(AUDACY) The COVID-19 pandemic is inching closer and closer toward its eventual end, and modifications made to the game of baseball and its rules due to the pandemic may be going away with it.
Seven-inning doubleheaders are unlikely to remain in the rulebook for the long term, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. Manfred also doesn't envision continuing to start extra innings with a runner on second base. Both rules were implemented for the shortened 2020 season and have remained in use here in 2021.
Those two modifications to the rules were put into effect based on medical advice but aren't thought to be permanent, Manfred said, according to the Associated Press. Though the health situation has improved greatly since the implementation of those rules, Manfred said changes couldn't be made midseason. Rules cracking down on pitchers' use of foreign substances were implemented in the middle of this season, but it seems as though the league didn't want to change the structure of seven-inning doubleheaders or the runner-on-second rule in the middle of the year.
The runner-on-second rule that begins in extra innings has seen its fair share of criticism, especially when a pitcher surrenders practically nothing — it could be as little as a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly — but ultimately gives up the winning run to the opposing team. Some fans have suggested that the rule stick around but only come into effect beyond the 12th inning or so, when the game could use a little bit of speeding up.
As for now, enjoy (or lament) the seven-inning doubleheaders and "ghost runner" rules while they last, because it doesn't seem like they'll stick around for much longer.
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