2024 Major League Baseball

The 2024 Major League Baseball season was the twenty-fifth season in which the two major leagues, the National League and the American League, were consolidated into a single entity under the authority of the Commissioner, Rob Manfred.

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The 2024 Major League Baseball season came with some rule changes, as had been the case in most recent years, although those introduced this year were not as radical. Now that a pitch clock was part of the game, it was shortened slightly, from 20 to 18 seconds with runners on base (it remained at fifteen seconds with no one on). While this may have looked to be significant, the average pitch in 2023 had been delivered with seven seconds left on the pitch clock, so the effect was expected to be subtle. The running lane between home plate and first base was also clarified, with a dirt path marked on both sides of the foul line; before that, runners had to officially run to the outside of the line, although violations were rarely called, and when they were they were always controversial. The number of mound visits allowed during regulation innings was also diminished by one, from five to four. While these may have seemed to be minor, certain players, like P Chris Bassitt, complained that MLB should stop tinkering from year to year - although, to be fair, this had been going on ever since baseball was first played professionally.

2024 was a busy year in terms of international games, as not only was the experience of playing the London Series repeated for a third time, on June 8-9, but the season opened with a two-game series in Seoul, South Korea on March 20-21, the first ever MLB games played in that baseball-mad country. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres were selected to play these two games. For the second straight year, there was a series in Mexico City, on April 27-28, while the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays traveled to the Dominican Republic during spring training - perhaps a harbinger of future regular season games in that country. In the U.S. itself, MLB organized the first Rickwood Field Game to honor the Negro Leagues and their players, on June 20th at historic (and recently renovated) Rickwood Field in Birmingham, AL.

One unexpected controversy came as spring training opened, as many players complained about the new uniforms designed by Nike and whose manufacturing was sub-contracted to Fanatics. Complaints touched both on the aesthetics (the lettering and numbering was of lower quality than in previous years) and the fit of these new duds, particularly the pants that were considered too close-fitting and too revealing (they appeared to be quasi-transparent on early pictures). On a more serious note, there was a rash of pitcher injuries in spring training and in the first couple of weeks of the season, with big names like Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Jordan Romano starting the year on the sidelines, and others like Shane Bieber, Spencer Strider and Eury Perez being hit by season-ending injuries after only a couple of appearances. One reporter calculated that there were over 100 pitchers on the injured list across MLB after one week of action. The Players Association issued a statement that the pitch clock was to blame but MLB replied on April 6th that scientific studies had failed to establish a link between how quickly pitchers worked and injuries, but that instead the trend had been years in the making, often starting as early as high school, and was caused by the search for ever-higher velocity and spin rates, to the detriment of young pitchers' proper physical development.

Another issue that got a lot of play during the season was that of sports betting, now an unescapable reality around North American sports, with betting sites among the biggest sponsors of sports broadcasts on television, in a context when major sports all recognized that it was crucial to ensure that the integrity of outcomes was preserved. The first scandal broke through in late March when it was revealed that Ippei Mizuhara, the personal interpreter of superstar Shohei Ohtani, was caught in the net of an FBI investigation into an illegal gambling ring. Ohtani himself was not fingered as it appears his friend had abused his trust in order to finance his addiction, but the scandal raised serious questions. This was followed in June by two cases that hit even closer to home. On June 3rd, it was reported that Tucupita Marcano, an infielder with the San Diego Padres on the injured list at the time, had been issued a lifetime ban for betting on baseball, news that was confirmed in an official statement by MLB the next day. Then, ten days later, it was top-rated umpire Pat Hoberg, who had not worked any games that season without MLB providing an explanation, who was revealed to have been the subject of discipline, also for violation of policies related to sports betting.

On the field, the season was marked by the Chicago White Sox setting an all-time mark for losses in a season with 121, but also by more parity among teams, as no team was able to get to 100 wins, and a large number of teams were bunched up around the .500 level - the ChiSox being clearly the exception. Teams that had not been competitive for a long time, like the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals, reached the postseason, and for the 24th straight season, there would not be a repeat winner in the World Series, as the defending champions, the Texas Rangers, were eliminated in early September after a season marred by a rash of injuries. The season even went into overtime in the National League, as after the completion of games on September 29th, which was supposed to be the final day, three teams were still in contention for two wild card slots, the result of Hurricane Helene having rained out two games between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves during the final week. As a result, the two teams had to play a do-or-die doubleheader in Atlanta on September 30th, with the Arizona Diamondbacks watching from the sidelines and hoping for a sweep - the only way for them to return to the postseason as the final seed in the NL. That did not happen, as the teams split the twin bill, and the Mets picked up from there to make a deep postseason run.

The trends towards faster games and more stolen bases were confirmed in the second season after significant rule changes, but batting averages were also down to a level not seen since the "Year of the Pitcher" in 1968. With regards to steals, there were 3,617 during the season, the most since 1915, and the third-most in any season since 1900. In spite of the low batting averages, scoring was not in the doldrums, given that homers were still hit in very high numbers. The player who best epitomized these trends was Shohei Ohtani, in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who became the charter member of the 50-50 club during the season. For its part, attendance was up again, as it had been in 2023, marking the first time attendance had grown in successive years since 2011-2012. Significantly, attendance at week-day games was up 12% compared to 2022, a sign that fans had embraced the changes made to increase the pace of play. Another positive sign was that attendance and interest was up among a younger demographic, reversing a trend that had been a problem for two decades at least. A classic World Series match-up, featuring baseball's two most popular teams, the Yankees and the Dodgers, meeting in the Fall Classic for the first time since 1981, contributed to excellent viewership numbers in the postseason as well.

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2024 Major League Baseball

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