New League’s Board Bets on Innovation, Experimentation
by Gregg Evans for Uplantica Sport
November 1, 1929
PLAINS CITY, HUGGINS — The brand new National Professional League will begin play in 1930. Commissioner Shannon Mukai held an open fan forum through the national post to request rule change ideas to implement in his new league. In September, Mukai announced the initiative to make his league “fun and fan-friendly by being open to exciting new ideas.” Today, we are happy to publish the results of the national brainstorming session, along with a list of all eight official NPL teams.
Some of the more absurd ideas floated by baseball fans:
- deep home run zones that would add an extra run to extra-long home runs
- placing a runner on second to start each half inning in extra innings
- using potabakahide instead of cowhide to cover the baseballs
- using horsehide instead of cowhide to cover the baseballs
- engineering the baseballs to be more or less likely to fly farther when hit
- banning defensive shifts
- no longer counting foul balls as strikes
- adding or removing fielders at various times based on rule infractions or standings or home field advantage
- heightening the mound
- lowering the mound
- limiting the amount of visits a coach or manager can make to the pitcher’s mound over the course of a game
- severely limiting the amount of substitutions per team per game
- disallowing on-field chatter with opponents
- trampolines
- 7-inning double headers
- using metal bats instead of wooden bats
- limiting the number of times a pitcher can attempt a pickoff to a base
- a clock to time each pitch so that games are faster, for some reason
It’s unlikely that the league will ever enact any of these more extreme suggestions on the field, although Mukai did say the league is still considering some fan suggestions for future seasons, such as a coin toss to determine the first team to bat, using an “extra” or “added” 10th hitter (“EH/AH”) in batting orders, or incentivizing NPL teams to use more local talent.
“If it’s going to be a circus over there [in the NPL], they’ll never compete with the serious type of baseball we play in the [Uplantic] Association,” an unnamed UA manager said. He went on: “So many of the things they’re talking about are to make the game faster. I don’t think the people that like ballgames want them to be shorter, and I don’t think people that don’t like ballgames will suddenly like them because they’re shorter. It’s a lot of fancy guys in suits sticking their nose where it don’t belong. If you want to change everything about the game, just go play a different game.”
An anonymous UA player saw it differently: “It’s not like baseball has been around forever. There was a time when catchers weren’t allowed to wear protective masks according to some people’s rules. People are still arguing about the sacrifice fly rule. My grandpa says the save is a useless stat, but my daddy says it shows a guy’s gumption. Things change over time, it’s fine. We didn’t even have consistent rules before a couple years ago. Who’s to say we got it right already?”
New Rules
These are some of the notable differences from the UA that we’ll see in the NPL in 1930:
- Commencement Draft: The eight teams of the NPL will all draft their rosters from a free agent pool on the same day, December 2 of this year. The draft order will be determined by lottery and will reverse each round. This is in contrast to the UA, which simply allowed teams to negotiate and sign players as they saw fit and could manage leading up to the first season.
- Trades Between Leagues: The UA has agreed to the NPL’s proposal to allow trades between the two leagues. Both leagues will share the trade deadline of August 28.
- No All-Star Game: Many find the all-star exhibition in the middle of the season to be unnecessary, tiresome, or even dangerous. For now, the NPL will not hold an all-star game, although they are open to an all-star game or some form of skills showcase down the line.
- Shorter Season: The NPL teams will play a 70-game season, compared to the UA’s 100-game season. It will start a month later than the UA, on July 1st. There’s been no reason given for the choice of a shorter schedule, but it may have something to do with behind-the-scenes negotiations between the established league and the new league. While the leagues will be competing, they have also admitted to colluding on some issues and decisions so as not to directly interfere with each other’s success and the growth of baseball in general.
- No Playoffs: While critics of the NPL criticize their approach as showy or frivolous, the decision not to hold any kind of postseason seems to be the ultimate down-to-earth, no frills choice. The team with the best record at the end of the season wins and that’s the end of it. It’s certainly more cut and dry, more efficient and accurate, but a lot of fans will miss the moment-to-moment drama of the UA’s postseason format.
- Designated Hitter: The NPL Designated Hitter Rule will allow teams to choose a batter to replace the pitcher in the batting order. That batter will not play in the field. This is a highly controversial choice. Some fans have already declared their lifelong allegiance to the UA as long as the NPL uses this rule, arguing that it dumbs down the game from a strategy standpoint. Others think that adding another more competent batter to the lineup will make the game more fun and exciting.
- Protective Head Gear: The NPL won’t require protective head gear for batters (yet), but they are investing in research and development of new safety technology. They are working directly with engineers who are at the forefront of the field. In time, they plan to require some form of standardized head armor in the NPL.
New Teams
These are the eight teams who will play in the NPL in 1930:
- Carver Canaries
- Elderwood Lakers
- Lia Puedris Kings
- Petchon Carp
- Plains City Reapers
- Tiny Sea Metros
- Trimble Toppers
- Wight Spiders
Uplantic Sports Today 