Ditch the 7-Inning Experiment; Baseball Was Meant to be 9!

The Indians and Tigers will play two on Wednesday in Cleveland, both games being seven inning affairs. Baseball has always been a nine inning game, so playing just seven innings is almost bizarre to most. Read a take on why baseball should ditch the 7 inning format and that all games should be nine frames.

The Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers were unfortunately rained out on Tuesday night from Progressive Field. Unfortunately, no baseball was to be played because of inclement conditions.

This is a common occurrence, especially during the summer months of the baseball season where rain can strike at any time.

However, something is different. It’s the traditional double headers that are scheduled because of these games getting cancelled.

For example, the Indians and Tigers will play two games starting at 4:10 this Wednesday afternoon.

Well, what’s different with this double header?

Each game is only seven innings in length. This, of course, is much different from the usual nine-inning game that major league baseball has played for well over 100 years.

Now, the design is obvious in the sense that it is to shorten the time it takes to finish a double header. From what was always 18 innings total to 14 innings now, it will make the complete outing shorter in length.

However, think about how many baseball games have been decided in the final innings. Where the score ended up being completely different after all due to a rally of some sort, a walk-off home run or more.

The game is simply meant for nine innings in length. If it takes a few extra innings to decided the outcome, so be it…

The problem with a seven inning game is the question that will always arise of, what if?

What if this game was played to the full nine innings? Could this team have staged a comeback? Could the outcome have been different? The questions asked are too many to think of…

A game could be decided one way, it could change the standings in a division because of the outcome and eventually change the playoff race as a whole. That is what a two inning difference does.

What should be done?

Play the nine inning games in their entirety like teams have done for long before my time. Somehow, they all survived the day.

Lastly, a few of my most fond memories as an Indians fan would never have happened with a seven inning game.

Bill Selby’s walk-off grand slam against the legendary Yankee, Mariano Rivera in ‘03. Jason Giambi’s walk-off during a heated wild card race in ’13.

Lastly, Rajai Davis’ 8th inning World Series bomb off the great Aroldis Champman to tie the game in ‘16.

Let’s play ball. Nine innings of ball, that is…