Baseball has begun: Top 10 things that need to be fixed

" . . . Cause it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the ol' ball game."

For those of you living under a rock, or seniors who are still working on their theses, let me inform you that baseball season has officially begun. What does this mean? First, it's time to spend countless hours watching gamecast on majorleaguebaseball.com. Second, it's time to cry every time you remember that Bobby "I haven't thrown a strike in 14 years" M. Jones is still on your favorite team's roster. And third, it's time to remember everything that is wrong with the game.

Therefore, to help kick off this new campaign, I offer you 10 ways to improve baseball.

The easiest target is baseball's financial structure, but this is also the hardest to fix. Because of my seemingly limitless pool of laziness, I'm going to ignore this aspect of the game.

10. Settle the matter of Pete Rose once and for all. It's time for Bud Selig to stop this nonsense and make his decision: Will he reinstate the Hit King or not? In my opinion, Rose should not be allowed back in. He has now openly admitted to betting on baseball, breaking one of the game's cardinal rules. However, at this point all I want is some resolution to this saga, whether that means Rose is in or out. Plus, it's time for all of Rose's shady gambling buddies to stop getting lots of TV time out of this one.

9. There need to be more players named Coco.

8. Managers can't wear uniforms. Don't get me wrong, no one loves seeing Bobby Cox's gut hanging out more than I do, but these have got to go. Is this just some last ditch effort to hold onto youth? Do they need to play if they run out of pitchers?

7. All World Series games start before 10 p.m. on the East Coast. If baseball wants me to watch a team other than the Red Sox in the World Series, they can't make me stay up past midnight to watch it. This is especially true when there's over a minute between pitches, but more on that later.

Baseball has made a point of getting more kids involved and interested in the game. You can't do that if they can't stay up late enough to watch the World Series.

7a. Make it easier for more kids to attend games by having more day games on Saturdays. There is still nothing better than going to the ballpark on a sunny afternoon. Well, almost nothing better.

6. Contraction. Don't worry. Twins and Expos fans, your teams are safe. On the other hand, Milwaukee and Tampa Bay are both terrible teams with very small fan bases. Two of Tampa's "home" games this year were played in Japan, and I didn't hear any griping. If two Boston home games were played out there, Selig would be afraid to step back into Beantown.

Contracting these two teams would help with the problem of watered-down talent, especially pitching, in the majors. Also, shouldn't a guy with the name Rocco play in a bigger market?

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The one Devil Rays fan and two Brewers fans on campus are invited to email me to discuss.

5. Move a team to D.C. It would be wise of baseball to take advantage of this huge sports market by putting a team in the nation's capital. The NFL has already shown that the Baltimore-Washington area is fully capable of supporting two teams.

In addition, baseball would be able to tap into northern Virginia to increase its fan base. There are a number of areas in which baseball is struggling. The Expos would be much better situated in D.C. Sometimes a fresh start is the answer.

For this to happen, baseball needs to stop listening to the whining of Orioles owner Peter Angelos. Interest in the Birds is on the rise with their off-season signings (Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez and Rafael Palmeiro), so now would be a perfect time to move.

4. Limit the number of times players can step out of the batter's box and how many times pitchers can step off the rubber. Enough is enough people.

If I see the batter step out, the pitcher step off and the batter step out again all before a pitch is thrown, I'm going to sell my soul to the Devil.

Wait, I take that back, I could never be a Yankees fan.

I am all for seeing a pitch clock hanging behind home plate. Can you imagine Dontrelle Willis or Hideo Nomo struggling to get their elaborate windups done with the clock winding down?

3. Drug-testing. Most people reading this column think this is an obvious one, but the solution may not be so cut-and-dry. Whether or not steroid use really is rampant in baseball doesn't matter anymore. To save face with the public, baseball must institute random drug testing. The owners have realized that in order to maintain the integrity of the game, this step must be taken. The players union is sticking to the most recent collective bargaining agreement in its argument against the testing.

The most important hurdle that needs to be overcome is the lack of trust between the two sides. One way to do this is to use a completely independent and mutually agreed-upon third party to do the testing. This would be a starting point on which to build in making the punishment for violations of the drug policy stiffer.

2. An obvious one: get rid of the DH. So much strategy gets taken out of the game when pitchers are not forced to hit. I understand that players like Edgar Martinez would be driven out, but defense is an integral part of the game. If you can't put on a glove and get out there, it's time to call it quits.

1. Remove Selig, and put Cal Ripken, Jr. in charge. The Iron Man would return integrity to the game, and he would be able to serve as a mediator between the players and the owners, exactly what the commissioner is supposed to be.

Lets recount what has happened under Selig's tenure, which began in 1998. After the Yankees and Diamondbacks treated us to one of the better World Series of the last 20 years, Selig decides to contract the Twins and Expos. Interesting how the Twins were one of the two teams Selig chose. Guess which team's TV market would have expanded to include the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis if the Twins weren't around. The answer is the Milwaukee Brewers, who used to be owned by the one and only Allan "Bud" Selig.

1a. Would anyone be opposed to the idea of getting rid of every high-ranking baseball official, especially Players Association guru Donald Fehr? On a side note, how much you pay to see Fehr and Selig battle it out on PPV?