Baseball Managers

Last night I watched the Tigers vs Rays game. Unfortunately I turned it off somewhere in the middle of the game and didn't see the no hitter. However the game got me thinking about the managers. Why do the where the same uniform as the players? I know at one time that the manager would actually play for his team like Pete Rose in the 80's but still to today the managers wear uniforms. It's just odd to see an old out of shape man wearing the entire get up. Some of them go the extra step of getting some high socks to wear like Jim Leyland. No other sport does the coach or manager wear the same thing as the players. Imagine Phil Jackson wearing some shorts and a jersey on the sideline or Bill Belichick wearing some shoulder pads and a helmet.

One other thing that's odd about managers is why do they argue calls on the field. The umpires never see them come out and have their discussion and then go back and change a call. There is all this conversation that goes on about how to speed up the game and I think it would be very simple without changing the outcome. First would be to disallow any manger or coach coming onto the field to argue calls. Sure we won't get the explosive tirades that occur from time to time that are enjoyable to watch but generally they just waste time. Second Players shouldn't be able to step out of the batters box unless the pitch pushes them out or the play on field has changed (i.e. the man on first steals 2nd base and the player would like to look to the base coach for direction). These two things could easily speed up a baseball game by an hour. It's sometimes over a minute before a pitch can be thrown to a batter cause of all the antics between pitches with changing their gloves, taking some swings, looking at the base coach again and again and again.

Bottom line though Baseball's number one flaw which still puts me off from the game is that it doesn't have a salary cap. I think that could change the face of the game and allow every team to play competitively each year and have the same ability to offer free agents a contract as larger teams do.