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Comment by wearywanderer | Hacker News Reader

Why can't the MLB just admit defeat on this issue and amend the rules to allow the use of these substances?

When it comes to performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), I understand the ethical argument against it; PEDs have negative long term health consequences and clean pitchers shouldn't feel compelled to use PEDs to compete. But these sticky pitching substances don't seem to have that problem as far as I can tell.

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Because it results in dramatically less hitting which is bad for the sport.

This is probably heresy, but maybe they could make the sport more exciting by issuing corked bats for more homeruns. And then maybe they could rename the sport to Blernsball...

Make the distance between the pitching mound and home plate inversely correlated to the prior weeks batting average (with the goal of trying to reach .33)

> bad for the sport

Citation needed.

Better pitchers make the game substantially more boring. Strikeouts are at an all time high. People don't want to watch that.

I’m not a big sports fan, but to me, directly modifying the sports equipment during a competition to break the basic rules of the game is way more blatantly egregious than consuming substances that improve physical performance.

The claim isn't that it's okay to break the rules, it's that this rule should be changed. We need rules against PEDs to prevent (or at least mitigate) an arms race with serious health consequences; we only need rules against pitch doctoring if it's bad for the game and the rules are enforceable.

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