SEPTEMBERMEANS
thestretch-driveof
baseball’spennantraces.
Itmeanssomethingelse
too:Theruleschange.
Hardas itmaybe to
makesenseof, this ishowMajorLeague
Baseballhandles themost importantpart
of theregularseason—andhow it’shan-
dled thisstretch foras longasanybody
canremember. Itexpands thenumberof
playersa teamcanuse inagame from25
to40.Keepingscoreathome?That’sa60
percent increase inrostersize.
Asarefresher:MLB teamsspend the
firstfivemonthsof theyear jockeying for
positionwith25-manactiverosters.But
comeSept. 1, teamsareallowed toexpand
theirrosters to includeup to the full40-
manroster.There isno limitonhow few
playerscanbebroughtup from themi-
nors,onlyacap,whichmeansmany teams
operatewithrostersofdifferentsizes for
theentirefinalmonthof theseason.
“It’s themost ludicrous thingIsee in
sports,”DougMelvin, aveteran front-
officeexecutivewith theMilwaukee
Brewers,oncesaid.
And thatwasback in2009.Eachyear
since,Melvin,whohasbeenabaseball
executive formore than30years,has
echoed thesamemessageatannualoff-
seasonmeetings.Todate, though,nothing
haschanged.
“It’s likeplaying three-on-six inbas-
ketball or 11-on-18 in football,”Melvin
says. “Idon’tknowof anysport in the
world thatdoes it likeours,with this
kindof imbalanceof rosters. I’d like to
findout if there’sanyother sport that
does thatat themost important time
of theyear.”
ClubhouseChaos
Thesinglesilliestrule insportsgoes intoeffect thismonth—
expandingbaseball rosters to40players
AMERICANWAY
SEPTEMBER2015
85
SPORTS
ByEvanGrant
ILLUSTRATION
RYAN SNOOK
“Idon’tknowofanysport in theworld thatdoes it likeours.”
