In Massachusetts, Bill Ballou wrote MLB "can’t outlaw tanking," but it "shouldn’t reward it, either." MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred could "do something about it under the 'best interests of baseball' clause in his job description." But that has "happened only once," in '76 under then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and it is "likely to remain the only time." Ballou: "So what can baseball do to prevent the historically time-honored, but nevertheless distasteful, practice of tanking?" Have teams "draft every June by lottery, not by reverse standings." Finishing last will "no longer guarantee picking first" (Worcester TELEGRAM & GAZETTE, 7/23).
MAKE BASEBALL FUN AGAIN: In San Diego, Nick Canepa wrote the All-Star Game this year demonstrated that baseball has "major league problems," with all wounds "self-inflicted." Manfred seems "certain MLB will expand from 30 to 32 teams," so fans are "predicting things will be split up perfectly for the DH to go baseball-wide." Baseball "never has been the most action-packed of games, but it’s now confronted by the Fortnite Generation." Expansion "won’t make the game better." But something "must be done," and MLB leaders "have to be quick about it" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/22).
SPIT IT OUT: SI.com's Emma Baccellieri noted this season has "marked a small milestone in the game’s movement against smokeless tobacco." As of May, smokeless tobacco is now "banned in half of major-league stadiums." It represents a "key halfway point in what’s been a gradual and years-long process, ridding baseball of a substance that once seemed as integral a part of the game as hot dogs or scorecards." Banned in college baseball since '90 and in the minors since '93, the "elimination of chewing and dipping from the majors has proved a far slower process." A '15 study found that 37% of MLB players and coaches were "smokeless tobacco users." As years pass, that "number will shrink" (SI.com, 7/23).
