Some changes to help make baseball great again

Attendance is down in baseball, though the sample size is small because the season is still young.

What caused the drop depends on who you listen to. Unusually cold weather is surely one culprit, and escalating ticket prices are likely another. Teams tanking before the season even began might also be an issue, with fans unwilling to spend money to watch bad baseball.

Then again, maybe the game itself is to blame.

Baseball has changed, and not for the better. Games last forever, pitchers don’t last at all and everything is run from spreadsheets. Meanwhile, the sacrifice bunt is almost extinct, the shift ruins the basic concept of outs and complete games are rarer than scheduled doubleheaders.

With that in mind, here are some changes designed to make baseball great again:

OHTANI EFFECT

Make each team have a two-way player like Shohei Ohtani. The player must pitch at least once a week and be in the starting lineup on at least two other days to hit. It adds a nice twist, and what fan can’t remember Little League, when the best pitchers were also almost always the best hitters?

FIX THE BASEBALL

Home runs are at a record level, which isn’t a bad thing by itself. But when Bryce Harper shatters his bat and still hits a ball 406 feet over the right-centerfield fence, something is wrong with the ball. ‘Fess up, MLB: Admit the ball has changed and do something about it.

STRIKE ZONE

The official strike zone is basically the letters to the knees. Enforce it, and pitchers will throw more strikes. Enforce it, and batters will swing at more pitches. Both are good things.

FEWER RELIEVERS

Limit the number of relievers a team can carry at any given time. The Dodgers currently have 13 pitchers on their roster, eight of them relievers. That means there are only 12 position players, which eliminates a lot of strategy over the use of pinch hitters late in the game and encourages managers to micromanage pitching staffs.

Jae C. Hong / Associated Press AP writer Tim Dahlberg proposes to make each team have a two-way player like Shohei Ohtani. The player must pitch at least once a week and be in the starting lineup at least two other days to hit.