The Off-the-Radar Baseball League That’s Trying to Reboot the Game
With robot umpires and heretical rules changes, can the Atlantic League keep America’s pastime from fading into America’s past?
The first thing I noticed was the fat bases. They look like normal bases, square, white, same as the ones many of us rounded as kids, only they’ve put on a few inches around the waist, same as many of us, ballooning from 15-by-15 inches to 18-by-18 inches. They’re dad bases now. Unlike the other experimental rules being tested out here in the Atlantic League, the 18-by-18 bases are primarily a safety measure. The theory is that bigger bases will result in fewer collisions, which could mean fewer snapped ankles. Tinkering with the fundamental dimensions of baseball tends to bring out the rage monster in fans — the word ‘base’ is right there in the name! — but then again it’s hard to be pro-snapped ankles. The dad bases could stick.
When you make the bases bigger, though, something subtler happens, something with the potential for much farther-reaching consequences: they get closer together. In the Atlantic League this season, first base is three inches closer to home. Second base is four-and-a-half inches closer to first.
