Justin Turner Proposes Home Run Derby to End Extra-Inning Games
The baseball version of a shootout
If MLB is able to play games in 2020, the season will look unrecognizable. There’s already talk of adding way more doubleheaders to the schedule—maybe even seven-inning doubleheaders like minor league teams do—and an expanded playoffs with games in neutral cities.
Dodgers infielder Justin Turner has an idea for one more wacky twist: end extra-inning games with a home run derby.
Turner made the proposal in an interview with Spectrum SportsNet this week.
“This is my opportunity to push for a home run derby in extra innings,” Turner said. “Instead of playing 17 innings, you get one extra inning, you play the 10th inning, and no one scores, then you go to a home run derby. You take each team’s three best hitters and you give them all five outs and see who hits the most homers.
“You want to keep fans in the stands until the end of the game. I know when I go to hockey games I actually like the shootout. That keeps me in my seat so maybe a home run derby would do that as well.”
Turner expanded on the idea later on Twitter, saying he only meant the derby tiebreaker should be used this season. The main motivation, Turner said, is the safety of the pitchers. If teams are playing more doubleheaders, then pitchers are going to have a hard time keeping their arms fresh. The last thing they need is to throw inning after inning in a tied game that goes 15 or 16 innings.
It sounds like a reasonable way to decide games in an unusual season. If MLB adopts the proposal, or some other tiebreaker, it opens the door for the league to reconsider its extra-inning format, which may be overdue.
In the major Asian baseball leagues (Japan, Korea and Taiwan) regular season games are capped at 12 innings. If no one is leading after 12 innings, the game is declared a draw. Between 2012 and 2017, there were 1,200 MLB games that went to extra innings, according to Beyond the Boxscore, 81.8% of which were decided in 12 innings or fewer. That means an average of 36.5 games per year went past 12 innings. If MLB adopted the Asian rule, teams would average only one or two ties per year. Would that be the worst thing in the world?
The 2021 MLB season will likely be able to proceed mostly as usual. The issue of pitchers being overworked will be less acute with fewer doubleheaders, but long extra-inning games would still pose a danger. Would MLB consider adjusting its rules to allow ties or perhaps enacting a tiebreaker procedure for games not decided after 12 innings? It’s worth considering.
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