Does Baseball Need Its Own 9-9-9 Plan?
From Matthew Futterman, Daniel Barbarisi and Brian Costa at The Wall Street Journal on October 22, 2011, with mentions of SABR members Vince Gennaro and Fay Vincent:
During the first two games of the World Series, the Journal’s baseball staff reached out to players, managers, broadcasters, executives and a pair of economists to ask them what sorts of reforms they’d suggest.
NBC broadcaster Bob Costas contributed three ideas. Former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent had a strong recommendation, as did incoming Florida Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen. New York Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey liked the idea so much he submitted a multipart proposal by phone, then called back later with revisions.
<snip>
4. The 9-Pitch Minimum
This postseason, fans are griping about the number of times some managers (in particular Tony La Russa of the Cardinals) slow games to a crawl by coming to the mound, swapping one pitcher for another, then dispatching that pitcher minutes later. Vince Gennaro, a consultant to baseball teams and an author of a book about baseball economics, proposes a nine-pitch minimum for anyone who steps on the mound (that includes you, Arthur Rhodes). Fay Vincent, the former commissioner, has a corollary to this rule: he would limit the number of times the pitching coach can visit the pitcher to twice every nine innings.
Read the full article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204485304576645521305549678.html
Originally published: October 22, 2011. Last Updated: October 22, 2011.