Now on Hall of Fame ballot, Mark Teixeira says MLB needs changes
In his first year on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, former Major League Baseball slugger Mark Teixeira is ready to see change come to the game that he played for 14 seasons.
Mark Teixeira recently talked about the changes he would like to see happen in Major League Baseball in the not-too-distant future
After 14 MLB seasons spent with four franchises (including eight years with the New York Yankees and five seasons with the Texas Rangers) plus time on ESPN as an MLB analyst, Teixeira has plenty of insight into the game of baseball. He also believes that it’s time for baseball to look at making changes that will make it “a little bit more interesting.”
In a recent interview on MLB Network Radio, Teixeira tackled a wide-range of baseball topics, including the current lockout. He admitted that he was “crossing his fingers” that the lockout didn’t impact spring training or any regularly scheduled games for the 2022 campaign.
“Hopefully baseball players and the owners can get together and just say, ‘Hey, we’re partners here. Let’s both make money. Let’s make more money than we’re making now and figure it out together,’” he said.
However, while the lockout was a very current topic, Teixeira also voiced his opinion on what could be done to ensure that MLB stayed relevant among its current and future fans.
And yes, that means changes, including instituting a pitch clock and banning the shift, neither of which Teixeira called “radical” in terms of the changes it would make on the fabric of the game.
“We’ve talked for years about length of game and pace of play and too many strikeouts, too many home runs,” Teixeira said. “I think that baseball needs to really make some changes, and these aren’t radical changes. A pitch clock to me is not a radical change. Banning the shift is not a radical change. Tighten up the game and make it a little bit more interesting … a little bit more action.”
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In his first season on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, Teixeira, despite hitting 409 home runs and earning three All-Star Game appearances, three Silver Sluggers, and five Gold Gloves, is in extreme danger of falling below the 5 percent threshold needed to stay on the ballot for next year. At press time, Teixeira had just one vote through the first 94 public ballots turned in and being tracked at Ryan Thibodaux’s Baseball Hall of Fame vote tracker.