Worst Major League Sports Commissioner?

Kirun_sl said:

You're still going to need a plate umpire for safe/out calls, foul tips/balls, swing throughs, hit batsmen, etc. Then you're adding a few second delay after every pitch, for the computer to determine if it was indeed a strike or a ball. Like I said, now you're adding even more stoppages to a game that is already considered slow.

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What year is it where you live? Computers are faster than people are stuff like this, bro. Computer would be able to tell within a nanosecond whether a guy is safe or out, and be much more accurate. It's not like this is some massive supercomputer from the 1950's and we've gotta wait for it to print out some tickertape looking shit that reveals whether it's a strike.

Anyway, I'm a huge NFL fan and hate Goodell, but Bettman is an asshat. Fuck that guy so much.

Nah a computer needs several seconds to go *beep boop bop* and print out the result of the pitch, bro.

Abefroman_sl said:

I should have been more clear. What I meant was having a central command center and contacting the referees without the need of them going under a hood or some other stupid time wasting mechanism.

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Yeah not necessarily when they use replay, but how they use it should be copied. Just the actual system where the refs/umps are taken out of the equation once it goes to replay.

Alex_sl said:

The salary cap/floor complaints in MLB are warranted, but the past three World Series champions have had very run-of-the-mill salaries. Look at the top teams in baseball right now. All are spending around $50-$80 million on their teams. Actually, the teams paying hundreds of millions of dollars on their teams are towards the bottom of their divisions currently. A great farming system wins in baseball - not superstar contracts.

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WS teams, winner then loser.

2012 Giants - 117mil payroll, 8th highest in the league. Tigers 132mil, 5th
2011 Cards - 105m, 11th. Rangers 93m, 13th
2010 Giants - 98m - 9th. Rangers 55m, 27th
2009 Yankees - 201m, 1st. Phillies 113,, 7th

So, not run of the mill really. At the higher end.

As for this season, Oakland is the only division leader that falls in the "50-80 million" bracket. Every other one is 89mil+.

Other than those 90's Yankees teams the whole NO PARITY thing was never as bad as fans made it out to be, but the idea that it's totally over is not based on fact either.

All just nitpicking really, I'm bored and you made me curious about payrolls this year. It snowballed.

The only real payroll problem that baseball has right now is the Marlins, and that's because Jeffrey Loria is a giant scumbag that games the revenue sharing system. Eventually they'll figure out how to get rid of him and it'll be fine.

Teams are locking up young players at an unprecedented rate due to all of the money coming into baseball from upcoming TV contracts, and free agency, where costs get inflated the most, is going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game.

There is absolutely no need for a salary cap or floor. Baseball's competitive balance is in the best shape it's been in a long time.

Uhhhh...are you just completely unaware of the existence of Pitch F/x?

Grimmlokk_sl said:

2012 Giants - 117mil payroll, 8th highest in the league. Tigers 132mil, 5th

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Wow, for some reason I thought the Giants were way below that last year. I didn't realize the luxury tax kicks in at such a high payroll. $180 million? That's ridiculous.

Oh, well, that's retarded. Umpires do pretty well on those calls overall anyway. Strike zone consistency is the best opportunity to leverage technology to improve the game, and the technology is already 95% of the way there.

Abefroman_sl said:

I should have been more clear. What I meant was having a central command center and contacting the referees without the need of them going under a hood or some other stupid time wasting mechanism.

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Maybe that would work for baseball given that it's such a slow, stop/start kind of sport. It doesn't/wouldn't work for hockey at all though for anything but goals. And when there is a review for a goal, it's the definition of time wasting.

Kirun_sl said:

That's fine, except what determines "extremely close"? That's the issue. Do you give managers 1 challenge a game? 1 an inning? Is it only for calls at the plate? It just seems to be opening a can of worms for no reason, other than the fact that the umpires occasionally make the wrong call. Hell, some of the plays arestilltoo close to call, even after the instant replay. How do you call those?

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See this is why you keep losing me. What fucking difference does the specifics make, it clearly can be done any number of those ways to satisfactory result and you are acting like it can't simply because that many different options exist.

Abefroman_sl said:

I should have been more clear. What I meant was having a central command center and contacting the referees without the need of them going under a hood or some other stupid time wasting mechanism.

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College football already does this but it's local. All plays are reviewed from the booth and they signal down to the head ref when they want to review something. They then tell him the outcome. It was tested for a couple of years in the Big Ten before it went nationwide and it does just that. It makes sure the call is right.

Slaythe_sl said:

Bettman and it isn't even close.

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Fucking this. I'm a decent fan of all four sports and to me this is a no brainer. If you listen to an interview with this little prick you'll walk away wanting not to ever support the NHL again. He's just fucking awful all around.

One challenge per game. If you win the challenge, you get to keep your challenge to use again. If you lose it, you are out for the rest of the game. If your team hits a homer you get an extra challenge for each run scored. So a grand slam gets you four extra challenges. Seems fair right?

(I voted Stern, but sounds like if I knew more about the NHL this Patrick Bateman fellow would be the obvious choice.)

its no doubt bettman. The sport itself is more marketable than the players. OT playoff hockey tops everything. Baseball is my favorite sport followed by football and then hockey. MLB and the NFL can do whatever the commish can be retarded (see selig) and still do well. The NBA is an absolute joke of a league but its not sterns fault hes just resting on what magic, bird and jordan did for him. southern expansion? trying to eliminate fighting? turning down espn? the last one sucks but look at the coverage they get on espn its 2 minutes tops. sadly espn matters, and they are to busy blowing the NBA and the NFL the bulk of their coverage.

Goodell. Dude let that replacement ref shit go on too long.

Tea_sl said:

The job of the commish is to be the public face/scapegoat for the owners while implementing plans to increase profits for said owners. They've all been demonstrably successful at this with even the NHL pulling in 60% avg franchise value increases over the last decade. Bettman has been the least successful, but to rag on commissioners for steroids and fixing is playing into what a large part of their job description is: to take flak for unpopular but ultimately profit driving decisions.

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Did anyone catch this? Stern and Goddell are instantly out of the conversation.