Smoltz pitches drastic changes to fix baseball

Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz watches baseball every day, talks about it virtually every day, sits in a broadcast booth and TV studio every week, and can’t stand what he’s seeing. He’s not just talking about all of the strikeouts, home runs, shifts and lack of action in today’s game. He’s talking about the void of drama, where September used to signify actual pennant races and not the slog before the regular season ends. Here we are, with eight days remaining in the regular season, and outside of the National League West with the Dodgers and Rockies, no realistic suspense remains in any division race. The American League wild-card race has been over for months. The only real drama is the NL wildcard race between the NL West runnerup and the Brewers and Cardinals. That’s it, folks. Smoltz, the powerful Fox TV and MLB Network analyst, can no longer stay quiet about it, and as a member of Major League Baseball’s competition committee, he plans to voice his opinion loud and clear this winter. “I know change is coming, it has to come,” Smoltz tells USA TODAY, “I just don’t know when. But we better hurry.” Smoltz wants to eliminate the shift (“I think it’s single-handedly killing the game), curtail the relentless use of relievers, stop the exploitation of the disabled list, but most of all, revolutionize the schedule. Smoltz proposes that MLB adopt a split-season schedule, just as they do in the minor leagues, in a move that he believes will create dramatic division races again, reduce the number of teams tanking for draft picks, and make baseball great again in September. It’s time, he says, for teams to go back to playing the same schedule, eliminate interleague play, dump the rival series, and have old-fashioned pennant races, doubling the pleasure with one in each half of the season. “I don’t understand how a sport can play at least twice as many games as any other,” Smoltz says, “and not have the same schedule. It’s mind-boggling to me. Don’t play interleague leagues. Don’t choose rivalries. Don’t manipulate the schedule. Just play everyone the same.” And do it with a split-season schedule, as they did the summer of 1981 after the baseball strike. “The way it is now, 75% of teams leave spring training with no chance to win and no desire to win so they can build for the future,” he says. “You look at the American League: It’s self-sufficient on four teams. We have no races. “I would like to see a first-half and second-half scenario. I know people would roll their eyes at it, but it works in the minor leagues and it would work in the big leagues. It would create so much more interest.” If MLB adopted Smoltz’s proposal, the Athletics, 35-19 since the All-Star break, would win the second half and play the Astros in a best-of-three series at the end of the regular season to determine the AL West winner. The Rays, 35-19 since the break but out of the playoffs, would now be playing the Red Sox. The Cardinals, in a desperate bid for a wild-card berth, would be playing the Cubs. The Rockies would be leading the NL West and the Dodgers would be on the outside looking in. If you’re good enough to win both halves, you earn a first-round bye. “What incentive now is there to win 110 games?” Smoltz said. “There’s no real advantage to the Boston Red Sox.” The biggest change, Smoltz believes, is that teams would no longer be so quick to wave the white flag. “You would have trade deadlines that mean something instead of becoming a dumping station for teams,” he says. “You look at Baltimore, they might have changed their philosophy. The Nationals wouldn’t have traded all of those pieces. It would change the way the game is played.” Certainly, there are flaws to the idea, Smoltz acknowledges. It’s quite possible that just like in 1981, when the Reds won the most games, it doesn’t guarantee a playoff berth. The Reds that season finished one-half game behind the Dodgers in the NL West in the first half, and 11⁄2 games behind the Astros in the second half and sat home while the Dodgers won the World Series. The schedule also would have to be reduced, at least to 154 games, to accommodate the split seasons and revised playoff format. And the last we checked, there’s no owner or player openly volunteering to take a pay cut. “If nothing else, this should give us something to think about,” Smoltz says. “If you think about it, what saved baseball the last two years is the last two World Series. That covered up a lot of weaknesses and flaws in the game. “We’ve got to get this game vibrant again. If we don’t, it’ll be unwatchable.”

BRETT DAVIS/USA TODAY SPORTS John Smoltz, who spent 21 years in the major leagues, would like the majors to have split seasons to pump up enthusiasm among teams and fans all year long.