I don’t know if this weekend actually had an unusual volume of extra-inning games, but with the Braves engaged in two, it sure felt like it.
The free runner extra inning rules have never sat all that well with me. To the extent that long extra-inning games were a problem, there were more than a handful of other solutions I’d have preferred. But, I think everyone involved generally prefers this form of aggressive shortening, so it’s probably not going anywhere in the near term. That creates its own
weird discontinuity given that the rule suddenly disappears in the playoffs, but this doesn’t seem to perturb MLB, so it is what it is.
My question is whether you think that we’ll ever get to a point where the current extra-inning “rule” goes away. On the one hand, never say never. On the other hand, I’m not really sure what would force anyone’s hand regarding extra innings. What do you think?
