Home Runs

An all-or-nothing game becomes a feat of strength, often at the expense of daring baserunning, acrobatic fielding and a faster pace of action.
 --Tyler Kepner, The New York Times

I confess I'm no fan of these home run effusions, whether driven by steroid or technique.  It's a dullard's game, strikeouts, power and little else.
--Michael Powell, The New York Times

This year the number of home runs is the highest ever, already having eclipsed the 2000 record of 5693.  An occasional home run can be exciting, but too many home runs and the strikeouts that go with the constant attempts are tedious.  I know my previous suggestions of making home runs outs or, at least, foul balls, is unlikely to be adopted so I make the following, only slightly more possible, suggestions.

1. Educate the fans to the nuances of the game.  The TV announcers and sportscasters could stop endlessly promoting home runs and emphasize the subtleties and beauties of the game.  The biggest problems with that, of course, is how ignorant many of the sportscasters and announcers are and the retirement of Vin Scully.

2. Help out the pitchers.  Most starters now can barely go five innings and more than 25% of major league pitchers have had Tommy John surgery, ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction. How many of the home runs are fueled by pitchers being pressured to pitch at 100 mph, now that everyone in the line-up is trying to hit a home run?
a. raise the mound to the 15 inches it was until 1969 (it is now 10 inches), after Denny McLain had thirty wins and Bob Gibson an ERA of 1.12.
b. expand the strike zone to what it was in the 60's, from the top of the shoulders to the bottom of the knees, rather than the current top of the knees to the middle of the torso.
c. legalize the spitball.  Leonard Koppett has shown that the spitball was banned in 1920 not because it was somehow "unfair," but rather for sanitary reasons, .i.e., baseballs were not replaced regularly like they are now and infielders had to handle balls loaded with various substances.

3. Do away with the designated hitter in the American League.  The dh was instituted in 1973 because Major League Baseball thought they were losing fans to football and felt they had to have higher scores. Everyone knows that having a dh undermines the balance between hitting and fielding, one of the beauties of baseball.

4. Deaden the ball, ideally going back to a rubber center instead of cork.

5. Move the outfield fences back, if possible, and make the fences higher.

Steroid testing will never be entirely successful; those who are determined will find ways to defeat it.  Other changes are necessary.