By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

I count myself as a baseball purist, yet I’m all for the designated hitter. (Which probably makes me a baseball hypocrite.) I’m all for change in the sport, but not overnight. I’m willing to listen to the latest ways to improve the game, as long as they don’t go too far.

They are going too far. (Or thinking about going to far.)

Baseball should change organically, not by vote or decree. Putting a runner on second base in extra innings to keep from games lasting too long? That’s changing the fundamentals of the game.

And this idea that they’ve come up with in a MLB-owned minor league of batters being able to run to first on any ball that gets away from the catcher at any point in the at bat — stealing first, for lack of a better description — is just as inane.

Too many home runs is not a problem; too many people striking out or walking is a problem. I don’t like all the shifts you see today, but it’s a natural reaction to what scouting tells you. And it works. Don’t legislate it out; learn how to beat it.

The ball is not juiced; it’s just being hit in a certain way (launch angle, exit velocity) that allows teams to functionally beat the shift by hitting over it.

It wasn’t that long ago that games were played in large, Astroturf-covered stadiums in which people stole bases all the time. Go back a couple of more decades and there was a year in which only one player in the American League hit over .290. You want to go back to that?

Just don’t be a prisoner of the moment. There’s no need to start making changes just for the sake of change or for another TV viewer point share. Finding ways to speed up the game is not changing the game. That’s OK.

Baseball will evolve. It always has and it always will.