natured games. I like games that are 13 to 10. and had someone told me about arena football 10 years ago I would have laughed off my seat.

Another change to consider is having baseball a game played to 21.

What physical changes would you make to create an arena baseball? and/or what cities would you market?


My city would be my home town of Wilmington North Carolina. I would name it the Wilmington Battle Cruisers (The USS North Carolina BB-55 is docked there as a museum, Hence the name.)

[Yogi#8Fan]

You mean 3 IF-ers, as in no SS? Which team could possibly field if you eliminate the CF-er? I can see why you like offensive games, but this seems too easy to be offensive. You could probably yield the same results by having some pitcher serving up meatballs, no?

As to games played to 21, you mean whoever gets 21 runs first wins but the game doesn't end until then? If so, what happens in a pitching duel and when would the game end?

[chrisfostermusi]

What changes would you make then?

[5ToolPlayer]

Not sure this would fly. Having seen empty minor league parks where presumably the game is played on a decent level, why would people go to arena baseball? Even the Senior League didn't last more than a couple of years.

And isn't Montreal arena ball?;)

[Xanadu Dragon]

Not sure if I'm on board with the notion of roller-base-ball - - - - I always thought Arena Football was something for a certain crowd to do when there was no tractor-pull scheduled, it was an off night for the WWF, and all of their sheep were on the rag - - - but, I have always fancied the notion of a "USA Winter League" - - more than just the Arizona Fall League.

One would think that, with all the retractable domes around these days, they could schedule a league from November to March, with players of various levels looking for work (prospects on loan, the better Indy players, comebackers, players with something to prove - like Kenny Lofton).

I would watch it - - - but, then again, I watch replays on ESPN Classic and Winter league games on the Spanish speaking channels (when I can get them) - and, some think I'm nuts for that.

Others feel that "the break" makes you appreciate Spring Training and O.D. even more.

Seven on seven in a smaller field? Now, that may even be the limit for me. I'd probably just watch it once.

[chrisfostermusi]

That is why it would have to be changed. I think it would entice a sports starved community and do something outrageous to catch fans interest.

[Xanadu Dragon]

Originally posted by chrisfostermusi
I think it would entice a sports starved community and do something outrageous to catch fans interest.

This may be a shock - - - but, many people are turned off by anything "outrageous."

[gyb13]

you could also make an Xtreme Baseball League (like the XFL) and return to the days of contact baseball

:D

[chrisfostermusi]

NOW THATS A GREAT IDEA

[Yogi#8Fan]

Originally posted by chrisfostermusi
What changes would you make then? I'm not familiar w/Arena football but if the stadiums are smaller as someone said, I wouldn't be too interested.

The changing of the rules I can't see and I wouldn't really imagine any changes to the game at all. By removing the CF-er, who already has to move so much distance and throw home, you have IMO put a large defensive hole in the game. I can't see how a RF-er, who already needs quite an arm to rifle one to 3B, can also haul the wheels over to CF then throw home. You're asking that person to cover a lot of ground, both in running and throwing, even if on a smaller field! I also am not too crazy about netting the field, since this prevents ground rule doubles and HRs.

If someone hits a hard liner to dead CF, you'll have two guys hauling to make that play. Would the people likely to sign up for this be that athletic in the first place? I've seen athletic guys like Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Cameron rush over to try catching a HR and can you imagine if someone less athletic tried this? Would he be shallow or deep in playing the field? Perhaps LF plays shallow, RF plays deep? I'd rather just leave the rules alone, keep them "as is".
Originally posted by chrisfostermusi
That is why it would have to be changed. I think it would entice a sports starved community and do something outrageous to catch fans interest. Isn't that the same thing Jim McMahon wanted when he created the XFL someone just mentioned? You look at Xtreme fighting, you've got superior athletes who can box, kickbox, martial arts and plain old butt-kicking barroom style.

Even XFL or the old USFL, true athletes at least (at least in the USFL). Try doing this with over-the-hill hasbeen athletes and you won't get very far to me. If you don't believe me, why isn't the XFL still around? Cancelled after only 6-8 weeks, despite unlimited hoopla, flashy submissive cheerleaders and other non-sports stuff to get viewers' attention. Shock value only lasts so long if people are already well used to it.

[Xanadu Dragon]

Yog - - not sure why I'm continuing this (?); but, sometimes, ah, forget it.............

It is possible, in a smaller field, to have one guy play left-center, and the other right-center, and not have any center fielder at all.

I know that you just recently learned what the alleys are - - - think of the two OFers as a L-Alley and R-Alley.

[Yogi#8Fan]

Actually, it was the "term" alley I'd just known about. I hadn't but should've thought that the players might have played the alley positions, rather than corner OF-ers. I _guess_ you can have alley OF-ers but I still think that's too much room to travel.

Up to each person's discretion.

[cubfan33]

I'll defend Arena Football first. I'm a season ticket holder to our local team - the Indy Firebirds - and to our "real" team, the Colts. Arena ball is much more exciting (and this has nothing to do with the fact that the Colts sucked this year.) Arena Ball has a few things in common with football, but not a LOT. A 3 on 3 basketball league was floated a couple years ago as "arena basketball" and didnt even start as far as I know.

While Arena football took the extraneous things out of football (field goals should be harder, the passes are seldom longer than 50 yards, defensive struggles bore most people) and added in a wall and a net, I'm not sure what you could do to "shrink" baseball. If you cut a baseball field in half, who's excited by a 200 foot home run? Not me, that's for sure. What you COULD do is put a clock on pitchers, start the count at 1-1 (or just get 3 balls and 2 strikes) as many high schools do, limit time outs and mound visits, put headsets on players so that coaches could avoid giving signs, and move the fences BACK. (Yes, I said back. No one gets excited when Augie Ojeda puts one into the basket, but everyone gets up for a 400 foot bomb by Sosa.)

But you notice .... these are all things that "real" baseball could (should?) do! Forget Arena Baseball, I say, and just make baseball better.

Oh, did I leave out fire Bud Selig off that list?

A better "winter league" suggestion, I think, would be competitive wiffle ball. Older players could come back and who knows what skill set would work best in wiffle ball? I bet Randy Johnson could really make that ball dance though and Ichiro would still get hits.

[chrisfostermusi]

Thanks cub for offering your input on Arena Football.

You made mention of winter ball... does anyone know what the baseball scene is in South America and Australia?

[gyb13]

Originally posted by chrisfostermusi
You made mention of winter ball... does anyone know what the baseball scene is in South America and Australia?
Virtually inexistent in S.A., with Venezuela perhaps the only exception, though basketball is by far the top sport there. Colombia produces the occasional player too. In Brasil, the little baseball that exists is at the youth level, and played almost exclusively by japanese immigrants or descendants thereof (Brasil has the largest Jap. colony outside Japan).
Here's an idea - maybe the Rockies should invest in creating an amateur Bolivian league, to study the effect of high-altitude, thin-air stadiums...