If I Were Commisioner.................

[pikestabber]

How bout we lift the ban on pete rose, and build a seperate wing at the hall in coopertown. It can be called the "Hall of Shame" and thats were we can put all the Pete Roses', Barry Bonds, Mark McGuires of the world.

Also having 6 teams in the NL central and 4 teams in another division makes absolutely no sense, slide one of the teams over

Bonds and McGuire can go in the Hall of Shame, no problem with that, but Rose should go in the Hall of Fame. As alluded to by mrklean, his credentials as a player warrant the HOF, but his disgrace to baseball was done on a coaching level, not as a player. Anyone want to dig up the dirt on Ty Cobb and argue he should be in while Rose should be out? Hold your fire--I think Ty Cobb was the greatest player to suit up (EVER), but questionable on and off field behavior (even allegations of betting while coaching) in no way, shape or form diminish, to me, how incredible his career was. Cobb, regardless of how he was viewed, received 222 of 226 possible HOF votes!

As far as the 6 teams in one, 4 in the other, 5 in the rest--couldn't agree more. Align it with 5 teams in each and be done with it.

[toughguy]

But then you would have an odd amount of teams in each league. That wouldn't work unless there would be inter-league games everyday instead of just durring designated times. I guess that's wouldn't be the end of the world either.

Sliding Houston over to the AL West would make the most sense.

[mr_jman]

Lots of good opinions so far....

No a lot to add but just comment on...

Equalling the salary cap field is a definite must. Lets let other teams get in once in a while. Its almost ALWAYS the Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, and AL Central team (Twins a lot but its been mixed between Tigers, Sox, and Twins) The playoffs are so much better when a team like the Rays, Rangers, or A's can get in or if 2 teams come out of the West or Central!

THE ALL-STAR GAME VOTING: First off, fans should have a right to vote the starters, but can't they limit it to like 5 TOTAL votes from any one IP address so you can't vote time after time online. Fans at games should contine to get to vote like always..... This brings up the same argument though. The Twins this year would have an advantage because our attendance is WAY UP! Should a less deserving Twin get a spot because there aren't as many Blue Jays fans attending home games???????? Either do away with fan votes which is a bad idea or limit the impact the fan vote has! (The starters only go about 4 or 5 innings anyways though)

ALL STAR GAME ITSELF - Each team should have one player represented! It's an All-Star game and baseball is such a huge part of our nation that excluding a team, could exclude a region of the USA. Unlike other All-Star games, baseball is the only professional sport taking place during the summer so its a bigger All-Star event than the NBA, NHL, and NFL games where there are others sports taking place to watch. The fans of teams without a true All - Star would maybe not watch the game if they couldn't have that one guy to watch for even though it does snub more deserving guys at times. (Possibly expand the roster but not everyone needs to play???) From a dollars standpoint it wouldn't be a wise decision to lose an entire market when adding one player includes them (even a small market)

- INTERLEAGUE should be limited to a home and home series with the rivalry team. I really love the renewed Brewers and Twins rivalry. New York, California, KC and St Louis, Texas, Chicago, Cleveland and Cincinatti, Florida, ETC. all get these interstate or close rivalries ITS GOOD FOR THE GAME!

- OR the AL Central teams should only play the NL Central teams one year and ONLY the East or West teams the next year. Its not really fair when the Twins take on a strong East division and the White Sox get to take on an easy Central division. SAME TEAMS SHOULD BE PLAYED ACROSS DIVISIONS! So that the Twins, Sox, Tigers, Indians, Royals, all rotate through playing the Phillies, Mets, Nationals, Marlins, Etc.

- Rose deserves the Hall of Fame, but so does BERT BLYLEVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET HIM IN THERE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mnwild]

Yeah pitchers striking out 4-5 times a game is great. Sorry, but pitchers hitting is about as exciting as the World Cup

[Coach1310]

I watch Punto strikeout 4-5 times a game so what is the difference??

As many folks say..... He has dirty pictures of Gardy so we have to deal with it...

[blue_healer_guy]

Dont say that about darling nicki, some here think he is an all star.

[pikestabber]

But then you would have an odd amount of teams in each league. That wouldn't work unless there would be inter-league games everyday instead of just durring designated times. I guess that's wouldn't be the end of the world either.

Sliding Houston over to the AL West would make the most sense.

Sorry...I didn't clarify that well. What I meant was 5 teams in each of the 6 divisions...15 AL, 15 NL, 5 in each of the three sections. That keeps the competitive balance fair. A team should compete with four other teams in its division, not three or five as is the case in two divisions currently.

[zamboni]

Nicks hitting again, leave him alone!!

Never said take the fans out of the All Star voting, just get rid of online voting, or limit it to once a day. Can't tell me they can't get your IP address

Milton was an All Star, sorry but he was dazzling for a year or 2 while he was here, threw a no hitter, but developed arm problems. He was still pretty good for a time.

Toughguy brought up one I have been saying for years: draft of international players should be fair. I don't care if the Mariners discover another Ichiro- don't have the #1 overall pick? Tough, someone else should be able to draft him. All international players should be drafted, not signed. I don't care if it is an "amateur" draft and they are pros in another country- they aren't pros here and therefore should be free game to everyone, not the teams with the deepest pockets