I came across this story about how the Frontier League (independent) is going to explore with an idea labeled as “sudden death” in games that exceed ten innings; presumably to eliminate the idea of long, drawn-out extra-inning games. Usually, I’m pretty resistant to change, but as far as this idea is concerned, I absolutely love it, and would love to see it in action.
I’ve actually been to a Frontier League game. There’s a team just outside of St. Louis, technically in Illinois, despite the fact that the town is just called East St. Louis. My friend and I went to a Cardinals game in the afternoon, and we realized that we had the time to get across the bridge and catch a Gateway Grizzlies game. It also didn’t hurt that Man v. Food labeled their ballpark’s nachos as the best nachos in baseball, which we were very intrigued at putting to the test.
The nachos were a bust and Adam Richman’s opinions are shit, but we did enjoy being out at a Frontier League game. So knowing the level of talent and the fact that they’re not affiliated with MLB, the sudden death baseball experiment should be pretty interesting.
Long story short: games that exceed ten innings go into sudden death. Home team chooses whether they want to hit or pitch. If hitting, they start with a runner on third base. They have three outs to bring that guy home by any means necessary. If they don’t? The team pitching automatically wins. Game over. No 11th, 12th, 16th or 18th innings. Nobody has to worry about games ending at 1 am or beyond anymore.
And I am all about this idea. Not that I mind extra-inning games, but there have also been plenty of times where extra-inning games end up feeling like a chore, and I wished it were over three hours ago, after the first three hours of the original nine innings.
But it opens the door to so much new strategy and scenarios for excitement, that I have to be optimistic about this. It’s kind of got that college football overtime feeling to it, except the fact that there is no opportunity to match, it’s just an instantaneous decision.
Like, if a team has their best hitters coming up, they absolutely should decide to hit. Conversely, if a team sniffs out the possibility of sudden death, they might choose to hold back their closer or general bullpen ace(s) in order to prepare to pitch. Or a team that is put in the position to pitch switches pitchers every single batter in order to play the splits.
More likely than not, a team will probably opt to hit, because three shots to put the ball in play seems a little too favorable. I almost think the rule should start with one out, instead of none, but I get that it should be “a full inning.” But there’s still all sorts of holes in the idea, like what if the guy on third gets gunned down at the plate, but there aren’t three outs – does the sudden death resume with presumably the next guy on base, having to try and win hard mode from first?
Either way, I love the idea. MLB will undoubtedly be watching, because even when they’re not in loose cahoots with Indy leagues, they’re more than happy to steal great ideas and implement them themselves. And if it goes well in the Frontier League, than I’d expect to see it start popping up in MLB, even if it starts in the minor leagues first.