Dave Ammenheuser: Aaron Judge’s HR chase is only one reason to see Rangers in Arlington

Pick one day: Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and take a reprieve from football.

Load the family car and head to Globe Life Field to see one of the Rangers’ final games of the 2022 season.

The Yankees are in town and its an opportunity to witness history.

This suggestion goes far beyond watching Yankees slugger Aaron Judge attempt to hit his 62nd home run to set the American League single-season record. Judge is currently tied with former Yankee great Roger Maris with 61. Retrieve the home run ball and you can likely sell it for millions. Seriously.

But that’s only a portion of the appeal.

The sport, once known as our national pastime, is changing forever. This week is your final chance to see the game that entertained your parents and the generations before them.

With the exception of adding the designated hitter in 1973, Major League Baseball will make its most radical changes in its 150-year history after this season closes.

Beginning next season, under the advice of its competition committee and certainly with the urging of commissioner Rob Manfred, the game changes. Forever.

In 2023, the pitch clock is on the way. The infield shifts are gone. The bases will be bigger.

In an effort to stop the slow attendance drain (a league-wide 18% decline since 2007’s all-time high of 79.4 million), the changes are designated to speed up the game and the desire to get the younger generations away from their video games and off the couch and to the ballpark.

Will forcing pitchers to throw a pitch within a specified time clock (20 seconds with runners on base; 15 seconds with the bases empty) make the game more appealing? MLB thinks so. The pitch clock shaved more than 25 minutes off minor league games when similar rules were enacted this season.

When the Rangers moved here in 1972, the average game time was 2 hours, 27 minutes. This season an average game lasts 3:03, which is actually a seven-minute drop from last season.

The other changes are designed to increase the number of runs scored in games. By eliminating defensive shifts, all infielders must stay on the infield dirt when the pitchers are on the rubber. And only two infielders can be on each side of second base. This should create more base runners and logically more runs.

And the bases are getting bigger. They are expanding from 15-inch squares to 18-inch squares, which means it will be a tad easier to steal second and third base. Maybe this change will entice more base stealing with less emphasis on home run launch angles and exit velocity.

The game is changing.

If you want to be one of those who can say, “I remember that game when,” you gotta get to Globe Field this week.

Dave Ammenheuser is the Star-Telegram sports editor.