These are great arguments for change in baseball. Long have people been saying that the season should be shorter. Long have people been complaining about the length of the games. MLB is too hung up on the nostalgia of the game and the history to make the changes necessary. Baseball has been built on this could of history and the statistics that are kept. Changes in the game could alter the course of time and make it so that we couldn't directly compare the achievements of today's players to those of players from baseball folklore. At some point, MLB is going to have to realize that their product isn't good enough to continue with the status quo year after year.
I absolutely love the term "bar stool philosopher". I spent almost 10 years working in restaurants and bars and I have spent many a minute that I will never get back listening to the ramblings of the bar know it all. I have spent many a moment "pretending" to be busy doing something else in order to avoid the mind-numbing chatter of the guy who's biggest dream is to be the "Norm" in my life.