croz wrote:
I have never  liked the "you don't need an undo button, you just need to pay attention to what you are doing" argument that some people use. Real baseball is played at a much slower pace than we play our DMB games for one thing. It is not click, click, click. Also, when a manager is in the dugout of a real game he is fully engaged in what he is doing. When we are clicking away on our computers in the middle of our real lives there are plenty of distractions. I don't think a real life manager has to pretend he is listening to his wife while he is making strategic decisions. :)
Now there is a REALLY interesting idea for tweaking the real game!  There are weird combination sports where two seemingly unrelated skills (like the biathlon) or even incompatible activities (such as in chess boxing) are combined, so why not baseball and spouse-listening?  We could require the managers to sit next to their wives during the game, and instruct the wives to wait until the pitcher appears to be struggling and then engage their husbands in conversation about planning something like a wedding reception or a baby shower, or about whether or not their relationship is different now than it was 20 years ago.  The manager would gain points for winning the game, but lose points if the spouse ends up feeling frustrated, angry or ignored.  The concept could be expanded to players, with endless possibilities.  Imagine a runner on first trying to time the pitcher's delivery in preparation for a stolen base attempt, while his wife is standing in the first base coach's box asking "Do you think I look fatter now than I did on our wedding day?"  Or a pitcher who is struggling with his control with runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out, getting the signal from the catcher while having to answer the question "How come you never want to talk about having a baby?"