At Home Plate - Baseball New Years Wishes

Written by Jonathan Leshanski (Contact & Archive) on January 02, 2008

With the new year upon us and Spring Training just six weeks away its time to make some New Year’s wishes for baseball. Now rather than being a homer and wishing for things which would benefit one team or another here is my list of wishes for baseball.

1) A true end to the steroid era. With asterisks liberally distributed to every steroid cheat we can uncover, a real test, using blood (which can be stored), for performance enhancing drugs and a policy that any player caught using such drugs will be ineligible for the Hall of Fame for all time.

2) A blossoming of a new and large generation of young talent who can step up and bring some of the perennial losers back into contention.

3) A surge of players who understand how lucky they are to be able to play the game, and have enough love of the game that it’s not all about the money.

4) A speedy recovery for all the players who’ve undergone surgeries to repair damage suffered in the game we love to watch.

5) The removal of owners such as Jeffery Loria, in Florida who love the dollar more than the game and won’t spend money to field a better team.

6) A salary floor and a salary ceiling so that some level of balance is restored to the game and that no fan can write his team off before the first pitch on opening day, or even before the first month is over.

7) A new management team for the MLBPA (the Player’s Union) who can put all the bitterness of the past behind them and who care about the game not just the players - and a commissioner who can do the same.

8) A real commissioner, one who isn’t just a mouthpiece for the owners, but who is an independent arbiter who can, and does work for the good of the game, the whole game and has unilateral power to make decisions, punish, fine and promote the game without having to cater to either side.

9) Sanity at the box office and on television. Between record television contracts and record salaries there is a happy medium which doesn’t require that many fans of the game get priced out of a night rooting for the home team. Lets remember that with sane ticket prices and cable prices.

10) Another great season in 2008, it might be the only one on the list we’ll get, but I know that we are all looking forward to it!

Got another wish for baseball? Share it with me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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