The College World Series is starting this weekend, and it’s an annual tradition for baseball fans. Every year, baseball lovers from around the globe catch an inning of the College World Series and think, “Man, of these years, I’m totally going to get into college baseball one of these days.” If March Madness is the Hollywood blockbuster, the CWS is the Dutch film that’s nominated for an Oscar that sounds really life-affirming, and you mean to watch it, but, wait, is that “Bad Boys 7” coming out?
The College World Series: What Can MLB Learn?
But it’s fun. What’s not to like? It’s a tournament of baseball, with walk-off home runs, double plays, curve balls ... it’s baseball. A tournament of it. It should be way bigger than it is.
If you can’t come around to the College World Series, though, maybe it can come to you. Here are four things from college baseball that Major League Baseball should adopt, post-haste:
Two-way players
When Virginia played UC Irvine in a super-regional, Mariners draftee Danny Hultzen pitched 5-1/3 scoreless innings for Virginia. He also hit fifth and picked up an RBI. If he had given up a couple of runs, UC Irvine would have used their third baseman as the closer.
This is awesome. Imagine Joey Votto coming in to shut down a lefty in the eighth. Imagine Clint Hurdle looking at a stat sheet, noticing that the opposing hitter can’t touch Andrew McCutchen, and calling in his center fielder. Imagine Wilson Valdez shutting down the Reds in ... oh, right. MLB needs to do this. The first step is to convince the union to eliminate 80% of the roster spots in baseball and go from there. Should be easy.
Awful fielders
We take routine grounders for granted when we watch fielders in the majors. When they kick a ball, it’s a big deal -- a surprising thing. In college, just about every fielder plays as if his glove has a miniature golf-course windmill attached to the front. Sometimes, the ball gets through. Sometimes, it’s knocked thirty feet away, and you think, man, this game sucks. It’s far less boring than watching guys who make every play.
Not sure how to enact this one, though. Maybe make major league fielders wear their glove on their throwing hand and have them awkwardly switch when they need to make a throw. Maybe make gloves that literally have miniature golf-course windmills attached to the front. Shouldn’t be too hard to figure something out, science.
Jubilant home-run celebrations
If a game is within, oh, five runs, every home run in college baseball is an event. The entire team jumps off the bench and heads toward home plate. In the majors, this only happens with walk-off home runs. What happened between college and the majors? What fires in the players’ bellies were extinguished? It’s sad, these major leaguers who are resigned to the drudgery of real life, far, far away from their college days.
Players in the majors need to have a mid-life crisis and try to relive those days. Streak the quad. Do a keg-stand. And celebrate every home run like it’s the last one you’ll ever see. You guys can hit a baseball really, really far. Live it up.
Aluminum bats
Yeah. That’s not even anything to joke about. Completely inappropriate. It just makes me sad. And because I put it last, now I have to fight through this part to conclude the whole thing with a note about how the College World Series really is awesome. It’s exciting. It’s aluminum bats that go “Ping!”
Dang. Forget that last part. It really is awesome, and while I don’t really want those changes up there for MLB, it’s really, really, nice to have more baseball, especially when it comes with a slightly different feel and style of play. And especially when it comes in a tournament format with all sorts of elimination games and sudden-death moments.
Just don’t think about the “ping!“s and you’ll be fine.
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