Why MLB All-Star swing-off is a bad idea for regular season games

USA Today

16-07-2025

The home run swing-off that ended the 2025 MLB All-Star Game — an exhibition event — was a terrific idea. It was an inspired way to inject some excitement and keep players from hanging around an otherwise meaningless game for far too long. MLB should really make it a mainstay and stay in the creative thought process that brought it about.
But not if it extends to actual games that matter. And, well, about that. MLB All-Stars seemed to love the swing-off a bit too much.
According to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, players who participated in/witnessed Tuesday night's landmark swing-off might be seriously entertaining the idea of trying to extend it to the regular season. To put it lightly, that's an absolutely horrible idea:
[Logan] Webb checked his phone afterward and opened a group text he maintains with other players around the league. Their consensus: We should never play an extra-inning game again. We should always end games just like that.
New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. said the same thing, seemingly willing to banish the automatic runner on second base forever.
The players were joking. We think.
It's one thing to have a short home run derby when there are no stakes. That's why it's fun. You get to watch the best baseball players in the world mash dingers, which is the coolest part of the sport. Again. Who doesn't want that? It's another thing entirely to default to it, right away, for every game that counts in the standings. That would be way too much. It would cheapen the harmless spectacle of it all. It would make the swing-off akin to the NHL's shootout, which has lost its luster as a de facto skills competition that ultimately weighs too much into the outcome of the hockey season.
I understand why players would entertain the idea on an expanded level. They're probably tired of those extra-innings games that feel like they will never end when they often have a game the next night and have to do it 162 times over the course of six months.
I get why that would be irritating. I do.
But maybe we could find a happy middle instead? Perhaps, instead of immediately defaulting to a swing-off with a tie after the ninth inning, maybe MLB allows for two extra innings of regular play. Then, if the game is still tied, that's when you have the swing-off. That feels like a reasonable compromise for everyone involved, players and fans alike. It would still allow for normal decisions without keeping players around into the wee hours of the night.
Of course, we could also allow ties into the picture! That would make so much sense! Most sports understand this is the best way to deal with long games in a long regular season. Oh, right, American sports fans tend to hiss at the mere idea of ties like an angry house cat that you walked past way too fast.
Never mind. I forgot. That's on me.
So, yeah. I'm open to the idea of extra-inning swing-offs in the regular season. But let's still play some actual baseball first before we pivot to the last resort. Please?