Over the past couple of years, MLB has continued to add rules they see fit that will improve the pace of the game. 

Some of these rules include the “ghost runner” that takes place in extra innings or the fairly new implication of the pitch clock. 

Commissioner Rob Manfred’s latest idea, the “Golden At-Bat” rule, is being met with heavy criticism. Essentially, this rule states that in each game, the manager gets one chance to put their best batter at the plate, regardless of where the batting order stands. 

Manfred brought up this idea and floated it on “The Varsity” podcast in late October. But this potential rule didn’t gain attention until last week when the Athletic’s Jayson Stark wrote about it. 

Say, for example, the Phillies are up to bat and load the bases with their No. 6, 7, and 8 hitters, Rob Thomson would be able to use someone like Bryce Harper to replace whoever the No. 9 hitter is. This is just a theoretical example, but the idea is clear. This kind of rule change would mark a huge change in the sport, unlike previous rule changes that Manfred has implemented. 

A huge factor for the proposal of this idea is to create “viral moments” to help continue to propel the sport in popularity. Think of the 2023 WBC Finals, Shohei Ohtani vs Mike Trout, some of the greatest to play the game, former teammates, both trying to win it all for their respective country. 

As soon as this potential rule gained traction, fans lost their minds, and respectively so. 

But these big-name stars aren’t the only ones making game-changing plays with just one swing of the bat, it’s common in the sport to have “unsung heroes.” Think of the Matt Stairs home run in the 2008 NLCS against the Dodgers. Or Brett Phillips when he knocked the game-winning run in Game 4 of the 2020 World Series. Even more recently, going to the 2024 playoffs Jhonkensy Noel, who I’d say not many know the name of, had an insane game-tying towering home run in the ALCS against the Yankees. 

The list of these unsung heroes can go on and on, as it’s always existed in baseball, and changing this just looks gimmicky, like something the Savannah Bananas would do. 

Although I understand the game must evolve, and it shouldn’t get stuck in past traditions that date back to the days when Pete Rose along with other stars in the 70s were running the bases. But adding a foolish rule such as this descends into pointless antics that only will hurt the game instead of help. 

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