Better Late Than Never

This story has been bothering me for a while and I just need to throw this out there. Last week, MLB umpire Joe West complained that Yankees-Red Sox games are too long. Boo hoo Joe. So sorry that you have to work a little more to earn your salary (range for '09 was 84k to 300k for MLB umps).

But, let's take these suggestions into consideration to appease Mr. West and the rest of the people that claim baseball is too long (note that a football game lasts just as long and has far less going on than even the most "boring" of baseball games.)

1. It's one, two well, that's it. Two strikes you're out. This will cut back on having to wait for that elusive third strike.
2. While we're at it, a foul ball on strike 2 is a k - slightly modifying the slow pitch softball rule will work here since dudes love softball.
3. No more walks. Matter of fact, no more balls. Each pitch is a strike, no matter what, and you have two chances to hit it fair, or else.

Sorry Joe that these two teams score a lot of runs, take a lot of pitches, draw a ton of walks, and play the game the way it is supposed to be played. My advice is lobby the commissioner's office so that you can only work games between the Marlins, Nationals, Royals, D'backs, Giants, and Cubs. They're all pretty terrible at scoring and getting on base at the level of the Sox and Yanks. Better yet, you want a cushy job where you get paid way too much money to do virtually nothing for 3 hrs a day, go become an NFL referee.