Ichiro had a conversation with Hideki Matsui on a television program. During the conversation, he questioned some of the recent rule changes in baseball.

21 comments

1. Makes sense. The rules weren’t changed for the players. They were changed for the owners and the fans.

2. As dumb as the auto intentional walk rule is, the “feelings of the next batter” seems like an odd place to plant one’s flag

3. I played 7 innings in the US high school system and it was just fine. Plenty of drama. Going extra innings on developing bodies only sets them up for more medical issues when they are old and done playing

4. I get why they use their tiebreaker system at Koshien though. They already put their HS pitchers through enough in that tournament.

5. Ichiro is 100% correct.

   Make the bases bigger, so the distance between them is smaller. Limit the number of times a pitcher can hold the runner on. Now stolen bases are easier.

   ALL HAIL the players who break records after we change the rules!

6. Well if they make games 7 innings, the drama will be in the 6th amd 7th. Drama doesnt just disappear.

7. “The batter is thinking about a lot of things while watching the ball”

   I’m 100% sure Carlos Beltran said this at some point in his breif, yet astoundingly annoying broadcast career

8. Does anyone know what the UCL/TJ rates in Japan? I’d be really curious considering how many innings they throw at such a young age, especially with Ichiro pushing back against 7 inning limits in high school.

   I do agree with him that the bases cheapen stolen base records a little, but quite frankly I don’t give a shit because after this change and the shift rules baseball finally *feels* like it felt like to watch it 20 years ago

9. We could change everything back to the way it has been for generations. MLB as a whole, in the new world of technology, was losing. 3 hour games? When we didn’t have internet access at home, it was bliss. I have a difficult time getting my girlfriend to come to a game with me. Between the commute and the time spent watching baseball, she begrudgingly does it for me. It has gotten to the point of just avoiding going to the games at all and just catching up on the important parts of a game. Sucks but it’s just not the same (saw my first game at Yankee stadium as a kid, with Dave Winfield in the lineup)

10. I miss Matsui so much 🥹 what a baller.

11. Nothing surprising, it makes sense that these guys are more traditional, they will never like any changes to the sport. I can understand that approach to baseball which is an older sport, but for example i certainly do not miss watching pitchers hit and i remember people being very angry about the universal DH.

12. I also kind of hate the perfunctory intentional walk. I think the audience should have the time to register what’s happening and boo the pitcher, rather than blink-and-you-miss-it. I also think—unlikely as it may be—the possibility that the ball misses or the pitcher loses their accuracy on the next sincere pitch should be in play.

13. Today I learned that Japanese highschool baseball plays 9 innings games and not 7 innings. Which I know Ichiro is saying it’s a bad move and the teens won’t like the shorter games. Probably true. But for the overall health and development of players it’s probably the right move.

14. I initially felt the same way about the declared intentional walk, but the fact that there is also a pitch clock means that you can’t really remove it. With the pitch clock, the most effective way to intentionally walk someone is to just wait for the clock to run out 4 times, that way there’s no risk of a dropped ball, a baserunner advancing or Miguel Cabrera ruining your life. But nobody wants to watch the pitcher literally just stand there for two minutes, so allowing the pitcher to just declare it is just a convenience feature.

15. Rules have been changing all the time.

    Otherwise we wouldn’t have a designated hitter. And the mound would still be [5 inches higher and the strike zone would be from the shoulders to the knees](https://www.mlb.com/cut4/why-was-the-mound-lowered-in-1968/c-158689966)

16. There have always been “tiebreakers” or mercy rules in the koushien tournament in a way (with a certain difference in runs the game can get called after the 5th or 7th inning I think) and when there aren’t it’s tragic for the participants. I

    I watched the final in 2006 (Tanaka’s team going for the hat trick vs handkerchief prince Saitou Yuuki) and it went for 15 innings, tied! They postponed the rematch for the next day(!). You get why handkerchief prince is so famous in Japan despite never really achieving anything as a pro: he pitched the whole tournament on his own! After he pitched fifteen inning, the next day he went out and struck out Tanaka for the final out. He was a god that year! But maybe it did harm him in the long run, no child should be forced to throw that many inning over such a short time.

    Ichiro being against tiebreakers shows he’s an old head, just like the ones complaining that some highschools have lifted the the shaved head requirement.

17. Ichiro is always right

18. I don’t really have any comment on anything he said except for the high school game comments…

    9 innings in the blazing hot sun at 34-38c with over 80-90% humidity is why we have high school kids dropping like flies.

    Hell, even watching the games in the bleachers exhausted me.

    So, change to morning and evening games only. Of course they’d think about reducing the innings so they can still fit the games into the schedule.

    High school Koshien is still education. Child safety is paramount.

19. Changing the entire game of baseball in koshien (7 innings?!?) because teams won’t stop overusing pitchers is crazy. These kids aren’t pitching cy young style where they can do a CG every couple of days. They are hitting 90mph. Some get close to 100. Just make the teams get with the times on load management. 

    I think going with 7 innings would be an admission that japanese HS baseball is damaging to the students and can’t be made healthy so they are playing a new game instead. Just give pitchers an innings limit instead of calling the game early.

20. Ichiro on point as always. Cool

21. I watched that- and speak Japanese- his larger point was saying that baseball is a craft and that players work hard on their craft and that a lot of the ‘improvements’ in the game are taking out this element of craftsmanship.