IF I WAS THE COMMISSIONER OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

The game of baseball is my favorite sport to watch but over the last decade the sport has become more irrelevant and cumbersome to watch. The season is largely a waste of time, games are too long, and the economics seem to be out of wack!

To speed up the game I would suggest the following:
1) The batter may not leave the batters box during an at bat - why does a person need to take practice swings between each pitch?
2) The pitcher may not leave the mound between pitches - throw the ball already! walking around in circles does not make a bit of a difference in the game.
**3) In the event the game needs to be speeded up even more, I suggest a gameclock on the pitcher requiring a pitch within 25 seconds of recieving the ball back from the catcher.
**4) Another suggestion is to eliminate the around the horn throwing celebration the infield has after making an out. Give the pitcher the ball back and let us move on with the game.

To give the season more meaning:
1) Eliminate the AL and NL distinction and have a single league.
2) All teams play every team in the league an equal amount of times.
3) The top 16 teams after the season enter the playoffs in a seeding based on their record and other tie-breaking statistics. The #1 team plays the #16 teams and so on... Teams are reseeded after each round. This creates a three round playoff system to determine who plays for the World Series title. We can call the rounds "First", "Second", and "Third" and do away with Division, League, and any other label.
4) The teams play in best of 7 series with an off day only when switching cities. This eliminates the crapshoot of a five game series, makes the playoffs move along faster, and gives the game a sense of urgency in the playoffs.
5) The All-Star game is managed by the winning managers of the previous year who draft their team from a fan selected pool. The game has no relevance to the regular season, it is only an exhibition.

To fix the economics:
1) Require teams to use only the income derived directly from attendance and merchandise sales to pay for the teams. The rest of the money should be spent on stadium improvements and minor league player development. This would force teams to operate on a more even level and make the competition better.
2) Trades must be of equal value in contracts. The reason this works for baseball (even though it does not for basketball) is because it forces teams to deal based on a player's worth and within the same economic scales. The Yankees could not pull off a major trade unless they gave away some talent and the Marlins would not be able to do another fire sale without recieving something back!

Since I am suggesting eliminating the AL/NL distinction the question arises about what to do with the Designated Hitter problem. I propose eliminating it, but with a twist. I agree with the rationale that a player should not bat unless he hits. I also agree with the rationale that a pitcher is waste of time to see at the plate and should concentrate on pitching. That being said, I propose an 8 man line-up. This will allow the better hitters to play and will move the game along as well. This could even create more offense because it will not take as long to get back to the clean-up or power bat in the middle of the line-up or the speedy bat at the top of the order.

Any thoughts or opinions on these suggestions?