Baseball, one of America’s favorite sports, the beautiful fields, the classic hot dog and bag of peanuts with the classic sounds of the ball game and thousands of fans singing along to the songs over the speakers while fans make their way to their seats to watch the classic game. But for the 2023 MLB season there have been some new rules put into the game.

The MLB has introduced a pitch clock, banned the shift, and added bigger bases. The pitch clock was added to help with the speed of the game, but it can also punish players for not being ready. When no one is on base, pitchers will have 15 seconds to pitch the ball and with runners on they will have 20 and if the pitcher does not make a pitch before the time runs out an automatic ball will be called. If the batter isn’t in the box and ready to go when the pitch clock is at eight seconds, they will get an automatic strike. With the MLB banning the shift infielders can no longer cross second base before the ball has been pitched to stop them from taking what would be hits away from hitters who favor their pull or push side more. The bases have been made 18 inches instead of the classic 15 to increase stolen bases. These rules have been made to increase the speed of the games and get more action in them, they want more hits, more stolen bases, more web gems in a shorter time. Even though the MLB is trying to do this to improve the game many players do not like these rules.

We interviewed some of our Doherty Spartan Baseball players on what they thought about these new rules. We interviewed senior Diego Gonzalez and senior Cuyler Spofford.
We asked what they thought about the new rules?
Diego said, “They are cool, it makes the game go faster”.
Cuyler agreed, Saying “It’s more fun to watch”.
We also asked how they thought the new rules would impact the game?
Diego said, “It will make the game go faster and will be more entertaining”.
Cuyler said, “It will be safer for the players”.
Finally we also asked If they had the options what changes would they make to the game?
Diego said, “I would change the pickoff rule”.
Cuyler said, “I would be more lenient to the pitch clock rule”.

In conclusion the MLB has added these new rules to make the game safer for the players and more entertaining and faster for the fans. In the future we can see more changes to further these rules and improve the game.