Baseball Lockout Reportedly Over.. Full 162 Game Season To Be Played.

www.mlb.com

It was announced on the 6 pm news, and on the site I gave the link to

The baseball lockout is over!

A full, regular 162 game season will be played, and is to start April 7.

There will be a Universal DH.

There will be an end to the runner on second base rule to begin extra innings.

The postseason will be expanded to 12 teams

This is what was reported on mlb.com.

For baseball fans like myself, hopefully this is true.

Interesting set of developments. I think the most interesting development is the universal DH rule. Pitchers can focus solely on pitching.

I'm glad they are going back to full 9 inning games and did away with the put a runner on 2nd base in extra innings. I thought that this rule was lame to start with.

As for expanding the playoffs to 12 teams, I'm not sure how that is going to work. If they are going to play 162 game season as it is, they are going to be expanding the playoffs by one round, when is the season going to end? They already start in February and end in November.

To accomplish this, they may have to play more scheduled double headers. And then there are the issues of rainouts and make up games. We'll see what happens.

Glad to have it back though!

Barbershopman

Play ball!!!

Very happy that they eliminated the 7th inning doubleheaders. I am also happy that they eliminated the runners on 2nd base rule in extra innings. I am not happy about the Universal DH. I like to see pitchers bat. As far as their 12 teams in the playoffs one hand hand it seems like it's too many teams, but on the other, it could make things interesting in September.

Apparently, I was premature in celebrating the demise of starting the 11th inning on by putting a runner on 2nd. It will be revisited at a later date but is going to happen this season.

Also, they are adopting the "Shohei Ohtani rule". If he is pitching and is also in the lineup as the DH, even if he is removed as a pitcher, he will retain his spot in the batting order. It applies to any pitcher who is also the DH, but Ohtani is the only one at the moment.

Barbershopman

Same here brother very happy that they eliminated 7th inning doubleheaders.