Harvey Araton has it right. I have called for 7-inning games for years. Please make it so. Games are just too long; I'm in bed before they're over 90% of the time, and I'm a huge Tigers fan. Meaning I don't tune in most nights because I know I won't see it through to the end.
Fewer commercials would help to speed things along. Officials may say that this would result in less ad revenue, but that doesn't have to be true. If there is less inventory of ads, MLB can charge more for each ad to make up the difference. Additionally, the argument can be made that fewer commercials would result in more engagement with each ad. If there was, for example, only one ad in each break more people would watch that one ad rather than flipping channels and returning later.
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Advertisements? Could these possibly be the cause?
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as a huge baseball fan if they want to speed up the game they are going about it in the wrong way. First off there are know reason to use 10 pitchers in a 2-1 game. Limit the amount of pitchers you can use in a nine inning game. Second make these pitchers throw the ball in 30 seconds or less. Nobody holds the ball longer than Max scherzer of Washington you can go to sleep waiting for him to pitch, and he is not the only one. Third stop these catches from going to the mound every other pitch. If the pitchers cant get the sign get him glasses.These are just a few of the issues. And last this one really bothers me. Put a time limit on a rain delay, dont let the fan sit in the stands 4 hours so they can sell more hot dogs and overpriced beer. Does anyone out there remember something from the past called double headers
Once in the box, batters have to stay in the box until a ball is hit. Pitchers must pitch within 30 seconds of getting the ball back. No wandering around for either of them.
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Like Harvey Araton says, seven innings.
Baseball should have 4 innings with 7 outs for each team each inning (so 28 outs total per game for each team). Currently, teams change sides 17 or 18 times a game. With 4 innings, they'd change sides on 7 or 8 times a game; this could easily shorten games by 30 or 40 minutes (of commercials). Also, with 7 outs in an inning, there's gonna be a lot more opportunities for offensive action each inning.
Stay in the batter's box, no extra trips to the mound, cut down on commercials between innings - this is so easy. But please respect the uniforms and NEVER put advertising on them.
Retain the base runners from inning to inning.
I love baseball, but there are only about 10 minutes of baseball in a typical game, because 75% of the time the runner is out with a throw to first or a pop catch, and most base runners are stranded at the inning end. The real action happens when there are base runners. The game stays essentially the same, but you would get much more of it.
I love baseball, but there are only about 10 minutes of baseball in a typical game, because 75% of the time the runner is out with a throw to first or a pop catch, and most base runners are stranded at the inning end. The real action happens when there are base runners. The game stays essentially the same, but you would get much more of it.
Product Placement is the key. The teams want the revenue and who can blame them? But stepping away from the game for advertisements just doesn't work in today's short-attention-span market. So why not have the Left Fielder toting a Monster Energy Drink can out into the field with him. It's left field, he needs something to keep him awake anyway, Monster is the perfect solution. Those diving catches will be all the more interesting if it's in a hip holster, and if the announcer is calling "Whoa Nellie! That is one MONSTER of a catch right there! That one belongs in the YOUTUBE best plays of the week for sure, sponsored by UNNNNNN-DER ARMOR!"
Catchers would sport Home Depot on their gear, though they'd have to share with Relief Pitchers -- (More SAVING, More Doing) but the fit would be natural enough between the two.
The problem with Baseball is that it's too easy to just make everyone stop in order to make money. If you asked the owners to replace 30 second advertisements with product placement, their answer would be "let's do both and earn double." That's the heart of the problem. They're just too greedy.
At some point the owners are going to stop seeing their RoI stay where it is right now. When that happens change will be made. I'd recommend using the short patches of downtime already build into the game to (ahem) pitch products in more personal ways. That's how products are sold on the Internet, and that's the future of Baseball viewership anyway.
Catchers would sport Home Depot on their gear, though they'd have to share with Relief Pitchers -- (More SAVING, More Doing) but the fit would be natural enough between the two.
The problem with Baseball is that it's too easy to just make everyone stop in order to make money. If you asked the owners to replace 30 second advertisements with product placement, their answer would be "let's do both and earn double." That's the heart of the problem. They're just too greedy.
At some point the owners are going to stop seeing their RoI stay where it is right now. When that happens change will be made. I'd recommend using the short patches of downtime already build into the game to (ahem) pitch products in more personal ways. That's how products are sold on the Internet, and that's the future of Baseball viewership anyway.
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The batting gloves are the number one problem. Every batter readjusts their gloves with nearly every pitch. The second, keep at least one foot in batter box. The Lord can you hear you pray inside the box as well as outside the box. No more strolling. The idea of automatically sending a intended walked batter is completely wrong. One of the main idea of baseball is to successfully get the ball past the batter and control it once past. The batter has the opportunity swing at a pitch in or out of strike zone. And a runner on the bases has the opportunity to try and advance on each pitch.
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When I go to a minor league ball game, things move along just fine. Same game, same players. Apparently games that are on TV run longer for some reason. I wonder what that is?
Find a way to monetize the game that doesn't require everyone on the field to wait two and a half minutes between innings.
Find a way to monetize the game that doesn't require everyone on the field to wait two and a half minutes between innings.
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Pitching change only allowed between innings.
New pitcher must be ready to go at start of inning; no extra time allowed.
Any pitcher taken out during inning will be unavailable for 3 games (5 games for starting pitcher).
Inning ends when 4 runs has been allowed.
Thus, grand slam ends an inning, and maximum point possible per inning is 7 (3 runs plus 1 grad slam).
Game ends when run differential reaches 10 at any time.
This magic number becomes 8 in 7th, 7 in 8th, 6 in 9th.
Batter to stay in box with both feet. Any step-out is an out.
Exception for brush back pitches, but batter must return to box immediately.
Non-HBP injury step-out or time-out: no out but batter is removed from game and cannot return.
Pitcher must remain within a zone on the mound. Any step-off grants a base to batter.
Injury step-out or time-out: no penalty but pitcher is removed and cannot return.
With these clear rules, no clock will be needed and game will be played naturally, though strategies will change. There will also be no ambiguity for fake injuries.
These rules can be tweaked, but the basic ideas are great.
New pitcher must be ready to go at start of inning; no extra time allowed.
Any pitcher taken out during inning will be unavailable for 3 games (5 games for starting pitcher).
Inning ends when 4 runs has been allowed.
Thus, grand slam ends an inning, and maximum point possible per inning is 7 (3 runs plus 1 grad slam).
Game ends when run differential reaches 10 at any time.
This magic number becomes 8 in 7th, 7 in 8th, 6 in 9th.
Batter to stay in box with both feet. Any step-out is an out.
Exception for brush back pitches, but batter must return to box immediately.
Non-HBP injury step-out or time-out: no out but batter is removed from game and cannot return.
Pitcher must remain within a zone on the mound. Any step-off grants a base to batter.
Injury step-out or time-out: no penalty but pitcher is removed and cannot return.
With these clear rules, no clock will be needed and game will be played naturally, though strategies will change. There will also be no ambiguity for fake injuries.
These rules can be tweaked, but the basic ideas are great.
Call the Strike Zone. Greg Maddux routinely threw two hour games because he threw strikes where they could not be hit. Now these pitches are often called balls. Of course, electronic umpires for balls and strikes would also achieve this. We have all seen a 3-0 pitch called a strike when it should been a ball and an 0-2 strike called a ball if the hitter is a star. These moments add up by keeping the batter in the box, driving up pitch counts, leading to more relievers, visits to the mound to calm a pitcher victimized by an ump squeezing the strike zone, etc. Call the strike zone, either with the ump or add an electronic ump.
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No need to speed up the game especially if there's drama. Boring is when the pitcher is no hitting the other team. If he's moving them down, nothing is happening - there is no drama. Drama is when he game is going back & forth but to get that going, you need hits & base runners. Reduce the pitchers advantage. Otherwise it's like am overpowering tennis server - serve an ace and the point is over. Where's the drama in that?
The intentional walk banned? A terrible idea. What should be banned are mascots, all music other than a ballpark organ and all those between-inning shenanigans and contests. The game only seems long when one's senses are overwhelmed by such dreck.
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I was a professional baseball fan growing up in Chicago. Now that I live in a college town I rarely watch the professionals on television. I would rather go to a college game or stream the audio or video on my computer. The only time I watch the professionals is during the World Series, but it is sooo boring that I do other things while I have it on.
My idea is to put the ball in play. Players are no longer ashamed of striking out. Chris Davis, OF Baltimore, struck out every 3rd plate appearance (219 times in 665 plate appearances) and earned over $21MM. My plan is to charge the player $1k for every strike out if earning less than $10MM a yr or $10k per strike out if earning over $10MM. Payments will go to the pitcher who struck them out.
Successful base stealer are paid $1k or $10k for every base stolen. The pitcher and catcher will pay the base stealer $500 or $5k each.
We could use a sliding scale for those who want a more fair system.
The point is, we want the ball in play instead of waiting for someone to hit a home run.
Other changes:
1. No warm up pitches for relievers after leaving the bullpen, except for injuries.
2. Don't allow batters to call timeout with bases empty.
3. Allow players to wear earbuds for the managers to communicate with them (Joe Girardi's idea)
4. If the pitcher tries 4 pick up attempts in the same at bat on, the runner(s) advance one base. Resets to 0 if the pitcher picks up a runner.
5. A pitcher must record an out in a inning before he can be replaced.
6. A catcher can only visit the mound once per at bat.
6. A manager is limited to one visit to the mound per pitcher per inning (if earbuds are used no need to visit to strategize)
7. Managers have 2 replay challenges per game
8. Allow for technology to call balls and strikes.
Successful base stealer are paid $1k or $10k for every base stolen. The pitcher and catcher will pay the base stealer $500 or $5k each.
We could use a sliding scale for those who want a more fair system.
The point is, we want the ball in play instead of waiting for someone to hit a home run.
Other changes:
1. No warm up pitches for relievers after leaving the bullpen, except for injuries.
2. Don't allow batters to call timeout with bases empty.
3. Allow players to wear earbuds for the managers to communicate with them (Joe Girardi's idea)
4. If the pitcher tries 4 pick up attempts in the same at bat on, the runner(s) advance one base. Resets to 0 if the pitcher picks up a runner.
5. A pitcher must record an out in a inning before he can be replaced.
6. A catcher can only visit the mound once per at bat.
6. A manager is limited to one visit to the mound per pitcher per inning (if earbuds are used no need to visit to strategize)
7. Managers have 2 replay challenges per game
8. Allow for technology to call balls and strikes.
Make it 3 balls and 2 strikes. Pitchers nibble and nibble, while batters work the count. Great strategies, boring game. I have changed channels in the middle of at bats. Some at bats seem longer than a 5-set tennis match on a clay court.
Reduce the number of games in the season to 150 or less. They keep adding more rounds of playoffs, so why keep playing so many regular season games.
Yes it is too slow to watch and too slow to play. That is why I never do either. As a kid you would stand in the hot outfield bored out of your gourd, the there would suddenly be like ten seconds of terror. Will I catch this or end up like Steve martins kid in the movie parenthood. Increase football by two regular season games, decrease basketball by fifteen and the same for hockey. Soccer? That seems dull and also too long. This is an attention deficit world people, hurry up and get on with it.
Length of games is not a problem. Nice way to spend a summer afternoon. And what about double headers? It seems like a problem is being created that isn't really a problem.
But if we are going to look at how to change the game, why not look to Cricket for ideas? Time the game limiting it to two hours and 38 minutes. After that time, pick it up the next day until innings are complete. We might want to extend the number of innings played to 13 from 9 just to keep it interesting.
But why fix something that isn't broke? Baseball is a game of strategy each and every inning. It isn't meant to be rushed but rather savored and enjoyed preferably with beer, soda, peanuts and hot dogs.
But if we are going to look at how to change the game, why not look to Cricket for ideas? Time the game limiting it to two hours and 38 minutes. After that time, pick it up the next day until innings are complete. We might want to extend the number of innings played to 13 from 9 just to keep it interesting.
But why fix something that isn't broke? Baseball is a game of strategy each and every inning. It isn't meant to be rushed but rather savored and enjoyed preferably with beer, soda, peanuts and hot dogs.
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I agree with many ideas in this article:
Keep batters in the Batter's Box. Way too much time is wasted on glove adjustments, and peering at the 3rd base coach.
Limit mound conferences. Limit warm-up pitches.
Remove all body armor from the game. Barry Bonds had a huge advantage crowding the plate with no fear of being hurt by a pitch off his forearm, etc. I used to get mad that Braves manager Bobby Cox didn't make a scene with the umpire to make him remove it. It contributed almost as much to his latter year home run totals as his unethical steroid use.
I like the idea of replay examinations being less than a minute, or the original call stands. But this is a very minor time-eater.
The biggest problem is commercial breaks. At the end of an inning the team retaking the field doesn't need longer than 2 minutes. In fact, 90 seconds is plenty. A Soccer game goes for 45 minutes without a commercial break and does fine, financially. MLB/TV greed is killing baseball. A seat behind home plate at Yankee Stadium is around $1000, depending on the opponent. Most people cannot afford to take their family to a game anymore, because mediocre players now make millions, while stars make tens of millions. MLB needs to wake up and count the empty seats.
Keep batters in the Batter's Box. Way too much time is wasted on glove adjustments, and peering at the 3rd base coach.
Limit mound conferences. Limit warm-up pitches.
Remove all body armor from the game. Barry Bonds had a huge advantage crowding the plate with no fear of being hurt by a pitch off his forearm, etc. I used to get mad that Braves manager Bobby Cox didn't make a scene with the umpire to make him remove it. It contributed almost as much to his latter year home run totals as his unethical steroid use.
I like the idea of replay examinations being less than a minute, or the original call stands. But this is a very minor time-eater.
The biggest problem is commercial breaks. At the end of an inning the team retaking the field doesn't need longer than 2 minutes. In fact, 90 seconds is plenty. A Soccer game goes for 45 minutes without a commercial break and does fine, financially. MLB/TV greed is killing baseball. A seat behind home plate at Yankee Stadium is around $1000, depending on the opponent. Most people cannot afford to take their family to a game anymore, because mediocre players now make millions, while stars make tens of millions. MLB needs to wake up and count the empty seats.
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If a team is losing by 5 runs or more by the end of the 7th inning then the game should officially end. Thus no games will go to nine innings unless both teams runs are within in reach of each other saving time, saving arms, reducing injuries. Win-win
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Yeah, baseball is real slow compared to say football where a 60 minute game takes 3 & 1/2 hrs. Oh! Baseball only takes 3 hrs? Maybe we should add another 1/2 hr of ads.
Pitch clock pitch clock pitch clock. How many times do you need to say it? The wait between pitches is hands-down the most boring and deadening part of the game. Fifteen seconds. Each violating batter and each pitcher gets one warning (per game). After that, each violation is a called strike or ball. In short order the players will start to get it, and the matter will become a nonissue.
3 balls. No batter timeout. 20 second per pitch(including catcher returning ball to pitcher). Problem solved.
I liked some of the ideas about pitching changes, which when done strategically during an inning cause delays and frustration. In order to stop the insane practice of bringing one pitcher in to get one out against one batter, then switch pitchers for the next batter, I would like to see a penalty assigned to the pitching team.
If you want to bring in a new pitcher mid-inning, you can only do so after an offensive success (walk, single, etc) OR you have to issue an intentional walk. I realize a purist might consider this medalling. However, consider basketball: You can't just throw in a player and take one off the court willy-nilly. You have to wait until some type of stop naturally happens, or, you have to make that stop by using a valuable time out.
If you want to bring in a new pitcher mid-inning, you can only do so after an offensive success (walk, single, etc) OR you have to issue an intentional walk. I realize a purist might consider this medalling. However, consider basketball: You can't just throw in a player and take one off the court willy-nilly. You have to wait until some type of stop naturally happens, or, you have to make that stop by using a valuable time out.
Shortening games to 7 innings is plain dumb - other ideas are okay such as limiting mound visits but can't beleive anyone is serious about 7 innings.
I am still trying to figure out the problem we are trying to solve: what is the outcome of the game being "too long"? Are fewer people going to games? Are fewer watching on TV? Are advertising dollars down?
Please say more about the impact of long games...
Please say more about the impact of long games...
apologies if this ha already been said; The one thing that drives me crazy is switching pitchers mid batter. I say pitchers finish the batter and the limit the number of times pitchers can change. That would make me watch more.
m.e.
m.e.
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I love baseball and I don´t have complains about three and a half hours games. I can´t understand why someone would want shorter games.
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If commercial breaks are shortened, they need to be more expensive, but that would depend on bigger audiences. That will never happen as long as the dumb blackout rules apply. Very frustrating.
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Do away with interfering with the base runner. All nine fielders can come push the runner off the bag and tag him. But the batter keeps his bat.
watch one of those old 90 minute games, the framework for reform (recaliimationo the game from the foolery) is there...replete with catchers talking to pitchers.
the bad guy is tv, chopping up nearly all sports with commercial breaks getting longer and longer, tennis is already off this viewers list unless its the big guys in a final...sponsors should have a big window at the top of the game, and hefty one after say three and seven and another before the wrap up,..otherwise let the game be.
the bad guy is tv, chopping up nearly all sports with commercial breaks getting longer and longer, tennis is already off this viewers list unless its the big guys in a final...sponsors should have a big window at the top of the game, and hefty one after say three and seven and another before the wrap up,..otherwise let the game be.
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I've never been to a baseball game that I hoped would end sooner. To the contrary, if a game goes a mere two hours, I feel like, hey, I just got here! Hopefully it WILL go into extra innings -- more drama, more tension, more every-pitch-counts, more gamesmanship.
In fact, the most memorable game I ever saw was on May 31, 1964, at Shea, Mets vs the San Francisco Giants, a 23-inning nail biter (and the second game of a double-header). Due to the necessity of switching some players from their normal fielding positions as the game progressed onward toward infinity, I was able to witness, close up, the intensity of concentration of one of the Giants' outfielders who was switched to the infield in the late innings, and thus to be able to brag forevermore to my fellow baseball fans that -- I saw Willie Mays play shortstop.
In fact, the most memorable game I ever saw was on May 31, 1964, at Shea, Mets vs the San Francisco Giants, a 23-inning nail biter (and the second game of a double-header). Due to the necessity of switching some players from their normal fielding positions as the game progressed onward toward infinity, I was able to witness, close up, the intensity of concentration of one of the Giants' outfielders who was switched to the infield in the late innings, and thus to be able to brag forevermore to my fellow baseball fans that -- I saw Willie Mays play shortstop.
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To all you speed fans, two words: Mike Hargrove.
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The simplest way to speed up the game is the one that will never happen: Stop making accommodations for TV advertisers. Get the players on and off the field between innings as quickly as possible and only allow brief commercials during the quick transitions (and during pitching changes).
Other than the ads, the main reason that games are slower now is because slowing down the game is a winning strategy. Taking pitches, drawing walks, and even getting hit by pitches is a recipe for success. OBP has become the most highly coveted offensive stat in most organizations, and for good reason - it wins championships. And no ploy to speed up the game should ever discourage a team from doing anything but their best to win.
Other than the ads, the main reason that games are slower now is because slowing down the game is a winning strategy. Taking pitches, drawing walks, and even getting hit by pitches is a recipe for success. OBP has become the most highly coveted offensive stat in most organizations, and for good reason - it wins championships. And no ploy to speed up the game should ever discourage a team from doing anything but their best to win.
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Fascinating range of proposals, in the article and among these comments. I side with those that want to keep baseball the game it is, although some suggestions were intriguing enough to wonder if maybe there is another sport just waiting to be born. By the way, my own suggestion for improvement is a fixed limit on pitching changes.
All things are about time. Time is a dimension of all existence. Increasingly, over several centuries, we have used "clocks," time machines, to dominate time. Baseball shows us that time and "clocks" are not synonymous. The very supposition of this article is wrong. Baseball is not "too long." The only dimension that is measurable is space and baseball allows us to at glimpse the truth that time is ultimately immeasurable.
Profit and ratings, yeah, they're measurable. But if you take away the essence of baseball, it won't be baseball.
Profit and ratings, yeah, they're measurable. But if you take away the essence of baseball, it won't be baseball.
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Require the pitcher to throw every pitch within five seconds of receiving the ball. That'll get the batter up to the plate in a hurry! (May have to move the on-deck circle closer to the plate.) If the batter steps out of the batter's box, that doesn't stop play.
No endless shaking off of signals. If a pitch isn't forthcoming within five seconds while the batter's in the batter's box, automatic "ball." If a batter isn't in the batter's box within five seconds while the pitcher has the ball, automatic "strike."
No endless shaking off of signals. If a pitch isn't forthcoming within five seconds while the batter's in the batter's box, automatic "ball." If a batter isn't in the batter's box within five seconds while the pitcher has the ball, automatic "strike."
I recommend that people look up George Carlin's classic "compare and contrast" between baseball and football to get a sense of why baseball is not in need of any more changes.
Basketball is an ADD festival, with various team-sponsored distractions being paraded out on the floor when there is (gasp!) a 20 second timeout.
If you don't have enough time to go to a baseball game stay home. I have sat through 16 inning games and 14 inning games and always thought I was getting more for my money. I suspect the management sold more hot dogs as well. But you can't rush good whiskey and you can't rush baseball.
Basketball is an ADD festival, with various team-sponsored distractions being paraded out on the floor when there is (gasp!) a 20 second timeout.
If you don't have enough time to go to a baseball game stay home. I have sat through 16 inning games and 14 inning games and always thought I was getting more for my money. I suspect the management sold more hot dogs as well. But you can't rush good whiskey and you can't rush baseball.
3
1) Impose 2:10 seconds between half innings. (Saves 18 minutes.)
2) Have a pitch clock - 12 seconds between pitches, 24 seconds between batters. Penalty is a ball. (Saves 18 minutes)
3) Give catchers 5 times per game to go visit a pitcher - limited to 30 seconds per visit. (Saves 4 minutes.)
4) Allow a manager 2 times per game to visit the pitcher without changing pitchers limiting each visit to 60 seconds. (Saves 7 minutes)
5) Allow 2 minutes for a pitching change. (Saves 12 minutes)
6) Limit pitchers to 3 pick-off attempts per inning. Penalty is a balk.
7) Don't allow batters to step out of the batters box unless they are knocked down. Penalty is a strike. (Saves 12 minutes)
8) After a home run, each player goes straight to touch home plate (including the batter). (Saves 4 minutes)
9) During fall call ups, each team gets to either choose to keep a standard lineup size and have standard player replacement rules or expand the lineup size and only make positional changes between innings. If they keep the standard size, then they can use any set of players on the expanded roster to make any single game's lineup. (Saves huge amount of time during fall)
10) Eliminate intentional walks. Catcher informs the ump who sends the player to first base. (Marginal saving but eliminates annoyance.)
*All these changes should shorten average game time to about 2 hours without changing the character of the game, the meaning of any particular stat, or the time allocated to commercial breaks.
2) Have a pitch clock - 12 seconds between pitches, 24 seconds between batters. Penalty is a ball. (Saves 18 minutes)
3) Give catchers 5 times per game to go visit a pitcher - limited to 30 seconds per visit. (Saves 4 minutes.)
4) Allow a manager 2 times per game to visit the pitcher without changing pitchers limiting each visit to 60 seconds. (Saves 7 minutes)
5) Allow 2 minutes for a pitching change. (Saves 12 minutes)
6) Limit pitchers to 3 pick-off attempts per inning. Penalty is a balk.
7) Don't allow batters to step out of the batters box unless they are knocked down. Penalty is a strike. (Saves 12 minutes)
8) After a home run, each player goes straight to touch home plate (including the batter). (Saves 4 minutes)
9) During fall call ups, each team gets to either choose to keep a standard lineup size and have standard player replacement rules or expand the lineup size and only make positional changes between innings. If they keep the standard size, then they can use any set of players on the expanded roster to make any single game's lineup. (Saves huge amount of time during fall)
10) Eliminate intentional walks. Catcher informs the ump who sends the player to first base. (Marginal saving but eliminates annoyance.)
*All these changes should shorten average game time to about 2 hours without changing the character of the game, the meaning of any particular stat, or the time allocated to commercial breaks.
2
Why is everyone up in arms about 3 1/2 hour baseball games, but have no problem with a 3 1/2 hour football game where the last 2 minutes takes 35 minutes to play. And don't tell me there's more action in a football game (typically only 12 to 18 of actual play.
To speed up the game:
1. An incoming relief pitcher has been warming up in the bullpen; do away with the 8 extra warm up pitches.
2. Limit the number of relief pitchers per game to two.
3. Eliminate the DH.
4. No visits to the mound without changing the pitcher (and you only get two changes).
To speed up the game:
1. An incoming relief pitcher has been warming up in the bullpen; do away with the 8 extra warm up pitches.
2. Limit the number of relief pitchers per game to two.
3. Eliminate the DH.
4. No visits to the mound without changing the pitcher (and you only get two changes).
2
The game is fine, it's strategic and slow, that's a big part of it. It seems to me that if you find yourself easily bored while watching a long game then perhaps consider that watching this sport isn't really for you.
4
Schedule one or two "old time" baseball games per season in each park. No batter walk up music, no Sweet Caroline, no America the Beautiful, no Take Me Out to the Ballgame, no video replay, no interminable pre-game ceremonies - fan of the day, blood donor of the month, scholars from Machias, local high school fencing champions, throwing out ceremonial multiple first pitches and and most important, 90 seconds between innings. I like the idea of a 25 man roster for that game. Keep commercial revenue neutral, charge double for limited commercial interruptions. See how long a game takes, check out ad revenue with no in game rule changes, check out TV viewership. With the exception of the 25 man roster - this seems all possible without players association consent and could be implemented this summer.
1
Some fans say that every player must bat, so they are against the DH. And then they add the "strategy" argument. The trouble is, that "strategy", or "tactical thinking", is all related to making sure that your pitcher does NOT pitch. If it's so important that every player hit, remove the DH, but also remove the option to replace the pitcher. If the only reason you are removing the pitcher is so that he doesn't have to hit, you are using a "floating DH", which to my mind is worse than having a regular DH. "Strategy" my foot.
Make the batter's gloves fasten with buttons. Time saved = 2 minutes per batter (except those few barehanded batters.)
The Red Sox and the Yankees are never to play each other - Jeter and Petroia are the prime offenders of the "I must adjust every article of gear/clothing/body part" school of baseball. I know Jeter's gone, but his legacy lives on. Get in the box and hit.
1
Headed to my 3rd Spring Training game today.
I hope it lasts 4 hours.
I have the time and the attention span to enjoy a game without clocks. I won't look at my computer, watch TV, or feel the need to be stimulated by some electronic device.
Best of all, I will be free of the short-attention-span tweeters. Instead, I will enjoy real conversations with people that share a passion for a great game.
Today, it is the Royals vs. Rockies.
Play ball!
I hope it lasts 4 hours.
I have the time and the attention span to enjoy a game without clocks. I won't look at my computer, watch TV, or feel the need to be stimulated by some electronic device.
Best of all, I will be free of the short-attention-span tweeters. Instead, I will enjoy real conversations with people that share a passion for a great game.
Today, it is the Royals vs. Rockies.
Play ball!
7
I fully agree with Andreas Lord and the need for an electronic strike zone . Right now the strike zone is determined by the
home plate umpire for that game - wider , lower , higher ,
favoring the batter , favoring the pitcher but not God forbid
the MLB designated strike zone . And no one is allowed to question a ball or strike call . Just looking back at the umpire
in disbelief can get you ejected . And yet when that same umpire
is at second base the next day , a call can be questioned and 50%
of questioned calls are overturned by MLB. In a 3 game series
there will be three different strike zones . Before each game the
home plate umpire should have to go to each team's locker oomph
and loudly announce the version of the strike zone that will be in
use for that day's game .
home plate umpire for that game - wider , lower , higher ,
favoring the batter , favoring the pitcher but not God forbid
the MLB designated strike zone . And no one is allowed to question a ball or strike call . Just looking back at the umpire
in disbelief can get you ejected . And yet when that same umpire
is at second base the next day , a call can be questioned and 50%
of questioned calls are overturned by MLB. In a 3 game series
there will be three different strike zones . Before each game the
home plate umpire should have to go to each team's locker oomph
and loudly announce the version of the strike zone that will be in
use for that day's game .
1
Professional baseball games are not too long or boring.
Have you ever watched a professional football game? Now THAT'S a game that's way too long and boring. Those games are also 3 hours long but they only actually play about 40 minutes. Most of the time they're just standing around, reviewing the last play, or dealing with a penalty. BORING!
At least with baseball you get your money's worth. Those guys are playing nearly the whole time. Even between plays strategies are changing and adjustments are being made. You just need to settle down and learn to pay attention. Leave baseball alone.
Have you ever watched a professional football game? Now THAT'S a game that's way too long and boring. Those games are also 3 hours long but they only actually play about 40 minutes. Most of the time they're just standing around, reviewing the last play, or dealing with a penalty. BORING!
At least with baseball you get your money's worth. Those guys are playing nearly the whole time. Even between plays strategies are changing and adjustments are being made. You just need to settle down and learn to pay attention. Leave baseball alone.
8
Sure, it would be nice to speed up the game a bit but that's not really the main problem. The fundamental problem is the amount of time it takes to watch the game. Simply put, the amount of time devoted to commercials is the single biggest problem. Shorten the amount of commercial time between 1/2 innings by a minute and you automatically save 18 minutes. Shorten commercial time between during pitching changes by 30 seconds and you save a few more minutes. Do those things and you "shorten" the game without changing the game at all.
Of course, MLB is supposedly unwilling to touch that idea with a ten foot pole and want to find ways to shorten the game by changing the game. And, yes, that will make the time to watch a game shorter. But the commercials would still be there and interminable, offering the viewer, whether at homer or at the ballpark plenty of opportunity to become bored not matter how quickly the game is actually played.
Of course, MLB is supposedly unwilling to touch that idea with a ten foot pole and want to find ways to shorten the game by changing the game. And, yes, that will make the time to watch a game shorter. But the commercials would still be there and interminable, offering the viewer, whether at homer or at the ballpark plenty of opportunity to become bored not matter how quickly the game is actually played.
1
Back when tickets didn't cost so much, people understood baseball to be a game you could attend late and leave early. The length of the game did not matter--it was more of a pastime. Not saying anything new. We are a society that assumes we should get what we pay for, all nine innings, and make it fit our schedules. Team owners assume they should be able to change the game to fit their advertisers' needs. If team owners wanted to fill the stands with cheaper tickets--cheap enough to make the decision to attend a short-term one, rather than a longer-term savings issue--then people could come and go at little financial risk and you could maintain the things that make the game interesting, such as the long at bat or the errant throw on an intentional walk or the third base coach talking to the pitcher while the bullpen warms up or the psychological contest. That might not square with the needs of TV (which, by the way, milks those game-lengthening moments pretty well already). If it's such a big deal, then start the live game 10 or 20 minutes earlier and edit between pitches. You could save all sorts of time, then, and provide "highlights" on a near realtime basis. Difficult to balance and get right, but there's enough advertising and content to fill in the gaps. If the fans at home like that, then it's win-win, right? My main point is that you can separate the game and its broadcast.
1
There is nothing wrong with this beautiful, beautiful game.
5
So, clearly, no good ideas out there.
1
Those who suggest eliminating the DH are absolutely right. So much tactical thinking is removed from the game when pitchers aren't forced to bat. Madison Bumgarner is a great example. A substantial portion of his home runs, the number of which are substantial for a pitcher, have come at the expense of Clayton Kershaw. Undeniably one of the game's great pitchers but for Giant's fans, the devil incarnate. Hoe much fun is that! Using a DH takes so much away from the game simply to add more offense and by the way to prolong the careers of position players whose defensive skills have eroded but who can still hit. It's awful. Like no other game baseball demands long thinking. Taking pitchers out of the offensive calculus fundamentally diminishes the game.
8
How come no one thinks that NFL football is boring? In a 3 hour plus game, there is no more than 11 minutes of actual action. I learned this by prerecording games games on a DVR and watching them later. Now I don't have to spend a whole Sunday afternoon waiting to see whether the Giants and Jets lost.
2
I know it's a divisive topic, but the AL really needs to kill the DH. The DH has dramatically skewed statistics like ERAs and team batting averages, and has curtailed use of the strategic "double switch." The DH was implemented in the 70's as a response to low attendance and a premise that fans wanted to see more HRs and runs. That's not a reason to to alter the game, and now with inter-league play, rules need to be uniform.
5
Basic data would have helped. The games have doubled in time since 1920--from an hour and a half to three hours!
In the 1960s, they averaged about 2 1/2.
There are related issues.
The season is far too long. World Series ending in November?!
Inter-league play is an abomination. Detracts from the magic of the World Series.
Far too many teams--besides dilution of talent, it dilutes interest. Who can remember most of the players or even all the teams any more?!
The shift to mostly night games is a problem. Games start too late and go too late. That means fewer kids watch. We have day jobs.
Coverage of games in the press has declined--where are short overviews of the games and the box scores?
The interminable playoff system with 3 rounds is too many. 2 was bad enough, but three?! Is everybody a winner?! Should everyone get gold stars and stickers?!
Make the season 140 games.
Make the game 7 innings.
Shorten all commercial breaks to 1 minute.
Form regional divisions, so all games are played at a decent hour.
Drop teams and have no more than 2 playoff rounds.
Drop the designated hitter. The game's strategy is so much better when the pitcher has to bat or be relieved.
Reduce the roster size; eliminate expansion for late season; make the season trade deadline much earlier.
The World Series should revert to day games; two on both weekends; alternating National and American League home cities.
Bring back the listening during the daytime!
Play ball! :-)
In the 1960s, they averaged about 2 1/2.
There are related issues.
The season is far too long. World Series ending in November?!
Inter-league play is an abomination. Detracts from the magic of the World Series.
Far too many teams--besides dilution of talent, it dilutes interest. Who can remember most of the players or even all the teams any more?!
The shift to mostly night games is a problem. Games start too late and go too late. That means fewer kids watch. We have day jobs.
Coverage of games in the press has declined--where are short overviews of the games and the box scores?
The interminable playoff system with 3 rounds is too many. 2 was bad enough, but three?! Is everybody a winner?! Should everyone get gold stars and stickers?!
Make the season 140 games.
Make the game 7 innings.
Shorten all commercial breaks to 1 minute.
Form regional divisions, so all games are played at a decent hour.
Drop teams and have no more than 2 playoff rounds.
Drop the designated hitter. The game's strategy is so much better when the pitcher has to bat or be relieved.
Reduce the roster size; eliminate expansion for late season; make the season trade deadline much earlier.
The World Series should revert to day games; two on both weekends; alternating National and American League home cities.
Bring back the listening during the daytime!
Play ball! :-)
2
Only one contributor to this roster of ideas (a Mr. Nussbaum) has the obvious, simple, easy-to-implement-without-changing-the-game idea: Limit the number of pitching changes per inning to 0, except in the case of injury. One pitcher per inning. All pitching changes must occur between innings, during those long commercial breaks. It's a win-win solution.
7
I couldn't really finish these comments. Most of them made me say either "this person doesn't understand baseball" or "this person hates baseball". A couple of (the most extreme) examples: Foul balls count as 3rd strikes? Well, when you are playing a picnic softball game because the pitcher is already not doing anything to try and get you out that's fine.. You can just lay off a tough pitch. If a good hitter takes a cut at a tough pitch in a (real) competitive game and fouls it off it is an achievement. It's an absurd advantage to the pitcher if that's an out instead forcing him to pitch another pitch.. If that's boring to you, you actually don't like baseball. Just face it. Doing away with batting orders? Please. You hate or don't get baseball if you don't get how integral the batting order is to the game. Many other ideas here aren't as silly but are points on the same continuum. Face it folks, the national pastime is hardly that. It's not for everyone. That's not a bad thing.
5
The problem with this story? It's too long...
7
Just don't let the Yankees bat. that will shorten some games. But not by very much, I guess.
1
As a few commenters observe, a major cause of the slowness of the games is the way that between-innings are packed with commercials. Compare the length of AAA games and MLB games. Same game, same players -- much shorter, often by 30 min to one hour. Look at the box scores for documentation. That's the unspoken elephant in the room, because both the owners and the players like the bigger pie. Until one day the game suffers serious audience collapse because of the ennui. As to the game itself, umpires could easily enforce rules against delay by batters and pitchers. (Why is David Price given such prerogatives, eg?) Let's start on that one before we fool around with the basic rules of the game.
1
To me Baseball was always a long and unexciting game (unless it was my kid's game which was only 7 innings and I had skin in the game). So I began to watch Football. It was exciting in the 60s and 70s but it too became an unexciting game (except for highlights).
Now I watch Basketball and over the years the game has been shortened and the flow improved. To me it has become more exciting as the years have passed, although commercials and ESPN commentators definitely have not improved anything.
Unfortunately Soccer although it seems to have a lot of excitement (movement wise), I never can see anything more that a bunch of men or women running helter-skelter around the field (like my grandchildren's soccer games).
Take some ques for Basketball and some good suggestions from some of the writers and Baseball will find more fans.
Those who think Baseball does not need fixing will find that they will be watching less and less Baseball as teams disappear because of lack of financial support derived from potential fans who have other better things to do that waste time watching batters knock dirt from their shoes and pitchers spitting and grabbing their genitals.
Now I watch Basketball and over the years the game has been shortened and the flow improved. To me it has become more exciting as the years have passed, although commercials and ESPN commentators definitely have not improved anything.
Unfortunately Soccer although it seems to have a lot of excitement (movement wise), I never can see anything more that a bunch of men or women running helter-skelter around the field (like my grandchildren's soccer games).
Take some ques for Basketball and some good suggestions from some of the writers and Baseball will find more fans.
Those who think Baseball does not need fixing will find that they will be watching less and less Baseball as teams disappear because of lack of financial support derived from potential fans who have other better things to do that waste time watching batters knock dirt from their shoes and pitchers spitting and grabbing their genitals.
Ya don't gotta speed it up. It (the game) ain't got no time limit. Ya wanna make it more interesting, "Lower the Pitching Mound, to Zero!"
A few less TV commercials and world series games starting before 8 PM would work for me.
11
Stop using public money to build private stadiums for billionaires. I don't care how fast the game is, but I do care about the highways and infrastructure that is neglected to shower owner and players with money.
2
October is the cruelest month. I don't want less baseball I want more baseball. So here's my thought -- eliminate the NFL, move all baseball games to warm climates and let them play until the new year. Then it's just a month plus 'til spring training.
2
Lower the ticket prices. At least 30% of seats for families in the lower tax brackets. If you can build Housing with mixed income logic, so for Baseball, the true soul of America.
The only game, god bless America, without a CLOCK----the TIMELESS PASTIME must be Preserved---especially for our VIDEO GAME ADDLED Youths.
PLAY BALL!!!!
The only game, god bless America, without a CLOCK----the TIMELESS PASTIME must be Preserved---especially for our VIDEO GAME ADDLED Youths.
PLAY BALL!!!!
1
Base runners and multiple scoring (HRs with bases occupied) create excitement in the game. 9 innings x 3 outs = 27 outs. 7 innings x 4 outs = 28 outs but more base runners, more double and even, triple plays. Only downside: a new asterisk in record books. Upside: a shorter, more exciting game.
1
I like the game as it is.
1
Better announcers like Phil Rizzuto - could listen to him for hours
Cut down on the Ads. I'm old enough to remember when the game was not played between ads. Now it is definitely squeezed in between way to many ads.
Of course the batter must have time to wander out of the box and readjust his gloves between each pitch.
Did the Babe need this?
Of course the batter must have time to wander out of the box and readjust his gloves between each pitch.
Did the Babe need this?
Baseball is unique in its relationship to time. We who love it, love that about it. Baseball is bigger that a clock, it could care less when our patience wears thin. Sure cut the commercial breaks by thirty seconds, that is pure greed and long overdue but I wouldn't hold my breath for that to happen. But cut innings? Whoa!
It used to be that TV catered to baseball. Now, of course, it's the other way around and that's one of the reasons for a longer game. It takes time to cram all those commercials between innings. Limit the time between innings to a minute. The game of baseball is fine the way it is. When you start changing a sport for the sake of the fans, you're doomed. And really, fans is the wrong term. Spectators. Real baseball fans love the game the way it is.
4
Television schedulers have apoplexies whenever a Sports contest lasts longer, or shorter, than its allocated time slot, fan attention deficit is a false narrative.
Sports are played, at the professional level, by athletes who's abilities differ only by their mental attitudes at the moment; therefore, "head games," and the time it takes to play them, are as much a part of "the game" as are the ball or puck, the field, court or rink and the officials.
Baseball is unique in that the "head games" the players play on each other are overt, obvious and played out in full view of the fans, whereas with the other televised professional sports, sans Tennis, the almost constant 'on-field' dramatics tends to conceal the games the athletes are playing on each other.
Television, and the attention deficit fan base strata, need to accommodate and adjust to the vagaries of professional competition...professional competition need not accommodate nor adjust to the rigidity of Television.
Sports are played, at the professional level, by athletes who's abilities differ only by their mental attitudes at the moment; therefore, "head games," and the time it takes to play them, are as much a part of "the game" as are the ball or puck, the field, court or rink and the officials.
Baseball is unique in that the "head games" the players play on each other are overt, obvious and played out in full view of the fans, whereas with the other televised professional sports, sans Tennis, the almost constant 'on-field' dramatics tends to conceal the games the athletes are playing on each other.
Television, and the attention deficit fan base strata, need to accommodate and adjust to the vagaries of professional competition...professional competition need not accommodate nor adjust to the rigidity of Television.
Some of these ideas are just dumb.
The best part about baseball is all the stuff that has not changed - it's still 90 feet between bases, 60'6" from the pitching rubber to the plate, etc. We should not change this stuff.
In the late 60's, it was a pitcher's game, and the scores were often 2-1 or 3-2, but the games were also over in 2 hours and 12 minutes. If you want more offense, that will make longer games.
Here's what let's do. The umpires have given the pitcher the low strike, below the knee. take that away, and the batters will have a decent pitch to hit. At the same time, don't let the batters step out of the box after every pitch. Totally unnecessary. No low strike, more hitting and scoring. No stepping out of the box, shorter games. QED.
The best part about baseball is all the stuff that has not changed - it's still 90 feet between bases, 60'6" from the pitching rubber to the plate, etc. We should not change this stuff.
In the late 60's, it was a pitcher's game, and the scores were often 2-1 or 3-2, but the games were also over in 2 hours and 12 minutes. If you want more offense, that will make longer games.
Here's what let's do. The umpires have given the pitcher the low strike, below the knee. take that away, and the batters will have a decent pitch to hit. At the same time, don't let the batters step out of the box after every pitch. Totally unnecessary. No low strike, more hitting and scoring. No stepping out of the box, shorter games. QED.
Lots of good advice being given, many putting their finger on the commercial breaks which are mind numbing to the fans. Also, the money involved with going to a MLB game is staggering. There is parking, extortionate ticket prices and the concession prices are out of this world. If you are a family of four it is a disgrace. Who can afford to go to a major league game? The game will thrive and grow if it remembers it a sport of skill, effort and strategy and not a vehicle to sell beer, burger or soft drinks either in the park or on TV. (Football is also suffering from this same toxic mix, and it is fading too.) I always loved the game, but the big leagues have become a money grubbing bore. To really enjoy the game, I recommend starting to support minor league teams. A AAA or AA club has much of the talent of the parent club, the game is faster moving and more exciting and the atmosphere is great fun.
5
Does anyone truly care about games played during the way too long baseball pre-season in Florida? These games don't count in advancing a team's standing because everyone starts with a clean slate once the regular season begins in April. Therefore pre-season baseball is a total waste of time.
The World Series should be played during the daytime period. Night time World Series games have often gone into the wee hours of the next day. Those of us who have work or school often miss crucial plays that occur in later innings because of the game ends way too late.
Go back to basics please.
The World Series should be played during the daytime period. Night time World Series games have often gone into the wee hours of the next day. Those of us who have work or school often miss crucial plays that occur in later innings because of the game ends way too late.
Go back to basics please.
Change the video replay rule. Require that challenges must be made within ten seconds after the play. Don't allow managers and coaches to look at the films before making their decision to challenge.
1
Here's what I do. I read a book while "watching." When there is a lot of cheering, I watch the replay. So I get the game and a good read.
Agree with all the points. My kids and their friends do find baseball boring and slow. Big thing is the all night World Series thing. As kids, when the games were in the afternoon, they were a school event. Baseball owned the day. Everybody, from teachers on down wanted to know the score, what inning and what was going on. There was a real buzz and even some kids would smuggle in transistor radios. Nowadays, blah- another night time diversion. Also, as a London resident, night time baseball makes the game too remote to bother with. An afternoon game would engender interest, provided the commercial breaks were pared back. Finally, one of the things that baseball should consider is paring back inter league and inter divisional play. To many games with places the local fans have no real interest in and no chance of a rivalry developing. Rivalry gives the game an emotional basis. Boston and New York is a real rivalry. San Fransisco and LA, yes. NY and Philly yes. Boston and Seattle, yawn!
1
Numerous readers recommend limits on the batter stepping out of the box. Why not let the pitcher pitch the ball whenever he wants? If the batter is not ready, the pitch is called a ball or a strike as if the batter were there.
1
Shorten the regular game to seven Innings but make it a rule that the winning team has to win by two runs.
Eliminate challenges. Let calls by the umpires stand. Most of the time they ARE correct.
My proposals would be the following:
1) Raise the pitching mound a few inches. This would lower the offensive output and save a few minutes per game. Offense has surpassed pitching since the 1960s and thus we would still see a fair amount of scoring.
2) Batters cannot step out of the box during an at bat unless they were dusted by a pitch, fouled a pitch off their body, or need a new bat.
3) Call the strike zone from the knees to the letters. This would reduce walks and also force batters to be more aggressive early in the count to put balls in play.
4) I would also advocate for an electronic strike zone to be implemented ASAP to eliminate strike zone arguments. In addition, use technology to review HR and foul balls on the spot (see tennis). No reason to spend minutes challenging these when you can do a video replay on the big screen where everyone in the stadium waits for the decision.
5) Increase the everyday roster to 26-28 and keep it there all season - no 40 man roster addition in September.
I hesitate to include fewer commercials since that would affect revenue, but it would hasten the play.
If the mound was raised and the strike zone enlarged, we would see pitchers go deeper in the game and thus eliminate a pitching change or two.
1) Raise the pitching mound a few inches. This would lower the offensive output and save a few minutes per game. Offense has surpassed pitching since the 1960s and thus we would still see a fair amount of scoring.
2) Batters cannot step out of the box during an at bat unless they were dusted by a pitch, fouled a pitch off their body, or need a new bat.
3) Call the strike zone from the knees to the letters. This would reduce walks and also force batters to be more aggressive early in the count to put balls in play.
4) I would also advocate for an electronic strike zone to be implemented ASAP to eliminate strike zone arguments. In addition, use technology to review HR and foul balls on the spot (see tennis). No reason to spend minutes challenging these when you can do a video replay on the big screen where everyone in the stadium waits for the decision.
5) Increase the everyday roster to 26-28 and keep it there all season - no 40 man roster addition in September.
I hesitate to include fewer commercials since that would affect revenue, but it would hasten the play.
If the mound was raised and the strike zone enlarged, we would see pitchers go deeper in the game and thus eliminate a pitching change or two.
Give the pitcher, catcher, and manager earpieces and wireless mikes (the pitcher's can be lowered from his cap if he needs to use it, the catcher's can be part of the mask.) This eliminates mound conferences. To even it out, let the manager on the batting team communicate with the batter/runners. This eliminates the batter staring down at the first or third base coach relaying signs. While you're at it, eliminate the base coaches.
You want a change? (I do not think any change is needed but here goes.)
Sudden death in baseball (Or the Mother's Day Miracle Rule): any time a team scores 5 or more runs in one inning, game over at the end of that inning. Period. Win or lose. (The Red Sox were losing 5- zip to Baltimore on Mother's Day Sunday, May 14, 2007 going into the bottom of the 9th, and scored 6 to win).
A team losing 6 - 0 after three scores 5 in the 4th inning. They lose. Game over.
A nothing - nothing ballgame in the 7th. One team scores 5 or more in the 8th. Game over.
Who needs bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two out, do or die heroics? Just a big waste of time, right?
Sudden death in baseball (Or the Mother's Day Miracle Rule): any time a team scores 5 or more runs in one inning, game over at the end of that inning. Period. Win or lose. (The Red Sox were losing 5- zip to Baltimore on Mother's Day Sunday, May 14, 2007 going into the bottom of the 9th, and scored 6 to win).
A team losing 6 - 0 after three scores 5 in the 4th inning. They lose. Game over.
A nothing - nothing ballgame in the 7th. One team scores 5 or more in the 8th. Game over.
Who needs bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two out, do or die heroics? Just a big waste of time, right?
No mid-innIng pitching changes. Ever. AT MOST 1. But i'd prefer the rule to be 0.
The game is PERFECT as it is. This is the game I played as a kid more than six decades ago. What is the problem? If YOU get fidgety I have to worry about it? Fuggedaboutit.
I have never heard a true baseball fan complain that the game is too long. Do not alienate the new fans in the hopes of landing new fans. Changing the game would be the sports equivalent of New Coke.
22
Exactly right! Baseball is about the strategy of a particular set of pitchers against a particular set of batters and then extraordinary fielding skills. To really appreciate the sport takes time to learn this. It's not about the wham bam stuff. Mr. Rogers never changed because Sesame Street came on television.
That said, individual delaying tactics should be reduced, including removing batting paraphernalia. All players should have to bat. Pitching substitutions should be reduced. I am finally at the age where I have time to appreciate the beautiful game. Let those with short attention spans choose another.
MLB should also limit ticket price gouging by third parties that reduces team revenues and makes attending a game out of reach for too many.
That said, individual delaying tactics should be reduced, including removing batting paraphernalia. All players should have to bat. Pitching substitutions should be reduced. I am finally at the age where I have time to appreciate the beautiful game. Let those with short attention spans choose another.
MLB should also limit ticket price gouging by third parties that reduces team revenues and makes attending a game out of reach for too many.
1
True baseball fans old enough to remember when a game was 2 hours rather than 3+ do complain. What is needed is to simply change the game back to what it was for about 80 years before nonsense became the norm.
1
If you think baseball's too slow, then don't watch it. Why insist on ruining it for everyone else? The only point I agree with is shortening the ads. This is needed for ALL televised sports.
1
One simple fix would cut 20 minutes off games on average:
Have umpires call ALL borderline pitches strikes, especially borderline high and low pitches.
Make hitters swing. There's nothing more boring than watching a hitter work a count for a walk.
More swings, more balls in play, more action, better baseball, shorter games.
Have umpires call ALL borderline pitches strikes, especially borderline high and low pitches.
Make hitters swing. There's nothing more boring than watching a hitter work a count for a walk.
More swings, more balls in play, more action, better baseball, shorter games.
"There's nothing more boring than watching a hitter work a count for a walk."
C'mon, that's like saying there's nothing more boring that watching a goalie (hockey, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, etc) actually make a save or a striker (etc) actually score. That's the essence of the game.
C'mon, that's like saying there's nothing more boring that watching a goalie (hockey, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, etc) actually make a save or a striker (etc) actually score. That's the essence of the game.
Require players to urinate on their hands rather than use batting gloves, a la Moises Alou.
I love baseball as much as anyone alive. I grew up playing it daily and my neighbor had a full-length batting cage. That was in the 70's. Games lasted 2 hours or so, often less than that. Now they are over 3 hours. I say shorten the time between innings, eliminate visits to the mound, and enforce a pitch clock with a ball called if they don't pitch within 20 seconds. That would move things along considerably without changing the essence of the game, which is delightful.
1
Get rid of the designated hitter in the American League. It won't shorten the game, but it will make the manager actually have to make some decisions. And it will bring it back to 9 points of being.... Nine players, nine innings, nine spots on the Diamond.
As far as speeding it up, the only thing I thought during the playoffs, last time I watched, was the whole replay thing took way to long.
Orange, NJ
As far as speeding it up, the only thing I thought during the playoffs, last time I watched, was the whole replay thing took way to long.
Orange, NJ
7
Wow! Interesting discussion but I can see why you guys would have trouble with Test Cricket (matches can take up to five days).
Don't change a thing! That's some great knitting time right there!
A lot of good ideas. But don't mess with the 9 innings! And please...we have plenty of diversity in baseball. Let's not bring "identity" politics into the American past time! If a player is the best, regardless of race, he should be on the team! I like Tyler's suggestion and some of the others that keep the game pristine but shave off time....and I agree with keeping the roster manageable. I stopped watching baseball because the games were agonizingly long....and slow. Changes will have positive effects on audience size.
The technology easily exists to have an electronic system under home plate that records exactly the position of the ball as it crosses the plate after a pitch. Have a Bluetooth microphone in the umpire's ear that immediately tells him if it was a ball or strike.
The width of the strike zone would be exactly to the rule book; if one nanometer of the ball is over the plate, it's a strike. The height of the strike zone would be individual for each batter's size and an RFID tag on the batter would tell the system how to set the height for that person.
The umpire would still call balls and strikes that the system tells him and the ump could then concentrate on the other umpire things he's supposed to do.
This would also eliminate the unbelievable inconsistency in calling balls and strikes that basically ruins the game. Who wouldn't want a system that is exactly consistent, game after game?
The width of the strike zone would be exactly to the rule book; if one nanometer of the ball is over the plate, it's a strike. The height of the strike zone would be individual for each batter's size and an RFID tag on the batter would tell the system how to set the height for that person.
The umpire would still call balls and strikes that the system tells him and the ump could then concentrate on the other umpire things he's supposed to do.
This would also eliminate the unbelievable inconsistency in calling balls and strikes that basically ruins the game. Who wouldn't want a system that is exactly consistent, game after game?
4
Eliminate the fourth ball. Think about this a minute. Then do it.
1
Simple solution: Do not remove runners from the bases just because an inning has ended. That is to say, if one team has base runners and the third out is due to say a strike out, pop out etc, the next inning begins with those base runners on base.
This would create several favorable results: 1) Increase scoring due to increase in players in scoring position 2) Improve fairness of the game, hits and getting on base will more often result in scoring, ie better team more often will win 3) Shorten games because starting innings with runners will result in more double plays, which speeds up game and makes it more exciting 4) Carry over suspense: think about how suspenseful and exciting a bases loaded situation is. Why remove excitement from the game by removing the base runners? Next inning that same tense excitement is still there for both teams and their fans. You will NOT change channels or stop watching when you know despite the inning ending you got a great chance to put up a few scores in the next inning.
5) Why are players removed from the bases at end of inning anyway?
This would create several favorable results: 1) Increase scoring due to increase in players in scoring position 2) Improve fairness of the game, hits and getting on base will more often result in scoring, ie better team more often will win 3) Shorten games because starting innings with runners will result in more double plays, which speeds up game and makes it more exciting 4) Carry over suspense: think about how suspenseful and exciting a bases loaded situation is. Why remove excitement from the game by removing the base runners? Next inning that same tense excitement is still there for both teams and their fans. You will NOT change channels or stop watching when you know despite the inning ending you got a great chance to put up a few scores in the next inning.
5) Why are players removed from the bases at end of inning anyway?
4
That would make for very high scoring games indeed. Two problems. First, it would seem to me that granted that the runners are eventually going to score unless, for example, picked off, it might be worth letting them score so as to allow the pitcher to throw from the windup (or throw from the windup anyway). Second, under your scheme, a player might remain on base until his time at bat. What does he do then, yell, "Invisible man on second" and come running in to bat?
Go Brandon! This is the perfect solution. The game stays essentially the same, but we get more than 10 minutes of baseball in a game.
One and only one author is correct, Mr. David Glidden. Baseball doesn't need to be "fixed". Rather it is the commercialism around baseball that needs corrected. The game is about as perfect as it can get. Sadly, fans are also responsible for expecting instant gratification, which the game of baseball is not. It inches, it can crawl, the suspense builds, and then smack-gob a la glory. It is a leisure sport, it is a gentleman's game, it is a past-time, a chance to enjoy weather, life and love. Look to Ken Burns excellent documentary and bask in the history and lore of the game.The present day is just the tip of an iceberg, and to mutilate the game at this time is plumb wrong.
2
I watched games 3, 4 and 5 of the 1969 World Series this past weekend. These games were just over 2 hours each. I noticed four factors to these games being shorter than today's:
1. The pitchers worked quickly, even with men on base.
2. The batters rarely stepped out of the box between pitches.
3. The time between innings was about one minute.
4. Starting pitchers went deeper into innings. There were many less pitching
changes.
1. The pitchers worked quickly, even with men on base.
2. The batters rarely stepped out of the box between pitches.
3. The time between innings was about one minute.
4. Starting pitchers went deeper into innings. There were many less pitching
changes.
6
There were less pitching changes.
At Nationals games, the fans seem to have figured it out; they show up in the third inning. I suggest the teams start an hour early and everyone will be there by the third inning and get home at a decent time on a work night.
1
In the 70s, I recall, games did not last this long. I used to look at the box scores in the papers (my, times have changed) and some would have the time of game starting with 1:. Not every game was televised, of course.
Cut the between innings break to one minute. Eliminate mound conferences, or limit them to two a game. Managers can call in relievers from the dugout. A 10 second pitch count sounds good to me.
I don't like the proposals such as shortening the number of innings that would make it harder to compare statistics between eras.
Cut the between innings break to one minute. Eliminate mound conferences, or limit them to two a game. Managers can call in relievers from the dugout. A 10 second pitch count sounds good to me.
I don't like the proposals such as shortening the number of innings that would make it harder to compare statistics between eras.
1
This shows why the American Colonies will never amount to anything. Baseball is a sensationalised version of cricket. A top level cricket match lasTs five days with six hours play in each. It then often ends with neither side winning. Before the war matches could go on for much longer. The England cricket team playing against South Africa in 1939 played for 9 days. The match was abandoned because the team needed to catch a ship to get back to England before the war started.
3
As has been pointed out elsewhere, cricket has been "souped up" with 20/20 cricket, which allows the match to be played in an evening and most often produces a winner.
Most of these comments are amusing but ridiculous. The most important game-lengthening factor is all the pitching changes. MLB should impose a limitation on the number of pitchers managers can use during a game. If a starting picture is on a roll, managers should be urged to keep him in the game rather than remove him after he reaches a predetermined pitch count. Similarly, if a relief pitcher is on a roil, keep him in the game. Teams should get a bonus if their starting pitchers throw, say, 30 complete games.
Agree with Larry from AA so much I quit reading. Yet this is a serious subject, if you like baseball. I remember getting upset coaching Little League when young kids were tightening their bating gloves ad nauseam ala Ryan Braun. We need a fans revolt--BOOOOO!--every time a batter steps out, every time a pitcher steps off, every time a coach or mgr comes out for dubious cause. I'm not young enough to organize this but if FB can rally an Arab spring and flash mobs, maybe it can organize dissent on a lesser scale. The game would be soooo much better. Dreaming on in Wisconsin.
It's not just the pitching changes, it's the amount of time between individual pitches. The batter asks for time out, there are some throws to first base to keep the runner close, maybe the catchers goes to the mound to say something.
The game would be faster and more enjoyable if the time between pitches was reduced, like it is in the edited versions of old games.
The game would be faster and more enjoyable if the time between pitches was reduced, like it is in the edited versions of old games.
Pardon me for being the pessimist, but I don't think this isn't about making games shorter. I suspect It's about making more money for the owners. I don't know how it would add to their coffers (ok, more people watch because it's less boring (boring?!!!), grows the game, blah, blah, blah), but I know it's profits that make the baseball world go round.
There should be a discussion about making the game better. I haven't seen anyone mention playing fewer games. I LOVE baseball but can't keep up with the six-days-a-week schedule. I also hate seeing games played in the freezing cold. The World Series going deep into November just isn't right. It's a summer game. One hundred and sixty-two games, plus the post-season, is hard on the players. And why shouldn't they get two days off a week like everyone else? There are rules changes that wouldn't hurt too much and would speed the daily game time up, like limiting visits to the mound and keeping the batter in the box. Maybe even have a pitch clock. However, the quality of the game and the experience of the fans would be improved by a more limited schedule. Make the schedule Wednesday through Sunday and require Saturday and Sunday games be played during the day. Start in May and end in October. The owers will benefit when they produce a better product.
There should be a discussion about making the game better. I haven't seen anyone mention playing fewer games. I LOVE baseball but can't keep up with the six-days-a-week schedule. I also hate seeing games played in the freezing cold. The World Series going deep into November just isn't right. It's a summer game. One hundred and sixty-two games, plus the post-season, is hard on the players. And why shouldn't they get two days off a week like everyone else? There are rules changes that wouldn't hurt too much and would speed the daily game time up, like limiting visits to the mound and keeping the batter in the box. Maybe even have a pitch clock. However, the quality of the game and the experience of the fans would be improved by a more limited schedule. Make the schedule Wednesday through Sunday and require Saturday and Sunday games be played during the day. Start in May and end in October. The owers will benefit when they produce a better product.
11
Seven inning games. If you took 324 innings out of each season, I'd guess we'd have to build a new history of major league 'all-time- records.
2
Three bases. Job done.
The target audience of baseball is folks snoozing on their couches with the game on radio or TV. The length of the game is immaterial since the crack of the bat stirs you to listen/watch the salient moments. Baseball is not a stadium sport, those folks are just there to add ambience to the broadcast. The pace of the game is built around the broadcast medium. Any Vin Scully fan will understand.
1
Eliminate the intentional walk. No free passes, no sending the hitter to first base without a throw. Make the pitcher pitch to a batter. He can always be unintentionally walked. At least now there is more drama.
The late, great George Carlin had some entertaining thoughts for how to speed up the game and make it more exciting. I can't post them here because of copyright, but they are easy enough to search and quite funny.
1
That was a close call! The highly litiguous Carlin estate would have had you by the balls if you'd said one more word. Smart thinking Greg.
Can someone please supply some DATA to underpin this conversation? How much time do batters actually stay out of the box? How much time is actually spent by catchers walking to and from the mound?
The average for an NFL game has been over 3 hours since 2000 (at least). There are 11 minutes of football played during a game (from snap to whistle). Are fans at the ballpark complaining -- or just TV viewers?
The average for an NFL game has been over 3 hours since 2000 (at least). There are 11 minutes of football played during a game (from snap to whistle). Are fans at the ballpark complaining -- or just TV viewers?
1
Baseball is NOT TOO SLOW. May I suggest that the person or persons who are whining about this are the same kinds of people who cannot put their stupid phones down even while walking down the street AND are the very same who have the attention spans of a tse tse fly.
Baseball is PERFECTION. Especially the National League's rules, which forbid the designated hitter. Every player should field and hit.
Don't like it? DON'T WATCH. Find something else to ruin.
LEAVE MY BASEBALL ALONE.
Baseball is PERFECTION. Especially the National League's rules, which forbid the designated hitter. Every player should field and hit.
Don't like it? DON'T WATCH. Find something else to ruin.
LEAVE MY BASEBALL ALONE.
1
If you think baseball is too slow, don't watch it. But leave it alone for those of us who enjoy, who are drawn to, the untimed and infinite permutations of an inning. Go watch an "action-packed" three-hour football game and, by all means, enjoy the 11 minutes when the ball is actually in play.
1
When a runner is on first, limit a pitcher's throws over to two. If a third throw is tried, the runner must be picked off otherwise is awarded second base.
1
That's easy . Return the strike zone to letter high instead of waste high. Games used to be 2 hours twenty minutes until they shrunk the strike zone to encourage scoring. Now the games lasts too long . Jeez .
1
Why not eliminate the pitching position entirely, replacing it with a batting cage type mechanical arm that the catcher would control from a mini console inside his mitt. Pitching changes, mound conferences and shake offs of signals would all be eliminated, thus speeding up the game by a good forty minutes on average. An occasional random wild pitch and clipped batter would be preprogrammed into the software just to keep it real. Ticket prices would also come way down when the ridiculous prices teams pay for these so called superstars, most of whom, by the way, come from foreign countries like Japan and South America, are eliminated.
1
I have not gone to a Major League Game for seven years - why ?
a) The blaring music between innings.
b) The rudeness of the fans.
c) The slowness of the game.
I think most games were around 2 hours in my youth.
d) Teams trade players all too often. I can still tell you the Lineup for all
the teams of my youth. Yes a player or two was traded each year but not
7 each year...
a) The blaring music between innings.
b) The rudeness of the fans.
c) The slowness of the game.
I think most games were around 2 hours in my youth.
d) Teams trade players all too often. I can still tell you the Lineup for all
the teams of my youth. Yes a player or two was traded each year but not
7 each year...
2
'Get off my lawn!"
Baseball is literally timeless - there is no clock, just a serious of acts that must be completed.
In a world that keeps speeding up and shortening our thoughts and emotions into easily consumed tweets, can we please just preserve this last sanctuary of a timeless summer days as it is? What's wrong with escaping from the clock for three hours and enjoying a game with your friends or family? If only we had more timeless escapes like baseball to sit around, chat and enjoy each other's company.
In a world that keeps speeding up and shortening our thoughts and emotions into easily consumed tweets, can we please just preserve this last sanctuary of a timeless summer days as it is? What's wrong with escaping from the clock for three hours and enjoying a game with your friends or family? If only we had more timeless escapes like baseball to sit around, chat and enjoy each other's company.
1
I love baseball the way it is. On a leisurely afternoon, I can do laundry or knit while watching a game. There is nothing that is anymore restful.
1
There is a website with the numbers: Baseball games are 15-20% longer than they they were in the 1960s. The issue is commercial breaks, which are needed to pay the inflated salaries.
I very rarely go to see a game in person. The ticket prices are out of sight, but even when I scrape up the money I am put off. Inside the stadium, baseball games are a constant sound and light show. When I was a kid, baseball was about the silences as much as the plays.
That part of baseball is gone, if you go to the stadium. The last in-person game I saw was this past summer, and I doubt I will ever go again. By the time I left, the unremitting cacaphony -- most of it generated by the loudspeakers and the what used to be the scoreboard -- turned me into a nervous wreck.
What do I do when I want to see athletes playing their hearts out? I find a small-town rodeo in the West, where I now live. Tickets are $10 or $15. Everyone's happy. There are no visible egos, and everyone roots for every cowboy, including the ones who fall off.
Major league sports are in a world of their own. It is not my world. Not anymore.
I very rarely go to see a game in person. The ticket prices are out of sight, but even when I scrape up the money I am put off. Inside the stadium, baseball games are a constant sound and light show. When I was a kid, baseball was about the silences as much as the plays.
That part of baseball is gone, if you go to the stadium. The last in-person game I saw was this past summer, and I doubt I will ever go again. By the time I left, the unremitting cacaphony -- most of it generated by the loudspeakers and the what used to be the scoreboard -- turned me into a nervous wreck.
What do I do when I want to see athletes playing their hearts out? I find a small-town rodeo in the West, where I now live. Tickets are $10 or $15. Everyone's happy. There are no visible egos, and everyone roots for every cowboy, including the ones who fall off.
Major league sports are in a world of their own. It is not my world. Not anymore.
Restore pride in the pitched complete game. Starting pitchers rarely go the whole nine innings. Time to go back to the future and expect starting pitchers to pitch complete games. Constant pitching changes, typically from the 6th inning onward, lengthen games with parade of pitchers jogging in from the bullpen. throwing warm-up pitches, and facing just one or two batters. Enough! Starting pitchers should want to and be expected to finish what they start, unless, of course, they're shelled and need to be replaced. But only in those instances.
2
Do it like international soccer. You are allowed three substitutions a game. A fourth is only available in case of a pitcher injury and the opposing team gets to select who is the substitute from among the relief staff.
There's nothing so mindlessly relaxing as a three hour baseball game. Leave it alone.
1
Every throw by the pitcher failing to run out the runner on bases should count as a ball.
1
If you want to make baseball more interesting and exciting cut the number of major league teams to 12. At present there are too many teams, which significantly dilutes the talent thereby leading to boring games. Also, for those who are upset about all the commercials and wasted time, I suggest that you buy a DVR, tape the game and skip the commercials, the pitching changes, the conferences on the mound, etc.
2
I live in the Bay Area. When I want to take my family of four to a game, it generally costs between $500 and $800. It can be a bit lower to see the A's, but I generally prefer the national league. To me, it really seems like people that work in the game just want a shorter work day. This entire conversation can't be stemming from people who pay that kind of money to see one game a year. If anything, I'd like a bit more for my money than 3 hours. The best game I ever saw in AT&T was a playoff game between the Braves and the Giants. Rick Ankiel hit a home run in the top of the 11th or 12th to win it. Kyle Farnsworth (well past his regular closer days) saved it. And Bobby Cox set a record that will never be broken by being thrown out of a game for the last time. That game was worth the price of admission plus some, even at current rates. Most games I've seen since have really made me wonder if the cost/benefit analysis really makes sense.
Please think about the fans at the games in these conversations.
Please think about the fans at the games in these conversations.
5
Get rid of the DH...that will shave a few minutes off of AL games.
Sorry, but it's just clear that you're not a baseball fan. And where does your basic premise that baseball NEEDS to speed up come from? BTW, those gaps between innings you abhor are not for TV commercials, they're so the batting team can get back on the field and throw a few times to warm up. If you went to a game you would enjoy watching that and not be thinking about TV. I do agree with you about the endless trips to the mound. They have increased a lot lately, particularly with certain coaches and catchers. They could yell at the player or flash signals. But when the rest of the world is moving into hyper-drive, a leisurely game is a delight.
it's a BORING dying sport America.
After spending half my work hours at the office looking for a deal on the tickets, enduring airport pat-downs (for away game), driving in circles at the parking lot, spending hours painting my face, going through the ordeal of long lines at the ballpark ... you want to cut down from 3 hours ?
As we Texans say, you must be crazy as a bull bat.
As we Texans say, you must be crazy as a bull bat.
Bill Bryson outlines how fast baseball moved, with great numbers of fans following it, back in Babe Ruth's day.
As it currently is being played, it is dying, and quickly.
Look back, see how it was played, and adjust or wither away.
As it currently is being played, it is dying, and quickly.
Look back, see how it was played, and adjust or wither away.
1
Why don't you lower the price of a ticket and food so people can afford to take their families more than once a year? If they were going more often, they'd get more interested and watch more at home, too.
Nah, that makes too much sense.
Nah, that makes too much sense.
2
I am in agreement that the game has gotten too long. The prime culprit? The length of commercial breaks. In the era before every game was televised, the ad break was 60 seconds at each half inning and pitching change. Now the minimum half inning and pitching change breaks are 90 seconds, but more often 120 seconds, especially with nationally televised games. Add in more pitching changes (when was the last time you saw a complete game ?), and that's where your formerly standard 2-1/2 hour game has gone to. But we'll never go back to the good old days of even 10 years ago, when such game times were closer to the norm. Because it's about the ad revenues, not the people in the seats or home viewers and listeners. Three-plus hours may not matter if you're retired, but when you're at the park until 10:30 with an hour's drive home and an alarm going off at 5:30AM for work, well...you just might look at other ways to spend your limited free time. And I write as a fan who's loved and watched the game for over 50 years now. My only admission to old fogey-dom is that I'd love nothing more than to see some afternoon WS games again.
2
Two pitchers per game, per team. Do away with all of this "middle reliever, set up man," etc. etc. Make these pitchers work a bit and keep the game moving!
Like SO many other things, it's being ruined by greedy owners trying to squeeze every last nickel out of it and then some.
This is why we can't have nice things.
This is why we can't have nice things.
I grew up a rabid Cubs fan. Now I only watch online highlights, not EVERY SINGLE NUANCED moment. Except for aficionados, who cares on EVERY pitch what the [same] speed of the ball was?
It's great for a chess players, but for an average, occasional fan, less is more.
I suspect many [most?] of last year's "wild and crazy" Cubs fans didn't even know the players until the World Series.
And baseball on radio...1950's. Who listens?
It's great for a chess players, but for an average, occasional fan, less is more.
I suspect many [most?] of last year's "wild and crazy" Cubs fans didn't even know the players until the World Series.
And baseball on radio...1950's. Who listens?
1
Leave the game exactly as it is, but change the tv coverage -- make the highlights the main attraction: offer condensed, 1(ish) hour versions of the day's game as soon as it ends. Play the games in the afternoon so the faster version can air in prime time. Cut out the dead time without actually cutting out the dead time.
This is so easy: three balls, two strikes. Decades of statistics analyzed by experts show that the outcome of at bats isn't changed at a statistically significent level if you look at those that began with a one-one count. That would cut an hour or more, yet preserve the precious commercial time between innings. After a couple of generations of players, you wouldn't have to pretend the one-one start.--WDM
Before we enact any of these proposals which range from not that bad to absurd, let us pause to consider the fact that delays are mandated--deliberately--each time 3 outs are recorded. Commercial breaks last longer than the time actually required for one team to leave the field and the other to take their place.
MLB would like to shorten the game (to increase its popularity) AND they are strongly motivated to maximize revenue. Hmm....I wonder which of these two goals is the greater priority......
MLB would like to shorten the game (to increase its popularity) AND they are strongly motivated to maximize revenue. Hmm....I wonder which of these two goals is the greater priority......
1
Wow, here's a thought: if the game is "too slow" for you, don't watch it. Now, about those golf matches.......
1
Baseball is a fantastic game. Unfortunately the calls for change because it's too long are coming from TV types and people who'd rather watch a game with a cell phone glued to their face. The beauty of Baseball is that there is no time limit. Embrace that uncertainty. Let's stop running away from it. Especially if it's for the sake of cramming it into specific time slots.
1
I would and do urge the commissioner to stop trying to ruin MLB with his idiotic rule changes to speed up (Ugh!) America's pastime. Please stop, sir! Baseball is very beautiful as it is, notwithstanding the quick-quick pacing that became very clear in the last several years.
Why ruin the best, most enjoyable game ever for the sake of capturing or "saving" three or four minutes on average per game? Four minutes. Ten minutes. If one cannot find an "extra" four to ten minutes when watching a game, they are simply watching the wrong game. With baseball, leave your watch at home and open your mind and relax. Most people can find the extra ten minutes that the commish and the billionaire owners are tearing their hair out about. PS: Dropping the four pitch intentional walk was wrong. Op-Ed writer Doug Glanville was wrong on this which surprised me as he is a keen observer and fine writer. My view: Stop trying to alter baseball in America - a most perfect game that does and has made countless people very happy. I am in that group.
Why ruin the best, most enjoyable game ever for the sake of capturing or "saving" three or four minutes on average per game? Four minutes. Ten minutes. If one cannot find an "extra" four to ten minutes when watching a game, they are simply watching the wrong game. With baseball, leave your watch at home and open your mind and relax. Most people can find the extra ten minutes that the commish and the billionaire owners are tearing their hair out about. PS: Dropping the four pitch intentional walk was wrong. Op-Ed writer Doug Glanville was wrong on this which surprised me as he is a keen observer and fine writer. My view: Stop trying to alter baseball in America - a most perfect game that does and has made countless people very happy. I am in that group.
1
It is sad we can't take our time to enjoy a game. Control of the ball while runners are on base is one of the fundamental aspects of baseball. Throwing four controlled pitches to intentionally walk a batter, a task often done no better (when under pressure) by professionals than Little Leaguers is part of the game. Too bad this instant, digital age makes us feel otherwise. Why not just give the managers and umpires an app so they can text their intentions and save the time required to even relay the signal. Let's just leave the players and fans out of it entirely. Sarcasm intended.
Baseball is a perfectly fair game. There is no running out the clock or taking the air out of the ball. No matter how big your lead, you have to throw the ball over home plate and give the other team a chance. Wild finishes and crazy comebacks abound. Any sport that can stage the kind of dramatic World Series we saw last year doesn't need revising. Or as former Astros manager Larry Dierker once said: "Sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't make."
12
Baseball is timeless. Fans can leave a game anytime they want. For those who want to see the game through to the final out, the players, coaches, and umpires will be there to oblige. I suggest you bring a radio with you too - the stories of the game within the game is blissfully endless, as it should be.
Tyler Kepner is right that the most realistic things, i.e., things that can be changed without changing the basics of the game like less innings, are impossible because they involve money.
And with regard to fear of losing the fan base, it's important to remember that for years baseball games began at 4 P.M. which made it virtually impossible for most working people to even attend a game if they lived in eastern cities where Sunday ball was banned and they worked 6 days a week. And most people didn't receive paid vacations so many never got to see the stars of the game in person or anyway else.
So those who have complaints about length
And with regard to fear of losing the fan base, it's important to remember that for years baseball games began at 4 P.M. which made it virtually impossible for most working people to even attend a game if they lived in eastern cities where Sunday ball was banned and they worked 6 days a week. And most people didn't receive paid vacations so many never got to see the stars of the game in person or anyway else.
So those who have complaints about length
Hey owners and UHF/cable: get rid of the commercials. How much is The General (Car Insurance Company) or My Pillow paying for those spots even anyway? Actually, just get rid of the commercial breaks. There's plenty of time and space between innings and during pitching changes to run some banner ads and radio commentator-style product plugs without cutting away from the game. Many games would be shorter than in other sports. Come to think of it, baseball's got it all over basketball. Those end of game fouls are the worst.
WHO is really "clamoring" about baseball games being "too long?" In my experience it's the casual viewer of games, people who rarely watch one on TV, and only attend a game once every couple of years when invited by a friend or co-worker who pays for their ticket.
Here's an idea...How about we just leave the game as it is? Tinkering with fundamentals such as a switch to "two strikes, you're out" or "six innings and it's over" or "two outs and the other team comes to bat" are all ludicrous and any such changes would damage the integrity of all baseball records ever recorded.
And MLB would be driving away a lot of their most loyal fans forever. Don't change what isn't broken. This is a nonsensical and unnecessary debate.
Here's an idea...How about we just leave the game as it is? Tinkering with fundamentals such as a switch to "two strikes, you're out" or "six innings and it's over" or "two outs and the other team comes to bat" are all ludicrous and any such changes would damage the integrity of all baseball records ever recorded.
And MLB would be driving away a lot of their most loyal fans forever. Don't change what isn't broken. This is a nonsensical and unnecessary debate.
Allow ties.
"Start every inning with a man at second base. Have that man be Bartolo Colon. — Howard Cole, Los Angeles"
That's it, we've fixed baseball, everyone else can go home.
In all seriousness though, too many changes and it's not baseball anymore. New fans aren't going to pick up the game because it's 90 seconds shorter, and older fans will leave if the game changes its focus.
That's it, we've fixed baseball, everyone else can go home.
In all seriousness though, too many changes and it's not baseball anymore. New fans aren't going to pick up the game because it's 90 seconds shorter, and older fans will leave if the game changes its focus.
1
leave the game as is. for cable viewers provide a real time game after editing out all gaps and pauses . eliminate all shots of players spitting, stretching, nodding to the catcher, between pitch pauses and between inning walkoffs and walk ons. In effect, a highlights video that broadcasts the entire game. For viewers with ADD. Provide an even shorter version that only shows the important events from each inning. Hits, great plays, scoring. My guess is the former will bring game time down to 1 hour, short version down to 15 minutes.
Any suggestions that alter the fundamental metrics of the game (often involving 3's and 9's: 3 strikes, 3 outs, 9 innings, 9 men in the field) are non-starters. There is no chance whatsoever that MLB would ever countenance such changes.
I agree with the idea that the "non-baseball" parts of the game need to be eliminated: I would support:
1. Shortening commercial breaks and, if need be, making up for the revenue with sponsorship on uniforms (as in soccer);
2. Limiting trips to the mound (by manager, coaches, and teammates). Three trips per game.
3. One pick-off throw to first per batter. Additional throws over count as a "ball".
(Runners would still have to honor the potential for a pick-off, particularly early in the count.)
4. Batters must stay in the box: Enforce it! Better yet, eliminate batting gloves -- too much re-adjusting between every pitch.
5. Streamline the challenge/review process. If an off-field official is making the call anyway, have him communicate directly with the crew chief without the need to bring a cooler-sized radio transmitter on to the field each time.
6. Eliminate the abominable DH throughout baseball. Less offense means shorter games.
I agree with the idea that the "non-baseball" parts of the game need to be eliminated: I would support:
1. Shortening commercial breaks and, if need be, making up for the revenue with sponsorship on uniforms (as in soccer);
2. Limiting trips to the mound (by manager, coaches, and teammates). Three trips per game.
3. One pick-off throw to first per batter. Additional throws over count as a "ball".
(Runners would still have to honor the potential for a pick-off, particularly early in the count.)
4. Batters must stay in the box: Enforce it! Better yet, eliminate batting gloves -- too much re-adjusting between every pitch.
5. Streamline the challenge/review process. If an off-field official is making the call anyway, have him communicate directly with the crew chief without the need to bring a cooler-sized radio transmitter on to the field each time.
6. Eliminate the abominable DH throughout baseball. Less offense means shorter games.
I once attended a AAA game that moved along so quickly that all 9 innings were completed in just over 2 hours. The soul of the game was obliterated for me, and I can still feel the stress of not being able to take in the atmosphere of the park on a summer afternoon, the fear of missing something if I looked around or - horrors - visited a concession stand - because the rhythms were all off. Now, the countdown clock drives me from the park, and I fear these newest proposals may render the game I love unrecognizable.
10 Commandments for better Baseball
1-Outlaw Baseball before May 1st, require the World Series to be over before Labor Day. It is a summer game- let's keep it that way.
2-Six innings. If tied, mark it a tie.
3-Pitchers can only be changed at the beginning of an inning and must remain for at least an inning. Throw the ball.
4-30 Second timer when the batter steps in the box. Please, Throw the ball.
5-Three throws to First Base equals a walk for the batter. Throw the ball.
6-Ban George Will and all Baseball nerds from any broadcast booth for life.
7-Remove all Baseball from any Fox entity. I do not watch Murdochvision.
8-Shoot any announcer that quotes stupid stats like batting percentage in domed stadiums in May against Left Handed Cuban Pitchers in Visitor's Uniforms.
9- Fewer commercials. Always in good taste.
10-Buy the Umpires some new glasses or let computers call balls and strikes.
1-Outlaw Baseball before May 1st, require the World Series to be over before Labor Day. It is a summer game- let's keep it that way.
2-Six innings. If tied, mark it a tie.
3-Pitchers can only be changed at the beginning of an inning and must remain for at least an inning. Throw the ball.
4-30 Second timer when the batter steps in the box. Please, Throw the ball.
5-Three throws to First Base equals a walk for the batter. Throw the ball.
6-Ban George Will and all Baseball nerds from any broadcast booth for life.
7-Remove all Baseball from any Fox entity. I do not watch Murdochvision.
8-Shoot any announcer that quotes stupid stats like batting percentage in domed stadiums in May against Left Handed Cuban Pitchers in Visitor's Uniforms.
9- Fewer commercials. Always in good taste.
10-Buy the Umpires some new glasses or let computers call balls and strikes.
1
I second the motion to ban batting gloves. The interminable re-positioning of the gloves after every pitch is ridiculous and only a fetish. No one needs the gloves. Surely the players' hands can get toughened up enough to hold a bat during spring training. This would probably save 30 minutes a game.
But, maybe the powers that be don't want to shorten the games. Think how many $10 beers you can sell in an extra hour.
But, maybe the powers that be don't want to shorten the games. Think how many $10 beers you can sell in an extra hour.
God I absolutely hate the idea of introducing a clock. The absence of a clock is one of my favorite aspects of the game. There is no running-out-the-clock in baseball. Everyone gets 27 outs - you can't avoid it.
The real solution to this problem is a computer assisted strike zone. Goodbye arguing over balls and strikes.
The real solution to this problem is a computer assisted strike zone. Goodbye arguing over balls and strikes.
Re: Stealing Home
Up until his dying day last year Yogi Berra (RIP) insisted that Jackie was out.
I watched the game way back in 1955 (I was 8) and have seen the footage multiple times. It is close and I think Yogi was right!
Up until his dying day last year Yogi Berra (RIP) insisted that Jackie was out.
I watched the game way back in 1955 (I was 8) and have seen the footage multiple times. It is close and I think Yogi was right!
I am in wonderment of some (most) of the suggestions to speed the game up on the feed. Call me a purist, but most of them would create some altogether new game. Call it what you will but not baseball. Baseball is as much a mental as a physical game. Nothing can beat sitting in the ball park with a hot dog and glass of beer, trying to figure out what and where the next pitch will be. Screaming at the umpires over bad calls (bad calls being the ones that go against the home team). If it takes 3 hours to complete a 9 inning game, so be it. I'm not a real fan of the Challenge. If you want to get rid of that recent addition to save time it's OK with me. Otherwise, leave the game alone.
Fix Baseball: Strip them of their anti-trust exemption and let the market forces at work. OR Heavily regulate this monopoly by setting mandated affordable seat pricing and locally free television games. You can't have it BOTH ways!
If the instant replay call can't be made in 60 seconds, the call stands. Eliminate umps being able to go to the video unless it's a challenge by the manager. Give each manager two challenges per 9 innings, period.
Cut 30 seconds from each break between innings.
One strategy visit to the mound per inning. All subsequent visits pitcher must leave. All pitchers must face at least 3 batters unless a run scores. 3 warmup pitches per reliever.
To invest in the future of the game: One weekday World Series day game. One weekend day game. Post season night games start at 7:00pm EST.
Some of my favorite memories were strategizing how to get out of school to see a day game on TV. Plus, with DVRs now, it's even more practical.
Oct 16, 1969. My Dad got us tickets to Game 5 to see the Mets play the Orioles. I was running for 6th grade class president that day. I had to decide to forgo the speech for the election or skip the game. My mother suggested I choose which one I'd remember longest. Clearest, best decision I've ever been encouraged to make. My memory at Shea that day is one of my dearest ever. It wouldn't have been the same if the game started at 9pm.
Give kids reasons to love baseball and carry memories with them into adult life.
Cut 30 seconds from each break between innings.
One strategy visit to the mound per inning. All subsequent visits pitcher must leave. All pitchers must face at least 3 batters unless a run scores. 3 warmup pitches per reliever.
To invest in the future of the game: One weekday World Series day game. One weekend day game. Post season night games start at 7:00pm EST.
Some of my favorite memories were strategizing how to get out of school to see a day game on TV. Plus, with DVRs now, it's even more practical.
Oct 16, 1969. My Dad got us tickets to Game 5 to see the Mets play the Orioles. I was running for 6th grade class president that day. I had to decide to forgo the speech for the election or skip the game. My mother suggested I choose which one I'd remember longest. Clearest, best decision I've ever been encouraged to make. My memory at Shea that day is one of my dearest ever. It wouldn't have been the same if the game started at 9pm.
Give kids reasons to love baseball and carry memories with them into adult life.
7
Those who are whining must not be real baseball fans. Real fans love the game and sacrifice for the privilege to watch. I postponed my honeymoon to go to Candlestick to watch my SF Giants play in the World Series. Got an earthquake instead, but that's another story. My son was 10 days old when I took him to his first giants game. He has literally been a Giants fan his entire life!
I've been to professional football games, college football games, and the 2010 Rose Bowl--any whiners out there complaining about three and four hour long football games?
Don't even get me started on professional golf. The 2010 US Open I attended was a dawn to dusk affair. But it was at dusk that I got to see Tiger Woods hit a phenomenal shot mid-fairway to the green. I surely wasn't whining about all the time I spent out there. Besides, there's no whining in sports.
I've been to professional football games, college football games, and the 2010 Rose Bowl--any whiners out there complaining about three and four hour long football games?
Don't even get me started on professional golf. The 2010 US Open I attended was a dawn to dusk affair. But it was at dusk that I got to see Tiger Woods hit a phenomenal shot mid-fairway to the green. I surely wasn't whining about all the time I spent out there. Besides, there's no whining in sports.
1
About 40 years ago Mad Magazine had a piece about making baseball more exciting. It was called Basebrawl and if memory serves the baseball would be a cannon ball. And other equally insane thoughts. But kidding aside they have to get the games back down to around 2:30 from current 3 hours.
2
Why?
True the game is a bit slow but the real issue is the length of the season. The season has too many games. By the time the All Star game rolls around, I've had enough. I mean there are more than 160
games in a season! That's 10 years of football!!
games in a season! That's 10 years of football!!
4
Batters stay in batters' box - pitchers must deliver in 15 seconds! One relief pitcher per inning. That's all.
3
That's a fair proposal, though I might exempt the ninth inning and extras.
Baseball is the most beautiful game in the world. I would fell cheated if it's pace is artificially accelerated. I love when it is 10-8, 1-0 or anywhere in between. Baseball is life!
21
Ralph L
Change the rule so that relief pitchers must pitch to two batters, instead of one, or record the last out of an inning. This would eliminate the maddening switching pitchers for every batter late in the game. Sometimes it would even lead to no pitching change instead of two if managers had to think twice before putting in a left-handed pitcher to face a lefty batter if they knew the following batter was right-handed.
Change the rule so that relief pitchers must pitch to two batters, instead of one, or record the last out of an inning. This would eliminate the maddening switching pitchers for every batter late in the game. Sometimes it would even lead to no pitching change instead of two if managers had to think twice before putting in a left-handed pitcher to face a lefty batter if they knew the following batter was right-handed.
3
Ralph, isn't it odd that the article of so-called fresh ideas doesn't mention the over-abundance of relief pitching? It is THE problem in baseball. Throw one pitch, change pitchers (commercial), throw one pitch or five, change pitchers (commercial)!!!
2
It takes 27 outs to win a regulation baseball game. Switch to 6 innings of 4 outs plus a 7th inning of 3 outs. Cuts down on commercials but definitely moves the game along.
1
How about one 27-out inning? Sounds good to me.
"If no one is on base, let the batter run in either direction — i.e., to first base or third."
Now, that's a winner. Thank you, Mr Flannery
Now, that's a winner. Thank you, Mr Flannery
9
Baseball watching is a fascinating and leisure activity. Three hours is just enough time to quiet the mind from fears and problems a couple of times a week. And to have fun talking about what's happening on the field with others watching with you. Arguing. Learning. Keeping stats, anticipating and savoring strategy. People with short attention spans, inability to sit still and concentrate on strategy and fine points need not watch the game--plenty of hyperactive,bloody,fast-paced, brutish other sports to watch instead. Attracting kids to baseball is not a matter of shorter games, but of grass roots baseball programs, school teams, pickup sandlot ball. I fell in love with the game by learning to play it, watching older kids play, and rarely seeing a few innings on TV. And going to a professional game once a year and being sad when it ended. Now even though I'm busy, I watch FULL games whenever I can. I take my family and they love every moment of it. If you don't like "slow", go somewhere else or play on your xboxes. Leave baseball to real fans and kids.
My only gripe is TV cameras zooming in on the incessant spitting so much.
The game doesn't need fixing, just attention.
My only gripe is TV cameras zooming in on the incessant spitting so much.
The game doesn't need fixing, just attention.
12
So we want to speed up golf and baseball. Hey, if you don't have time to play golf, stay home. If you don't have time to go to a baseball game also stay home. Leave both alone.
21
Why does everything have to be so fast? We are rushing toward our own eventual deaths.
If I go to the ballpark, I want to be there for a long time.
Golf has already been ruined because every casual golfer cheats. My father told me to always play strict rules and it would be much more fun. His view is one I stick to this day: If you're cheating at golf, you're cheating yourself because the real fun in the game is the challenge itself. How can you understand how you did against the course if you cheat?
I agree with Terry Belanger here - leave these sports alone and let the managers, players and umps run the games in baseball. And, if you play golf - play it the right way and stick to the rules.
If I go to the ballpark, I want to be there for a long time.
Golf has already been ruined because every casual golfer cheats. My father told me to always play strict rules and it would be much more fun. His view is one I stick to this day: If you're cheating at golf, you're cheating yourself because the real fun in the game is the challenge itself. How can you understand how you did against the course if you cheat?
I agree with Terry Belanger here - leave these sports alone and let the managers, players and umps run the games in baseball. And, if you play golf - play it the right way and stick to the rules.
1
You're worried about three hours? We are used to five day test matches. Even a limited match is one day but the newer, shortest form of cricket 20/20 is about 3 hours and is pretty exciting all the way through.
5
And after a five day test match, there may not be a winner! That blew my mind. Stopping every day for tea was a shocker to this American, too, although I rather enjoyed that more than the cricket...
Ray,
I was going to write virtually the same thing! Easy to see why Test cricket will never take off in the States.
I was going to write virtually the same thing! Easy to see why Test cricket will never take off in the States.
20/20 was put in because test matches were losing TV appeal.
Baseball players are notoriously superstitious. The rituals while at bat have gotten longer and involve multiple actions. This takes precious time (Dustin Pedroia having the most protracted and frequent sequence) and takes away from actually playing the game. A limit on these rituals would help make the game move along more smoothly and at a more interesting clip.
1
Superstition has nothing to do with winning, and any intelligent person would know that. Other than being OCD, pulling a Jack Nicholson has little role in the game. Thousands of fans in the stands need not put up with their oddities.
Baseball is the national pastime, not the national action fix. For those in a rush, there are highlights shows and stats tables. Not everything has to be calibrated to the speed of Twitter. Baseball, Soccer, golf... all elegantly slow, and may they remain that way lest our entire existence give way to blipification.
10
And I say Amen to that.
Each position player, including the pitcher, shall be allowed only ONE pickoff move per baserunner, no matter how many bases said baserunner advances.
This is would significantly increase the number of stolen bases, including steals of home.
This is would significantly increase the number of stolen bases, including steals of home.
2
Check it out. Post WWII many games lasted LESS than 2 hours. Weekday afternoon games started at 3:00 pm and would be called for darkness before sunset. Faster games? Get rid of the lights.
3
1) 162 games a year! Really?
2) even numbered innings - 3 strikes 4 balls, odd inning - 4 strikes, 3 balls
3) throw to first - twice per runner limit
4) stop adjusting your junk
5) stop redoing your gloves. get a good pair and learn how to put them on.
6) every 3rd inning, running is reversed. 3rd to 2nd to 1st then home.
7) there is no dirt stuck in your cleats in the batters box
8) catcher visits to the mound - 2 per inning
9) pitching changes - 1 per inning
2) even numbered innings - 3 strikes 4 balls, odd inning - 4 strikes, 3 balls
3) throw to first - twice per runner limit
4) stop adjusting your junk
5) stop redoing your gloves. get a good pair and learn how to put them on.
6) every 3rd inning, running is reversed. 3rd to 2nd to 1st then home.
7) there is no dirt stuck in your cleats in the batters box
8) catcher visits to the mound - 2 per inning
9) pitching changes - 1 per inning
3
7 inning games and implementation of what I call the no countsies rule. Twice a year on the road a manager would be allowed to erase all the runs scored by the home team in the proceeding half inning by coming to the mound with a microphone and declaring in his most obnoxious voice possible no countsies, probably leading to rioting. If this was done late in the season at a time when a manager needed to use his no countsies or lose them, this would inevitably lead to hilarious spectacles in which teams knowing that there runs were soon to be taken away would be trying their hardest to get themselves out. The rule would return baseball to its place as America's past time.
That is not baseball. It's something kids make p to keep themselves busy.
I agree with the person who said if you think baseball is boring, don't watch baseball. Its charm has always been that it suspends time. If the breakneck pace of modern life is too slow for you, then baseball is not your sport.
But having said that, one of the things that turned me off to the sport was the TV control, which a) inserted endless commercial breaks and b) dictated that games, especially playoff and World Series games, would be played only at night, and end at 1 a.m. or later. There's a timeless appeal to occasionally watching a West Coast extra-inning game at 2 a.m., but not when a championship (and your job the next morning) is at stake.
When I was a kid, the "October Classic" was played on warm afternoons in the golden glow of early fall, not on freezing November nights. If the Yankees were in it, school would even let out early so we could go home and watch it. Not many parents will let kids stay up that late to watch the games, and without a young fan base to build for the future, a sport is doomed.
And while we're at it, let's eliminate all those timeouts that make the last two minutes of basketball and football games take a half-hour or more to play.
But having said that, one of the things that turned me off to the sport was the TV control, which a) inserted endless commercial breaks and b) dictated that games, especially playoff and World Series games, would be played only at night, and end at 1 a.m. or later. There's a timeless appeal to occasionally watching a West Coast extra-inning game at 2 a.m., but not when a championship (and your job the next morning) is at stake.
When I was a kid, the "October Classic" was played on warm afternoons in the golden glow of early fall, not on freezing November nights. If the Yankees were in it, school would even let out early so we could go home and watch it. Not many parents will let kids stay up that late to watch the games, and without a young fan base to build for the future, a sport is doomed.
And while we're at it, let's eliminate all those timeouts that make the last two minutes of basketball and football games take a half-hour or more to play.
8
The baseball season should be from April to October period. Get rid of wild card games --only the top teams should be allowed to compete for the championship pennants. I find it mind boggling that the World Series now goes into November!!! That makes no sense. The World Series should be finished by mid-October--that's why it's called The Fall Classic. Yet the baseball season continues to go on and on and with no end in sight. Someday I fear that Game 7 of the World Series and the Super Bowl are going to be played on the same day.
7
If you want the game to get over sooner, maybe it isn't your game.
12
Rubbish! Baseball is NOT "too slow"! It's a grand game; the only real game in the world, as Babe Ruth called it. People's attention spans are hopelessly short-to-non-existent! Baseball is both action and cerebral. There are reasons for those pauses and lack of physical action. If you understand the game and you think like a manager, you'll tune in to what's really going on during those seemingly "boring" moments. Leave it alone! If it''s too much for you, watch something else.
13
I admit there is the occasional player or pitcher who I would love to light a fire under. But that's part of the game. There's nothing better than being in the ballpark on a hot summer's day.
In Babe Ruth's time, a double header could be played in a few hours.
The futzing around that drives most sane people to go fishing has crept in over the last few decades, and has nothing to do with the game.
A shrinking fan base will not allow the enormous salaries that we're seeing now. And I'm not paying inflated prices for products who's company supports the soaring ad fees.
The futzing around that drives most sane people to go fishing has crept in over the last few decades, and has nothing to do with the game.
A shrinking fan base will not allow the enormous salaries that we're seeing now. And I'm not paying inflated prices for products who's company supports the soaring ad fees.
1
If in Babe's day, a doubleheader started at noon, he could reasonably expect to beat his favorite speakeasy at 5 pm.
I hear all the traditionalists saying "don't change a thing". But baseball is greatly changed from 1973, when I became a fan. Pitchers were expected to finish what they started, and pitched more games. Batters got on with business. Many inter-inning breaks were just long enough for one Rheingold commercial. In fact, that's when they started limiting mound visits because Dick Williams abused the privilege.
You used to be able to "tag" the runner by firing the ball at him. Over the years, baseball has undergone many rule changes, to suit the present needs of the game. I do not think quickening the game threatens the integrity of the game.
The requirement that pitchers deliver the ball in a timely manner is one of those rules that was uninformed even then. Charlie Finley put in a pitch clock to one of his stadiums, just to prove the rules were going uninformed. MLB made him take it down.
I hear all the traditionalists saying "don't change a thing". But baseball is greatly changed from 1973, when I became a fan. Pitchers were expected to finish what they started, and pitched more games. Batters got on with business. Many inter-inning breaks were just long enough for one Rheingold commercial. In fact, that's when they started limiting mound visits because Dick Williams abused the privilege.
You used to be able to "tag" the runner by firing the ball at him. Over the years, baseball has undergone many rule changes, to suit the present needs of the game. I do not think quickening the game threatens the integrity of the game.
The requirement that pitchers deliver the ball in a timely manner is one of those rules that was uninformed even then. Charlie Finley put in a pitch clock to one of his stadiums, just to prove the rules were going uninformed. MLB made him take it down.
Watch Ken Burns' series about baseball. Then everyone will understand what the game is about. Changing the game for those who don't understand our like how it is, aren't real fans. Don't change because a small few don't like how the game goes. If people don't like or enjoy it for the speed of play or length, those weren't the fans baseball needs. I feel sorry for those who want the change because it bores them. I love it the way it is. Watch the series on baseball, learn something.
10
Just wanted to say thank you to my fellow fans out there. So many wonderful comments here. Nothing about baseball needs fixing. Our society and our souls need fixing.
Taking a moment to think before acting might be a good example to follow.
Taking a moment to think before acting might be a good example to follow.
12
My ex is a sports historian and he claimed that the perfect baseball game occurred when the score was 0-0.
Yawn!
I really don't think there's anything that can fix baseball.
Yawn!
I really don't think there's anything that can fix baseball.
1
Get rid of all "suggestion box" articles as well as comments sections. We could fix baseball an everything else in one stroke.
Here is, I think, the perfect way to ensure that baseball games move along faster: when the the umpire starts the game, start a clock. Exactly 2 hours later, sound a horn and the game is over. (I suppose one could finish the current inning, then end the game, but I like being more definitive about things.) Then no longer rank teams by games won or lost, rank them by giving them some number of points for games played, some more for winning, some number for tying, and nothing for losing (like soccer does). To ensure that the game doesn't stay glacial, encourage teams to play as many innings as possible by also awarding points for innings played, won, or tied.
To those who want a robotic strike zone: there is absolutely nothing 'unfair' about a blown call. Every baseball play involves a large degree of randomness, which is one reason it takes 100+ games to separate good from mediocre teams. Over that span, the good breaks balance the bad, so what's the point of micro-managing every single play?
In fact a robotic strike zone would make the game *less* fair by rewarding teams whose catcher's lack the only recently-recognized (ironically, due to the robots) skill to frame pitches. The pitcher/umpire, batter/umpire, and catcher/umpire interactions are as much a part of baseball as the pitcher/batter matchup.
In fact a robotic strike zone would make the game *less* fair by rewarding teams whose catcher's lack the only recently-recognized (ironically, due to the robots) skill to frame pitches. The pitcher/umpire, batter/umpire, and catcher/umpire interactions are as much a part of baseball as the pitcher/batter matchup.
1
I agree that we're collectively becoming less patient in today's instant gratification world, and the unique beauty of baseball is its timeless nature. Commercial breaks are a drag across all sports, and if you don't have DVR, I'd seriously suggest thinking about adding it. The extra cost is worth it. Sponsors will realize eventually that no one is watching their ads and something will have to change there. Having said that, I do like several of the ideas:
1) Limit the throw to first base, with a runner on, to one, or else subsequent throws are counted as balls.
2) Minimize visits to the mound.
3) Limit the time batters can spend out of the batter's box.
I don't think those three things would take away from the historical integrity of the game.
1) Limit the throw to first base, with a runner on, to one, or else subsequent throws are counted as balls.
2) Minimize visits to the mound.
3) Limit the time batters can spend out of the batter's box.
I don't think those three things would take away from the historical integrity of the game.
Every inning after the 9th, you lose a defender. LOL (I wish I could remember who said this...)
Fix Baseball. Yeah, right. Fix it until it breaks.
Use your DVR to record the game.
Watch when convenient for your life, and fast-forward through at least the ads.
Definitely shortens the time you spend watching the game.
Watch when convenient for your life, and fast-forward through at least the ads.
Definitely shortens the time you spend watching the game.
Are you nuts? The simple fact that nothing in baseball depends on the clock is possibly its most compelling feature! I go to the ballpark to relax, sit in the sunshine with a cold beer and let the action unfold as it may. If you think baseball needs "fixing" to speed things up, I suggest you consider a different sport.
6
A couple of weeks ago - in his New York Post column - Phil Mushnick addressed this issue regarding methods to speed up games - such as this ridiculous rule of intentional walks now being applied by a signal from the dugout, without having to actually throw any pitches --
(Has anyone seen a batter actually poke an "intentional walk" pitch out to the opposite field - or a wild "intentional walk" pitch which results in a game-ending run ?)
Mushnick addressed the ultimate nightmare for those who are in a hurry to see the game end in as short a time as possible - that being the tie game which goes into extra innings --
After acknowledging (and rejecting) the idea of a baseball game ending in a tie score - Mushnick printed a suggestion from one of his readers regarding how to speed up an extra-inning game --
The reader suggested that the tenth inning could begin with the runner rounding third base, while the right fielder was throwing home --
That's how absurd this entire argument seems to those of us who enjoy baseball exactly the way it is now -
And - I'm sure there are many people here who would enthusiastically support the idea of a game ending in a tie score --
I might be in favor of that idea - but would add that once a game goes to extra innings - the defensive infielders are allowed to tackle any base runner attempting to steal a base or advance on a sacrifice fly...
(Has anyone seen a batter actually poke an "intentional walk" pitch out to the opposite field - or a wild "intentional walk" pitch which results in a game-ending run ?)
Mushnick addressed the ultimate nightmare for those who are in a hurry to see the game end in as short a time as possible - that being the tie game which goes into extra innings --
After acknowledging (and rejecting) the idea of a baseball game ending in a tie score - Mushnick printed a suggestion from one of his readers regarding how to speed up an extra-inning game --
The reader suggested that the tenth inning could begin with the runner rounding third base, while the right fielder was throwing home --
That's how absurd this entire argument seems to those of us who enjoy baseball exactly the way it is now -
And - I'm sure there are many people here who would enthusiastically support the idea of a game ending in a tie score --
I might be in favor of that idea - but would add that once a game goes to extra innings - the defensive infielders are allowed to tackle any base runner attempting to steal a base or advance on a sacrifice fly...
In case of a tie, award the game to the visiting team, which has the harder row to hoe.
I played baseball in HS and it was soooo much fun! My fav team was the Dodgers and I could literally name all the players on the entire team. My dad, grandfather, and uncles talked baseball for hours which they passed on to me. Baseball was a day game then (remember double headers?) and rarely played at night, which lead to baseball being a family activity. That was 30 years ago and now, I can't remember the last time I watched a baseball game either in person or on TV. What I do remember is the eternity it takes for a hitter to actually take a swing, a pitcher to actually pitch, a manager to spend more time in the dugout than on the mound, and the 10 minutes of commercials between innings. Consequently, my interest for MLB is gone and my kids don't even know a single player on a single team. Baseball has become a sport where it has no fans under 35.
1
Don't make fundamental changes to the game. However, if MLB wants to get attention-challenged younger people (or older people, for that matter) interested in baseball, create a completely new version of baseball, like rugby did with rugby 7s years ago. Then they can change as many fundamental rules as you want without distorting the original game. Start a new league and see if it takes off. It might be a good way for older players to extend their careers. Shorter games, funky rules. And I can still have my four-hour meditations in the Bronx.
Has anyone in the Commisioner's office (or hired by them) actually watched game films from the 60s-70s, clocked them, and compared the time spent on various activities, then vs now? Where is the data? Outsiders can speculate and point at this and that time-eating bogeyman, but it seems to me that baseball, for all its fondness for statistics, should be able to point out exactly what the problem is, share the data with the fans, and try out solutions in spring training. MLB owes this to its fans. The fact that MLB has not done this suggests to me that sharing this data and then acting on it would hit it in its pocketbook.
That said, here's my idea. Paint a "leadoff line" x feet away from first base. The pitcher gets one pickoff attempt of a runner at first, per batter, when the runner is inside the leadoff line. If a runner takes a lead beyond the line, the pitcher is always free to attempt a pickoff.
That said, here's my idea. Paint a "leadoff line" x feet away from first base. The pitcher gets one pickoff attempt of a runner at first, per batter, when the runner is inside the leadoff line. If a runner takes a lead beyond the line, the pitcher is always free to attempt a pickoff.
i wonder how many of these comments are written by folks who just turn on a baseball game, any baseball game, just to kill time, the casual spectator, as opposed to dedicated fans of a particular team for whom every move on the field has a nuanced strategy behind it. Seems like mostly the former.
I recently watched the game film of Disco Demolition Night. Except when stuff was thrown on the field, the game seemed to move pretty quickly.
I think a large part of it is the pitching changes. Managers expect to use three to four pitchers. That wasn't so until the late 80s. Used to be the starting pitcher completed things.
I think a large part of it is the pitching changes. Managers expect to use three to four pitchers. That wasn't so until the late 80s. Used to be the starting pitcher completed things.
1
Make all the beer a buck. Then they can play as long as they want. Everybody wins.
1
Evan: Google "ten-cent beer night".
Batting takes too long. Therefore:
1) No more delays between pitches.
2) No more practice swings between pitches.
3) Restore the original strike zone: armpits to knees, not belt to knees.
4) Restore the pitcher's mound height to 15 inches.
1) No more delays between pitches.
2) No more practice swings between pitches.
3) Restore the original strike zone: armpits to knees, not belt to knees.
4) Restore the pitcher's mound height to 15 inches.
3
Ever go to a minor league game?
At the end of the half-inning the team that just batted trots onto the field while the team that was in the field runs off the field and in about 30 seconds the game resumes.
Not so in Major League baseball. In Major League baseball between half-innings the media runs commercials while the player just stand around doing nothing.
Want to speed up the games? Do away with the between innings commercials.
Of course that will never happen. Somebody needs to pay for this stuff. It's not just the over-priced tickets, the $12.00 beers and the $7.00 hot dogs.
At the end of the half-inning the team that just batted trots onto the field while the team that was in the field runs off the field and in about 30 seconds the game resumes.
Not so in Major League baseball. In Major League baseball between half-innings the media runs commercials while the player just stand around doing nothing.
Want to speed up the games? Do away with the between innings commercials.
Of course that will never happen. Somebody needs to pay for this stuff. It's not just the over-priced tickets, the $12.00 beers and the $7.00 hot dogs.
3
Although I DO realize this is fairly tongue-in-cheek (it is; right?) I can't think of a single change in rules designed to speed up baseball that has actually made the game better. I keep having this incredible insight that if you don't like baseball because of the pace, you aren't going to like it if they speed it up either. Geez, humans already have the attention span of a gnat!
Passing intentional walk players to first base without throwing a pitch? Dumbest rule change ever!
PLAY. BALL!!
Passing intentional walk players to first base without throwing a pitch? Dumbest rule change ever!
PLAY. BALL!!
2
The rules of (national league) baseball are so nearly perfect that there is no need for explicit rules against things like 'unsportsmanlike conduct' or 'flagrant fouls' -- these behaviors are regulated organically by the game's essential ingredients: e.g., the inside fastball.
If baseball wants to speed the game, then it can do so without changing a single rule or losing a single minute of precious commercial time. If the players would collectively recognize their interest (attracting more fans) in a quicker game, then the culture could evolve to regard dawdling as another form of individually selfish behavior, and punish accordingly (e.g., the inside fastball).
Also: zero warmup pitches on the mound for mid-inning pitching changes. That's what the bullpen is for.
If baseball wants to speed the game, then it can do so without changing a single rule or losing a single minute of precious commercial time. If the players would collectively recognize their interest (attracting more fans) in a quicker game, then the culture could evolve to regard dawdling as another form of individually selfish behavior, and punish accordingly (e.g., the inside fastball).
Also: zero warmup pitches on the mound for mid-inning pitching changes. That's what the bullpen is for.
1
The main thing harming baseball is the ridiculous blackout rule. My home town of Las Vegas blacks out 5 teams! It makes no sense for teams up to 500 miles away to claim Las Vegas as a home market and deprive children growing up in the area from becoming fans. Children do not grow up watching baseball in the US anymore because of the blackout rules. Baseball cannot have a future without appealing to children like Kris Bryant and Bryce Harper.
3
No time outs by batters except to replace a broken bat or broken helmet and the ump has to agree. Travel from the on deck circle to the box in no more than 10 seconds after the prior out. 25 seconds between pitches for each at-bat, unless attempting to throw out a baserunner, and only one such attempt can be made per at-bat (no playing games of catch between pitcher and first basemen, or second or third). No conferences at the mound or anywhere else. Max of 3 pitchers per game, except due to a pitcher being unable to continue due to injury/illness -- if the 3rd pitcher is injured, that injured pitcher is replaced by a player who has been in the game for at least one entire inning at another defensive position (leaving a total of 8 "defenders" or even fewer), and the injured pitcher has to sit out of games for 7 calendar days minimum -- however, the 3-pitcher rule ceases to apply in the 12th or later innings, and beaning the other team's pitcher is an automatic forfeit. No more than 3 warmup pitches by a new pitcher. When home plate ump and other ump agree on the call, they can call discretionary delay of game penalties for situations like excessively slow home run trots, faked injury, or whatever, penalty consisting of awarding the other team a run. Extra pay to umps for a season-long average of shorter games (only 8.5/9 inning games count).
1
Just sit back and enjoy. You're watching something that goes beyond your fast paced, electronic gadget fix, multi-tasking life. Appreciate the slow, patient, tedious ways that baseball teaches us. It's a meditative and skilled way of relaxing. Geez...take me out to the ball game...
Maybe the question should be, what do you think you're really gonna miss if the game gets sped up. Besides, you can always exercise your right to leave or turn off the t.v. Or, listen by radio and move in and out of the game as you so desire. Relax.
Maybe the question should be, what do you think you're really gonna miss if the game gets sped up. Besides, you can always exercise your right to leave or turn off the t.v. Or, listen by radio and move in and out of the game as you so desire. Relax.
1
Shorten games to seven innings with four outs for each side.
Games become more exciting and each team get one more at bat in every game. Home team always comes to bat at the bottom of the seventh even if they are ahead. Base World Series play-off rankings on season average of games won and total runs scored. Limit TV commercials to 3-15 seconds for each half inning and 1-30 second commercial at the end of each inning.
Games become more exciting and each team get one more at bat in every game. Home team always comes to bat at the bottom of the seventh even if they are ahead. Base World Series play-off rankings on season average of games won and total runs scored. Limit TV commercials to 3-15 seconds for each half inning and 1-30 second commercial at the end of each inning.
As another commenter pointed out, this would completely trash the statistical and Hall of Fame history of the sport which is a huge component for true fans. But I can appreciate, by analogy, that some folks like Arena Football, if that sport is even around anymore.
I am a true fan (Yankees when Lou Gehrig played first base) and have filled in my share of play by play scorecards. I'm sure there have been rule changes since baseball's 19th century birth. Asterisks were used in the 20th century. Baseball and its fans (true and false) will survive any 2lst century changes and improvements. Fear not, Patrick.
Limit pitching changes to two in the first nine innings.
2
So do you really think high scoring games as a result of pitching change limits would be any faster? I guess you have never witnessed innings where the entire rotation bats not once but twice.
I think that last year's World Series proves that baseball's slogan might as well be 'good things come to those who wait.'
...It wouldn't have been as epic if there hadn't been a 108-year-old curse, a Game 7, a rain delay, & extra innings.
That's the point.
Baseball is about what is possible in each & every moment. It is about inducing & withstanding chaos... &, only then, achieving Greatness.
If you don’t have time for that, we probably can’t be friends. :/
...But that's just one salty grl's perspective.
More thoughts @ grlonbase.com! :)
...It wouldn't have been as epic if there hadn't been a 108-year-old curse, a Game 7, a rain delay, & extra innings.
That's the point.
Baseball is about what is possible in each & every moment. It is about inducing & withstanding chaos... &, only then, achieving Greatness.
If you don’t have time for that, we probably can’t be friends. :/
...But that's just one salty grl's perspective.
More thoughts @ grlonbase.com! :)
2
Nine innings, no clock. Extra innings to settle a tie. Endurance is part of the game, physically and mentally.
If your attention span is too short to enjoy a baseball game - at the park or at home - go back to X-box.
If your attention span is too short to enjoy a baseball game - at the park or at home - go back to X-box.
2
1. If a batter moves out of the batter's box between pitches to ceremoniously and unnecessarily adjust his batting gloves, or for any reason other than, for example, fouling a pitch off his foot, he should have a strike accorded to him.
2. The time allowed between pitches should be shortened -- even if by 5 seconds. Assuming, not unreasonably, that 250 pitches are made during a game it would be considerably shortened. Do the arithmetic
2. The time allowed between pitches should be shortened -- even if by 5 seconds. Assuming, not unreasonably, that 250 pitches are made during a game it would be considerably shortened. Do the arithmetic
1
Even if you "tweak" baseball, it will still be a slow moving game. It was meant to be a slowing moving game; it's the beauty and essence of the sport.
One of my favorite ways to end my day is to listen to Jon Miller do play by play of the SF Giants games over KBNR. Most games start late, and it's a great way to wind down. It's a peaceful feeling. I have no need for it to be cut in length.
2
There's a very easy way to make baseball games shorter: go to a Minor League game. Pitch clock, no commercial breaks, no Jumbotron proposals. Plus it's a lot cheaper. At the *Gwinnett* Braves game I went to a fourth-row third-baseline ticket was $5.
1
1. No stepping out of the batters box. If the batter does, it's a strike.
2. Do what tennis has done - 25 seconds (or whatever) to put the ball in play. If it takes longer, then 24 seconds for the next pitch, if it takes longer, then 23 seconds etc. - from then on through the entire game.
3. Severely limit time between half innings. No commercials except during this time. Although why not have transparent trailing commercials at the bottom of a TV screen.
4. Limit time for pitcher changes.
5. Outlaw trips to the mound by anyone (give the game back to the players)
2. Do what tennis has done - 25 seconds (or whatever) to put the ball in play. If it takes longer, then 24 seconds for the next pitch, if it takes longer, then 23 seconds etc. - from then on through the entire game.
3. Severely limit time between half innings. No commercials except during this time. Although why not have transparent trailing commercials at the bottom of a TV screen.
4. Limit time for pitcher changes.
5. Outlaw trips to the mound by anyone (give the game back to the players)
1
It's an awesome game; those who can't appreciate it should watch some WWE or something more suited to their pedestrian sensibilities.
4
When I first started listening to baseball on the radio, it was not even direct. The local announcer would read the play off at ticker tape and recreate it for
the radio listeners. I was 9 years old. I loved it and always hoped it would last much longer. Of course there was no advertising, and no preening. And we could not see the disgusting spitting so I thought they were all heroes.
Also now, some of the announcers are not very good and are a bit braggadocio. I'm thinking of Fox especially. The best are the NBC guys. They know the players and the plays. A pleasure to listen to them. I still hate it when the game is over...Last season was thrilling and over too soon..
Put a time limit. That's why I prefer hockey, basketball and football! I try to like baseball, but it's soooooooooooo sloooooooooooooooow.
3
It's baseball. it's baseball! Once there you talk to your kids, your friends, heck even your wife! You watch with one eye, for three+ hours you are not in charge of squat. The Grass smells good, the big beef dog is tasty, ball hitting the bat whacks you and your overpriced beer is cold. Please don't ruin it!!!!!!!!!! Once over, you leave, you are saddened that reality once again beckons!
5
This is the sake game we played 50 years ago when games were 2 hours long. What happened? TV. That's for starters. Shorten TV time outs. Incessant stepping out of the batters box to adjust body armor. Knock it off. Replay challenges. We all see the manager wait until the TV coverage shows the replay and THEN they decide to challenge. Nope. They have to rely on their own eyes. Pitchers: stay on the mound. No more meditating behind the mound, adjusting your cap, and winking at the girl in the 3rd row. Get to work. Catchers: YOU call the game. Stop looking at the dugout for Tom Landry to send in Craig Morton with your play. I'm sure there's more that can be done. But what should not be done is to change to basic tenets of the game. If you're bored, you need to brush up on strategy. Oh, yes, the interminable commentating. Shut up. Try teaching us the game and sprinkle your lessons with some good Yogi stories.
4
Good points, all.
Baseball only needs minor tweaks:
1.- Make the ball bigger, a circumference of 27-28"
2.- Cover the whole field in grass
3.- Position 2 rectangles, posts 8 yards apart and 8' from the ground
4.- The ball can only be advanced by kicking it, except from one player from each team.
I guess you get the idea.
1.- Make the ball bigger, a circumference of 27-28"
2.- Cover the whole field in grass
3.- Position 2 rectangles, posts 8 yards apart and 8' from the ground
4.- The ball can only be advanced by kicking it, except from one player from each team.
I guess you get the idea.
2
Better idea, do away with all the bats and balls and just flip a coin. Winner takes all. Problem solved!
There once was a national pastime
That was normally played in daytime
But cash began to rule
A status surely cruel
Then making the game far from sublime
That was normally played in daytime
But cash began to rule
A status surely cruel
Then making the game far from sublime
4
Outlaw chewing on the pitcher's mound.
1
Most of this is imaginative but (often intentionally) ridiculous. Baseball is not intended to be either a rushed exercise nor a study in tedium. The main culprit is commericals, and the last thing MLB wants to do is tone down the moneymaking. What they fail to comprehend is that in speeding up game play, the ratio of commercials to actual baseball execution will increase and make the game even more unwatchable, like the last few holes of a golf tournament or the half hour it takes to play the last three minutes of a football game (or seems to, anyway).
Limiting throws over to first base is smart. Eliminating stepping off the mound or out of the batter's box makes sense. Limiting trips from the dugout to the mound also could be useful. Taking humans out of strike/ball calls makes more sense every passing year. Starting extra innings with a man on second? I'll be outahere, I promise you. Baseball more than any other sport is all ABOUT history, tradition, memory. But also a relaxed, slightly contemplative pace.
Here's one I haven't seen yet on these pages: enough with the catcher getting to check with first base regarding check swings. It's been horribly abused. Might only save a couple minutes per game, but it would be worth it.
Limiting throws over to first base is smart. Eliminating stepping off the mound or out of the batter's box makes sense. Limiting trips from the dugout to the mound also could be useful. Taking humans out of strike/ball calls makes more sense every passing year. Starting extra innings with a man on second? I'll be outahere, I promise you. Baseball more than any other sport is all ABOUT history, tradition, memory. But also a relaxed, slightly contemplative pace.
Here's one I haven't seen yet on these pages: enough with the catcher getting to check with first base regarding check swings. It's been horribly abused. Might only save a couple minutes per game, but it would be worth it.
1
baseball has ALWAYS been slow - good for fans who have to [now, way overpay] have an evening out.
the best way to speed it up is to stay home and see the tv sports news.
the best way to speed it up is to stay home and see the tv sports news.
1
Call the strike zone as it is described in the rulebook.
2
Why is 3 hours too slow ? The NFL has been 3 1/2 hours for decades.
17
this. Football is so much slower, and no one minds. They stand/walk around more than they play.
I don't think the game length is the problem; it's the lack baseball. Leave the base runners from inning to inning and we get a lot more of the baseball we love in a game!
Play two innings at a time..Batting team bats two innings..After the third out of the first inning, bases are cleared of runners (if any) and the batting team gets another 3 outs. They pick up in the batting order from previous inning. Vice versa. This will shorten the game dramatically if fielders and batters do not have change positions every 3 outs.
2
Velcro the batter's feet into the batter's box so he can't step out between pitches. To make up for the time required to un-Velcro his feet when he gets a hit, let him jump onto a dirt bike left idling nearby and power down the line to first base like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. That, I'd watch.
2
Your observation about dawdling batsmen is on the money. I for one am tired of watching hitters adjust their batting gloves ,take innumerable practice swings then step gingerly into the box with outstretched arm to prevent quick pitching. I say quick pitch away. If you need a demo of what a game would be like without dawdling batsmen, check out the vintage film of the 7th game of the 1960 World Series. When the batters stepped into the batters box . . . They stayed there!
7
Too many commercials slow the game down. In the days before television games were finished in less than two hours. If MLB is afraid of losing revenue they should consider how much they will lose with fewer and fewer people watching. I don't blame young people for being impatient. I am sixty and find the game I used to enjoy watching is far too long.
8
Funny, but the time between innings doesn't seem to drag at all when you watch it live. Blame the television generation.
Make the outfield bigger and the pitcher an offensive position - pitcher pitches to their own players.
2
Baseball games take nearly 50% longer now than they did 30-40 years ago. They've gone from a bit over 2 hours to 3 hours. So for those who say, "Don't change the game we love," I'd have to say, the game has already been changed in many little ways that simply add time, a lot more time.
What to do? The article and the comments have many good and do-able suggestions: Batters should stay in the batter's box, without adjusting their batting gloves every single pitch. Catchers shouldn't be able to go to the mound to talk strategy. No coaches going to the mound, except for a pitching change. Fewer warm up pitches. Three batter minimum per pitcher.
The one thing baseball has done, just sending a batter to first on an intentional walk, will save maybe a minute per game. Wholly inadequate.
What to do? The article and the comments have many good and do-able suggestions: Batters should stay in the batter's box, without adjusting their batting gloves every single pitch. Catchers shouldn't be able to go to the mound to talk strategy. No coaches going to the mound, except for a pitching change. Fewer warm up pitches. Three batter minimum per pitcher.
The one thing baseball has done, just sending a batter to first on an intentional walk, will save maybe a minute per game. Wholly inadequate.
7
How about fewer commercial time outs?
Its interesting reading complaints about baseball taking too long - compare this with Test Cricket which usually goes for 5 days! Again there are similar suggestions for speeding up the Test Match format - a popular alternative is the Twenty20 format - limiting the number of balls bowled (pitched) in the match. Maybe baseball could experiment with a shorter format game as well?
2
There are so many ways to fix baseball.
1. We need World Series games during the day. I am not talking about one game. I'm talking about day games on the weekend and night games during the week. That makes sense.
2. Accept that umpires make mistakes. If another ump doesn't overrule the ump that makes the call, so be it. There is one exception: foul/fair home run calls (simply because, like field goals, these are difficult to decipher in the evening).
3. Speaking of umps, give them encouragement to move the game along. "Batter, let's go. In the box." Yes, that helps pitchers but it helps everyone in the long run.
1. We need World Series games during the day. I am not talking about one game. I'm talking about day games on the weekend and night games during the week. That makes sense.
2. Accept that umpires make mistakes. If another ump doesn't overrule the ump that makes the call, so be it. There is one exception: foul/fair home run calls (simply because, like field goals, these are difficult to decipher in the evening).
3. Speaking of umps, give them encouragement to move the game along. "Batter, let's go. In the box." Yes, that helps pitchers but it helps everyone in the long run.
3
When I was in high school, my Earth Sciences teacher was the JV football coach. Every day we had a "fact of the day" to start off the class. One day he explained to us his time-motion analysis of a baseball game on TV to prove using meticulous mathematics and physics that almost nothing actually happens in a baseball game and how everyone should just give up and switch to football.
6
I think everybody's Earth Sciences teacher was the JV football coach.
2
As long as professional golf is still a thing, I have no interest in listening to arguments about how to make baseball move more quickly.
10
Don't change a single rule. Baseball is one (near) constant in the devolving world of sports.
Throw the four wide pitches for an intentional walk. Throw to first as often as you think you can get away with when the player there is threat. (Okay, you don't have to adjust your gloves after every pitch, or even just every swing.)
Yes, get rid of the phone calls to New York to question an umpire's judgement. The ump was there, let him do his job. Definitely shorten the inter-inning and pitching replacement times. As one commenter noted, "I don't want less baseball, I want less non-baseball."
You want to speed up a game? Don't stop the clock in football for an incomplete pass or running out of bounds until after the 2 minute warning is called. A couple of hundred seconds of action out of 3600 seconds of clock time make football an example for baseball to follow? Get real....
Throw the four wide pitches for an intentional walk. Throw to first as often as you think you can get away with when the player there is threat. (Okay, you don't have to adjust your gloves after every pitch, or even just every swing.)
Yes, get rid of the phone calls to New York to question an umpire's judgement. The ump was there, let him do his job. Definitely shorten the inter-inning and pitching replacement times. As one commenter noted, "I don't want less baseball, I want less non-baseball."
You want to speed up a game? Don't stop the clock in football for an incomplete pass or running out of bounds until after the 2 minute warning is called. A couple of hundred seconds of action out of 3600 seconds of clock time make football an example for baseball to follow? Get real....
6
A couple of hundred seconds of action out of 3600 seconds of clock time make football an example for baseball to follow?
Oh, and that's out of 10,000 seconds of wall time......
Oh, and that's out of 10,000 seconds of wall time......
This sounds to me like a solution in search of a problem. If you don't like the pace of the game, watch football or basketball. Not everything needs to be a race against the clock. Maybe I'm showing my age, but I enjoy watching the unfolding strategy and tactics, especially the battles between pitchers and batters.
10
The fix is obvious: if you think baseball is boring, don't watch baseball. Easy as pie. I don't like the violence in football, so I don't watch football. Baseball is meticulous compared to other sports, hence its appeal to someone like me, who is not a "sports person". Stop trying to make it more like other sports - where is the fun in that?!
13
Leave my sport alone, the rules are fine as they are. The problem, as I see it, is untenable starting times for most games. Start the games earlier, the games are over earlier, people go to bed on time, people are happy. Playoff games especially are ridiculous. You want kinds to watch exciting playoff baseball? How about scheduling some games that kids can actually watch that don't end at midnight on a school night? Bring back daytime baseball.
13
Play 7 innings.
One of the last rules of baseball to be standardized was the 9 inning rule. Many players of the mid-19th century favored 7.
Now that we have arrived at the electronics age, go back to 7, but keep all of the delay causing things that make baseball unique.
One of the last rules of baseball to be standardized was the 9 inning rule. Many players of the mid-19th century favored 7.
Now that we have arrived at the electronics age, go back to 7, but keep all of the delay causing things that make baseball unique.
speaking as an outsider but has been to baseball games (as well as NFL basketball socce rand Rugby) the answer seems obvious. cut down on the number of games. Nfl is 3 hours but no-ones complaining . Why? because in NFL every game matters. In colonial countries cricet tests lasts 5 days and the short game is 6 hours. Yet it still has a huge following. Why? Because each Test maters. My solution? cut the number of games by 75% to roughly same as baseball. then everyone will come.
1
[[Ban all arm/hand armor and padding on batters — it’s an unfair advantage and wastes thousands of minutes as straps are adjusted between pitches.]]
The constant adjustment of straps has to do with the fact that there is more preening in baseball than in any of the other major sports. These guys are so concerned with their looks that they actually come across as feminine in their behavior.
The constant adjustment of straps has to do with the fact that there is more preening in baseball than in any of the other major sports. These guys are so concerned with their looks that they actually come across as feminine in their behavior.
If game is tied after 9 innings each team gets ½ game won, ½ game lost; game over. (Alternatively: if game is tied after 9 innings institute a quick inning: each team has 3 at bats, most total bases wins. Still tied: ½ an ½.)
Reduce time between innings (stream commercials or superimpose on base of fence(s).
Electronic balls and strikes.
Why not a 7th inning run-rule?
No trips to mound. When pitcher gets ball, he throws it. One foot in batter’s box. Can a relief pitcher walk any slower to the mound?
At least some World Series games should be played earlier. Why not 154 game season? No more DH.
Reduce time between innings (stream commercials or superimpose on base of fence(s).
Electronic balls and strikes.
Why not a 7th inning run-rule?
No trips to mound. When pitcher gets ball, he throws it. One foot in batter’s box. Can a relief pitcher walk any slower to the mound?
At least some World Series games should be played earlier. Why not 154 game season? No more DH.
So, you would throw away that epic Game 7 from last season. Where's your sense of fun?
Solution: Conjoined baseball fields, where the field on the left shares it's 1st base with the field on the right's 3rd base. That way you can watch two games at the same time. Sure, it would get messy in the outfield, but that would be half the fun.
Ban velcro
Insist that umpires call the actual strike zone instead of ignoring the "high strike".
"One of everything" approach:
One defensive shift per inning and that becomes the defense for the rest of the inning. This alone would improve on base percentage and make games comparable to the old days before shifting was used.
One pitching change per inning or after 3 runs scored, 4 warm up pitches instead of 8.
One step out of the batters box per at bat unless injured (i.e. foul ball off foot), get your helmet tapping, glove pulling and tapping your feet with your bat done in the batting circle.
One throw to first per batter, lead off limit of 10 feet after that throw
One manager trip to the mound per game, 90 second limit, infield can't come in.
One catcher trip to the mount per game, 60 second limit, infield can't come in.
One strike for every 3rd foul ball
Any combination of these should cut time and make the game more interesting.
One defensive shift per inning and that becomes the defense for the rest of the inning. This alone would improve on base percentage and make games comparable to the old days before shifting was used.
One pitching change per inning or after 3 runs scored, 4 warm up pitches instead of 8.
One step out of the batters box per at bat unless injured (i.e. foul ball off foot), get your helmet tapping, glove pulling and tapping your feet with your bat done in the batting circle.
One throw to first per batter, lead off limit of 10 feet after that throw
One manager trip to the mound per game, 90 second limit, infield can't come in.
One catcher trip to the mount per game, 60 second limit, infield can't come in.
One strike for every 3rd foul ball
Any combination of these should cut time and make the game more interesting.
Require all players to undergo treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
You do know that all that tugging and adjusting and preening is part of the signals....at least you would if you were a hard-core fan.
A good baseball game doesn't really start until the 6th inning. Real strategy begins then, and the game becomes far more interesting. But then I'm one who believes a very low scoring game is far more exciting than one filled with runs. A 1-0 games in the eighth and ninth inning will give more heart attack moments than any other time in baseball.
I do agree that all the time wasting moments--including some of the commercials--could be cut with no loss.
Baseball is in essence, for most of the time, only between the pitcher and the batter. The longer that goes on in an at bat, the better the game.
The reason games are so long on TV is because of all the commercials. It was always a dawdling summer game.
Bring back day baseball.
I do agree that all the time wasting moments--including some of the commercials--could be cut with no loss.
Baseball is in essence, for most of the time, only between the pitcher and the batter. The longer that goes on in an at bat, the better the game.
The reason games are so long on TV is because of all the commercials. It was always a dawdling summer game.
Bring back day baseball.
1
Ban Velcro batting gloves
Here's a very simple idea: if the problem is having a game last longer than 2:30 hours why not divide those 150 minutes by 9 innings = 16.6 or let's round up to 17 mins. Each team gets 8.5 mins to make their offensive moves like in basketball. Want more time per inning, then cut down the game to 7 innings. Same rule applies for extra-inning games.
If the defensive team stalls, then they get penalized with that time removed from their offensive turn.
If the defensive team stalls, then they get penalized with that time removed from their offensive turn.
Really? Too slow?
Baseball is supposed to be a day a the park, no clock, no worries.
NFL - now that is too slow - play, stop, play, stop, play, punt, commercial, commercial, commercial, commercial.
Play, time out for commercial, play, play, commercial, commercial.
baseball is fine as is - tweek it only. And relax and enjoy - it is not a combat sport. And get the damn kids off the video games and outside to play and get dirty. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE FIXED.
Baseball is supposed to be a day a the park, no clock, no worries.
NFL - now that is too slow - play, stop, play, stop, play, punt, commercial, commercial, commercial, commercial.
Play, time out for commercial, play, play, commercial, commercial.
baseball is fine as is - tweek it only. And relax and enjoy - it is not a combat sport. And get the damn kids off the video games and outside to play and get dirty. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE FIXED.
6
Have a "slaughter" rule, if one team gets ahead by five runs the game is OVER, as long as the inning when that happens is completed.
No matter what you do you aren't going to shave the time down by more than 5%. Why bother going to so much trouble for such little result? Most people watch baseball while they are doing something else. The strength of baseball is that it allows viewers to multi-task.
1
Once inserted into the game, a relief pitcher must face at least 3 batters in that inning before being replaced.
2
If you want to touch on the subject, be serious about it. Who wants to read silly remarks.
5
I really like the idea of letting foul balls count as strike 3. 20 pitch at bats were cool for a bit but now that everyone's trained to do it, it makes the game longer and burns through the mediocre middle relievers a lot more than they deserve.
2
Shrink the strike zone and put more balls in play and fewer people will mind the game taking three hours.
Do not add any timed component to it. The whole point of baseball is no clock.
Practically, just have the umpires move things along--quicker return throws to the mound, quicker warm up pitches between innings, warnings to batters stepping out between pitches.
Other than that, I would leave well enough alone.
Practically, just have the umpires move things along--quicker return throws to the mound, quicker warm up pitches between innings, warnings to batters stepping out between pitches.
Other than that, I would leave well enough alone.
3
Baseball is just fine as it is.
People need to get attention spans again.
People need to get attention spans again.
18
Articles like this are like people speculating on how to have fewer horn players in jazz, or fewer tomatoes in Italian cooking. Baseball too slow? Go watch the NBA or NASCAR or get back to your re-tweeting.
6
[[Baseball too slow? Go watch the NBA or NASCAR or get back to your re-tweeting.]]
That's exactly what people are doing. Here, for example, are the steadily declining attendance numbers for the Houston Astros. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/housattn.shtml
You're welcome and have a nice day.
That's exactly what people are doing. Here, for example, are the steadily declining attendance numbers for the Houston Astros. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/housattn.shtml
You're welcome and have a nice day.
Your example is only sampling bias (one team, Houston). Baseball attendance is actually very consistent, and large (around 73M):
https://www.statista.com/statistics/193421/regular-season-attendance-in-...
The NBA is much smaller by comparison (of course smaller arenas, shorter season) but also pretty consistent (around 17M), and is not growing:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/193632/average-regular-season-home-a...
NASCAR's decline is well documented:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberttuchman/2015/02/23/what-has-happened-...
And don't get me started on Twitter's stock price.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/193421/regular-season-attendance-in-...
The NBA is much smaller by comparison (of course smaller arenas, shorter season) but also pretty consistent (around 17M), and is not growing:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/193632/average-regular-season-home-a...
NASCAR's decline is well documented:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberttuchman/2015/02/23/what-has-happened-...
And don't get me started on Twitter's stock price.
1
I don't mind how long the game takes. The twenty bucks for a beer and a hotdog is hard to swallow though.
9
The loss of the intentional walk is the second sign of the Apocalypse
Trump is first of course.
Trump is first of course.
18
The only major change I would make is to eliminate the warmup tosses a relief pitcher gets during a pitching change. If he's been warming up in the bullpen, why does he need eight more pitches on the mound to get ready.
Bring back the golf cart, drive him to the infield, and let him start pitching right away.
Bring back the golf cart, drive him to the infield, and let him start pitching right away.
2
Besides the obvious too much and too many commercials - 7 pitches per batter. 3 strikes 4 balls. Fouls count as strikes. And for better TV and more TV fans how about sending Buck, and his type, to the minors and broadcasting games that matter. Who cares about teams in the cellar. Teams get better when they have to fight for broadcast. Modern technology can move games within 2 days.
Go ahead and keep whittling away at tradition. Getting rid of a pitchout was bad enough. If it's too slow and they intend to speed it up, rename MLB to ADHD.
Meanwhile, I'll relish the 3+ hours that I stop thinking about work, politcs, etc.
Meanwhile, I'll relish the 3+ hours that I stop thinking about work, politcs, etc.
4
Supply the players with free cocaine and amphetamines. That will speed up the game!
1
"The average baseball game last season took three hours."
Since it is far more likely that this is someone's rough estimate, I want to know how long the average Major League baseball game _actually_ took last season, up to the nearest second or minute.
Since it is far more likely that this is someone's rough estimate, I want to know how long the average Major League baseball game _actually_ took last season, up to the nearest second or minute.
1
Limit visits to the mound by players and coaches, a team must use them the same way football, basketball, hockey teams uses time outs.
Pitchers must stop walking around the mound and pitch.
A batter must always have one foot in the batters box. Batters must learn to stop fidgeting around, they are professionals not 14 year old kids.
The short-stop and third baseman must be on the third base side of second base, second basemen and first basemen must on the first base side of second base. Outfielders must stay in the outfield. Anything else is an illegal defense, learn from basketball.
Use the high school baseball rule on limited substitution, this will cut down on the number of pitchers that are used.
No more arguing, there is instant replay.
Baseball purists have to get over themselves.
This has nothing to do with the speed of the game but lets go back to High Socks.
Pitchers must stop walking around the mound and pitch.
A batter must always have one foot in the batters box. Batters must learn to stop fidgeting around, they are professionals not 14 year old kids.
The short-stop and third baseman must be on the third base side of second base, second basemen and first basemen must on the first base side of second base. Outfielders must stay in the outfield. Anything else is an illegal defense, learn from basketball.
Use the high school baseball rule on limited substitution, this will cut down on the number of pitchers that are used.
No more arguing, there is instant replay.
Baseball purists have to get over themselves.
This has nothing to do with the speed of the game but lets go back to High Socks.
The shear beauty of Baseball is how it takes time to unwind and is not slave to a clock. In baseball, you cannot simply take a knee or pass the ball around in order to run out time. You must throw every pitch to every batter and get every out before you can win. It is classic artistry.
3
When I responded to the original "suggestion box" for ideas of how to improve the game I didn't think the video audience was that relevant. Of the four major sports (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey: Sorry; soccer is not there as a spectator sport, even hockey barely makes the list.) baseball was the the weakest in televised entertainment. I say was because, with high definition, the the nuances of the game are greatly enhanced and the gap has been closed considerably. For the crowd-pleasing, entertainment preferences of the casual fan, baseball will never satisfy the desire for the constant violent, one-on-one collisions, that people find the most entertaining aspect of the sporting contest. Also,baseball is the only game that thrives on the radio and, paradoxically, benefits from the slowness of the game to allow time for the weaving of the oral stories that makes the great game it is and why it commands the loyalty of its dedicated fans. Fathers don't throw footballs with sons, or shoot baskets with their sons, but Fathers (and Grandfathers) do "play catch" with sons and grandsons.
In any sports broadcast it is most annoying to have the screen cluttered with information: If you're watching the game, while the batter is in the box you don't need the visual distractions to continuously know the score, the count, men on base status, the huge network logo, tickertape status of other games, and especially split screen clubhouse interviews.
In any sports broadcast it is most annoying to have the screen cluttered with information: If you're watching the game, while the batter is in the box you don't need the visual distractions to continuously know the score, the count, men on base status, the huge network logo, tickertape status of other games, and especially split screen clubhouse interviews.
2
Seven innings, foul strike 3? No mound visits, no stepping out? Don't listen to idiots who don't appreciate our greatest game. The game is only too long if you'd rather be doing something else. If so, go do something else that's really pressing ... besides complaining about baseball.
2
Baseball is not "too slow". It is languid, it unfolds at its own pace, like a good book; it is not frenzied, hurried or staccato. It is not meant to be the sporting world's equivalent to Rossini's "Lone Ranger" theme. There is time to think; with other more fast-paced sports there is only time to react. In baseball there are myriad details to think about: what's the count, how many outs are there, how many base-runners are on the bases, what is the likelihood of bunting vs swinging away, are the infielders or outfielders shifted in some way due to the hitter's proclivities, what kind of pitch is the pitcher likely to deliver, what are the stats on this batter facing that pitch, how likely is it that a base-runner will try to steal, how good is the pitcher's move to that base, how good is the catcher at throwing would-be base-runners out? Baseball invites questions, and then while the teams change positions, there's time to digest what happened and what is to come. You can't speed up baseball like the speed racer version of chess.
5
please, put more baseballs in play, a few ideas to do that is to tighten the strike zone, make striking out an issue, and lessen the value of taking a "walk"
Baseball's not slow. The world is too fast.
6
Far more tedious and tired than even a hit-less, scoreless, double-digit extra innings baseball game are the "Baseball is too slow/boring/traditional/old" stories that the press churns out with regularity about this time each year.
Who gave NYT writers the notion that they have the duty/responsibility to "fix" baseball. This is appalling! What else does the NYT think it has the responsibility to "fix?" I don't get this!?
2
Judging by my study sample size of 5 kids and a wife, I suspect that the majority of fans want to see the game move faster. But I am a baseball fan precisely BECAUSE it is slow. When watching a game from home, I can get other things done while the game is on, and not fear missing much during the "filler" moments. When watching a game live, I can visit with my friends and family while enjoying the game, because there is downtime interspersed in the action. Yes, I enjoy the game itself but, for me, the social aspect of baseball is well served by the slow pace (at least, when I can talk my family and friends into attending such a "boring" experience).
2
Who? Who said it's too slow? The committee that governs everything and anything? Give me a break. Look at it this way: The game isn't too slow; We're too fast. SLOW DOWN. Uh.
6
No batting gloves with velcro straps to be adjusted after each pitch, no stepping out of the batter's box except after hitting the deck to avoid an errant pitch, a timer on the pitcher, ... What am I talking about -- I stopped watching years ago!
Require Phil Niekro and Bob Gibson to be the starters in every game. When the Braves played the Cards in the 60s and 70s with those two on the mound the games would be over in, say, 90 minutes. No batter ever stepped out on either of them--Gibson would throw one under the chin if that happened, while stepping out on Niekro would confuse things even more for a hitter.
1
A baseball game takes about 3 hours. A football game takes about 3 hours (and no one complains). The pacing of the games are different because they're different games!
Tighten up on some of the time wasters (some good suggestions in this piece), but essentially: leave baseball alone and appreciate it for being baseball (not football, basketball, hockey,....)
Or: Bring cricket to the USA...everything's relative!
Tighten up on some of the time wasters (some good suggestions in this piece), but essentially: leave baseball alone and appreciate it for being baseball (not football, basketball, hockey,....)
Or: Bring cricket to the USA...everything's relative!
1
Yes, cut down on the length of advertising breaks. Or, for those with PIP-box features on their TVs (and all flat-screen TVs have the feature), let the game go on while the ad plays in the PIP box. If the ad is good, people will watch the ad. We can do two things at once in that if there is a big play it will be replayed. I doubt advertisers would want to do this, but it is an idea. They don't stop the game for radio commercials.
Otherwise, done speed up the game too much. It is supposed to be a relatively slow game after all. I am not sure I like the idea of just signaling the walk of a batter from the dugout because there was always the chance of a stolen base on a screwed up throw from the pitcher to the catcher.
I knew that football was having ratings issues, but I didn't know baseball was--is baseball suffering from TV ratings declines?
Otherwise, done speed up the game too much. It is supposed to be a relatively slow game after all. I am not sure I like the idea of just signaling the walk of a batter from the dugout because there was always the chance of a stolen base on a screwed up throw from the pitcher to the catcher.
I knew that football was having ratings issues, but I didn't know baseball was--is baseball suffering from TV ratings declines?
Get rid of the instant replay! The MLB bigwigs talk constantly of speeding up the game but then they added this new innovation -- second-guessing the umpires -- which adds several minutes and totally kills the forward momentum.
11
Aside from the highly desirable elimination of TV advertisements (I'd be willing to pay directly to MLB for a no-blackout package), some game changes that wouldn't take away from the sport and would help speed it up:
Relievers get a maximum of 3 warm-up pitches.
Only two mound visits allowed per game.
All pitching changes completed without the manager coming out to the field.
Batters may not call time-outs when in the batter's box and pitchers may not step off the rubber once they've touched it.
Base runners only allowed to take a 10 foot lead and pitchers only allowed one pick-off attempt during the at-bat of the player at the plate.
Other than that, just sit back and enjoy the game!
Relievers get a maximum of 3 warm-up pitches.
Only two mound visits allowed per game.
All pitching changes completed without the manager coming out to the field.
Batters may not call time-outs when in the batter's box and pitchers may not step off the rubber once they've touched it.
Base runners only allowed to take a 10 foot lead and pitchers only allowed one pick-off attempt during the at-bat of the player at the plate.
Other than that, just sit back and enjoy the game!
1
Peter,
When a pitcher throws over to first base too often put that pitchers under a microscope,there is a Balk there.
When a pitcher throws over to first base too often put that pitchers under a microscope,there is a Balk there.
Augh! Not more of this "baseball is dying we must fix it" nonsense - baseball is lovely and different because of its inherent (literal and metaphorical) timelessness! And it has stayed amazingly successful in many countries for well over 100 years.
"It's the ADS, stupid" (as so many have noted) - and now the wretched replay reviews. Work on shrinking those and you'll get baseball back to being a little shorter without any damage to its nature.
Leave the real game alone! If you don't like it watch a different sport - why, why, WHY does everything have to get more alike?
"It's the ADS, stupid" (as so many have noted) - and now the wretched replay reviews. Work on shrinking those and you'll get baseball back to being a little shorter without any damage to its nature.
Leave the real game alone! If you don't like it watch a different sport - why, why, WHY does everything have to get more alike?
7
If you find televised games too long, take a break in the middle or start watching in the 8th inning. I can't sit through NBA or NFL games; always start watching sometime after the half.
2
You don't have to change the game. Just the commercials. One minute, not three, between innings. No commercials when a new pitcher comes in. What advertisers lose in exposure they'll make up on bigger audiences.
28
I agree that the length of games is the most compelling problem that MLB has to solve. They threw fuel on the fire with the expansion of the "play review" rule. It might be helpful to reduce the amount of "on field" discussions between the umpires and the players and coaches. The future of the game is in the hands of young children who aren't even sure what it is about the game that they love. The schedule of World Series and playoff games must be more kid friendly.
The game will endure if only we don't kill it searching for its salvation.
The game will endure if only we don't kill it searching for its salvation.
3
Ban people who think is slow and leave it to the rest of us to enjoy the contemplative nature of the sport ... go back to March Madness if you don't like it.
7
March Madness - when it takes 20 minutes to play the last 2 minutes.
2
Disallow batters from calling "time" to readjust their velcro glove straps and scratch a deeper foothole in the batter's box.
That should be the ump's call, not the batter's.
Why is this necessary, or never discussed? It makes NO sense.
That should be the ump's call, not the batter's.
Why is this necessary, or never discussed? It makes NO sense.
4
I've been advocating for years a 'symmetric field, man down, full contact' version: mirror image the diamond and outfield [180 degrees around the pitching mound], both teams bat and field simultaneously, man on base = playing man down on defense, no second base [have to run over the pitchers mound from first to third], basemen and runners contest for space at each base. Who need innings? Quarters / halves like the rest of the sporting world [except hockey].
Eliminate the mound conferences. These guys are the best at what they do. They don't need to be reminded to cover 3rd on a bunt or that the cleanup hitter likes fastballs in. The relief pitcher should know whats expected of him before he leaves the bullpen; he doesn't need to be told to keep the ball in the park. And put the pitchers on the clock and the batter in the box, but no quick-pitches either, so that it's fair to both.
1
Start the season in May and start the post-season during the labor day weekend - ending sometimes in mid- to late September. Follow the NBA and select the top 20 teams, or so, to participate in the post season. It's not that the individual games are too long (some are), its the season itself that is too long and ultimately boring.
2
Pitching changes are the biggest culprit. Limit the number of pitchers a team can use to three in nine innings, and games will speed up. To offset additional wear and tear on pitchers' arms, eliminate the designated hitter.
Sometimes even the best pitcher just doesn't have it, and will give up six and even more runs in the top of the first. Under your scenario, that team might as well just forfeit. But that wouldn't be fair to the fans.
I don't see baseball as a problem when football games are routinely 3-1/2 hours long or more.
3
Stop the fidgeting with the batting gloves and body armor. Cut down on the commercial breaks. Enforce existing rules. But keep your hands off the game itself.
2
Shorten the SEASON
4
Reduce to 7 innings?!?! Get. Out. Of. Here.
4
So don't watch baseball, if you've got a bus to catch.
2
Aside from minor tweaks like perhaps limiting the mound visits or speeding up inning changeovers, I don't see a need for much change. One recent innovation has actually lengthened games: replay review. It is probably a good thing on balance, but it has occasionally led to very long, boring reviews of dubious value.
Baseball is not other sports. There is no clock in baseball. It takes as long as it takes and that's fine with me and most other fans.
One criticism of baseball is that there is not enough action. To baseball fans, action takes subtle forms, lime a no hitter or a batter having a 15 pitch at bat. They are part of a complex game that does not emphasize continuous physical action.
On balance, I'm for leaving things alone. I don't want baseball to be another game. It's fine the way it is.
Baseball is not other sports. There is no clock in baseball. It takes as long as it takes and that's fine with me and most other fans.
One criticism of baseball is that there is not enough action. To baseball fans, action takes subtle forms, lime a no hitter or a batter having a 15 pitch at bat. They are part of a complex game that does not emphasize continuous physical action.
On balance, I'm for leaving things alone. I don't want baseball to be another game. It's fine the way it is.
2
Cutting the innings down to seven would definitely speed up the game the most. Why not try five innings? Get done in an hour.
The same could be said for our lives, and just think of all the good that would do.
I hate baseball. I love watching tennis. I feel like there are as many and as long ad breaks during a tennis match. I think I just like the ads better (Rolex, Mercedes, travel to Australia, and almost no ads for Taco bell, soda, or pickup trucks).
Baseball is just a boring sport on TV. It's okay down by the grass at the baseball park with some peanuts on a July afternoon. It's too slow. Pitching takes too much time. But pitching is the true art of the game. to make baseball more fun to watch, you need to speed up pitching. eliminate signals between pitcher and catcher. also, forbid base stealing.
Baseball is just a boring sport on TV. It's okay down by the grass at the baseball park with some peanuts on a July afternoon. It's too slow. Pitching takes too much time. But pitching is the true art of the game. to make baseball more fun to watch, you need to speed up pitching. eliminate signals between pitcher and catcher. also, forbid base stealing.
Baseball is the perfect speed, the perfect temp. I'm tired of something that should be leisurely being called "too slow." What IS unconscionable is our slavery to Television's norms, ratings, money-grabbing and dictates.
22
I agree with:
Instant replay reform. Smaller rosters. Shorter commercial breaks. Fewer manager interruptions.
I would like pitch clock. Shorter season, World Series in October.
A friend of mine says don't change baseball, he likes the game as it always been played. But the game has changed. Lowering the mound, designated hitter, interleague play, playoffs. Baseball is very slow and when I was young I watched a lot of games. Now only playoffs and World Series.
Instant replay reform. Smaller rosters. Shorter commercial breaks. Fewer manager interruptions.
I would like pitch clock. Shorter season, World Series in October.
A friend of mine says don't change baseball, he likes the game as it always been played. But the game has changed. Lowering the mound, designated hitter, interleague play, playoffs. Baseball is very slow and when I was young I watched a lot of games. Now only playoffs and World Series.
2
1) Ban all visits to the mound. No visits from the pitching coach during an inning. These take forever. No visits by the manager either. If he wants to change pitchers, just signal from the dugout, call timeout, and bring in the new pitcher. No other sport allows the coach on the field of play. Why should baseball?
2) Ban Pedro Baez from baseball. He averages less than one pitch per inning, making games even slower.
2) Ban Pedro Baez from baseball. He averages less than one pitch per inning, making games even slower.
2
Some marvelous suggestions here, but two that I think were overlooked:
1. Either no intentional walks allowed or, if allowed, just say so and put the batter on first base.
2. To get around the problem of advertising (at the ballpark, on TV or the radio) slowing the game down, adopt the EPL standard: let brands buy ad space on the players' uniforms. Here in Cincinnati, for example, the Reds could become the Cincinnati Skyline Chilis. The Phillies could be the Philadelphia Campbell Soup Cans. the St. Louis Bud Clydesdales. LA Oscars. And so on.
Allow brand logos on all the bases. Make the umpires dress like NASCAR drivers. Affix labels on all gloves, bats, rosin bags. Sell premium seats not by the dugout, but IN the dugout. Pay players to use ad jingles for their "statement" recording as they come to bat. Batting second, playing left field is Joe "I'm Loving it" Smith.
Finally, instead of singing the rather maudlin and sad "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," have fans access a special MLB app that allows them to tap a "like" on the TMOTTBG logo. Announce the number of likes as fans leave.
1. Either no intentional walks allowed or, if allowed, just say so and put the batter on first base.
2. To get around the problem of advertising (at the ballpark, on TV or the radio) slowing the game down, adopt the EPL standard: let brands buy ad space on the players' uniforms. Here in Cincinnati, for example, the Reds could become the Cincinnati Skyline Chilis. The Phillies could be the Philadelphia Campbell Soup Cans. the St. Louis Bud Clydesdales. LA Oscars. And so on.
Allow brand logos on all the bases. Make the umpires dress like NASCAR drivers. Affix labels on all gloves, bats, rosin bags. Sell premium seats not by the dugout, but IN the dugout. Pay players to use ad jingles for their "statement" recording as they come to bat. Batting second, playing left field is Joe "I'm Loving it" Smith.
Finally, instead of singing the rather maudlin and sad "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," have fans access a special MLB app that allows them to tap a "like" on the TMOTTBG logo. Announce the number of likes as fans leave.
1
Google "George Carlin compares baseball and football".
Priceless.
No, the game ain't broke. The monetization of it is - ads being shouted at fans in the ballpark, longer inning changes mandated to allow enough ad slots to be inserted...
Priceless.
No, the game ain't broke. The monetization of it is - ads being shouted at fans in the ballpark, longer inning changes mandated to allow enough ad slots to be inserted...
2
We are so conditioned by bosses and time clocks that everything must rush, rush, rush ... for no reason.
The quickest baseball games are pitching duels which are often the least active. No-hitters and 20-strikeout games are pretty exciting though.
The longest games are slugfests where teams score 10-12 runs and run into extra innings. Even extra innings can be tense like 18 inning playoff game between Washington and San Francisco a few years ago.
There are some steps that can be taken that would give games more more action ... which, arguably is what people want to see:
- Lower the pitching mound another 6 inches (it was lowered once before, in 1969). Lowering the mound = more hits.
- Limit replays to one per team per game. Limit challenges to the respective managers only, removing the upstairs game-watcher-in-the-press-box from the time-wasting loop. Give the manager making the challenge the time until the batter steps into the box or the pitcher toe the rubber. One challenge per game means the manager must pick his spots and not challenge trivial plays over and over.
- MLB: please hire better umpires! Nothing wastes time more than umpires making non-calls requiring replay. Fans don't watch umps.
- Cut the ads. Baseball is making plenty of money.
- Cut the on-field nonsense: mascot races, tee-shirt tosses, noise-making between batters, walk-up songs, fireworks displays, giveaways, etc. The game is good enough, nobody goes to see a fireworks display.
The quickest baseball games are pitching duels which are often the least active. No-hitters and 20-strikeout games are pretty exciting though.
The longest games are slugfests where teams score 10-12 runs and run into extra innings. Even extra innings can be tense like 18 inning playoff game between Washington and San Francisco a few years ago.
There are some steps that can be taken that would give games more more action ... which, arguably is what people want to see:
- Lower the pitching mound another 6 inches (it was lowered once before, in 1969). Lowering the mound = more hits.
- Limit replays to one per team per game. Limit challenges to the respective managers only, removing the upstairs game-watcher-in-the-press-box from the time-wasting loop. Give the manager making the challenge the time until the batter steps into the box or the pitcher toe the rubber. One challenge per game means the manager must pick his spots and not challenge trivial plays over and over.
- MLB: please hire better umpires! Nothing wastes time more than umpires making non-calls requiring replay. Fans don't watch umps.
- Cut the ads. Baseball is making plenty of money.
- Cut the on-field nonsense: mascot races, tee-shirt tosses, noise-making between batters, walk-up songs, fireworks displays, giveaways, etc. The game is good enough, nobody goes to see a fireworks display.
About shortening the game to 7 innings: When I was a kid my grandfather would take me to Yankee Stadium for home games. We'd always leave after 7 innings "to beat the traffic." An idea later espoused by the Scooter when he was working the radio booth with Bill White. If my grandfather and the Scooter thought the games should be over after 7 (and that was in the early 60s) then who am I to argue?
If you are at the stadium drinking beer, the game is not long enough. If you are watching at home, the graphics and camera work are so amazing I don't see how anyone can be bored. With good announcers and analysts the viewer can appreciate the game-within-a-game, meaning, get inside the heads of the catcher and pitcher. The outcome of every pitch, ball or strike, changes the strategy. If this bores you, have a beer at home.
3
Too slow?
I don't know why you people go to baseball games, but I go to relax. I thought baseball was supposed to be slow; I thought people went to the ballpark for a lovely afternoon break from the frantic rat race that most of us live. No?
Last time I went to a Mets game, there was not one point in the entire game when play stopped long enough for me to go pee and return to my seat without missing a pitch. If anything, baseball nowadays is faster than I'd like.
I don't know why you people go to baseball games, but I go to relax. I thought baseball was supposed to be slow; I thought people went to the ballpark for a lovely afternoon break from the frantic rat race that most of us live. No?
Last time I went to a Mets game, there was not one point in the entire game when play stopped long enough for me to go pee and return to my seat without missing a pitch. If anything, baseball nowadays is faster than I'd like.
4
Don't change the first nine innings, save for reducing strike zone, batter box, mound visitation issues and violations. However, If a game is tied at the end of nine innings the win goes to the team that took less time on defence. This will speed up almost all games as teams come to fear losing because of sheer tardiness.
The Skee Ball solution: Place a (movable) target in a section of seats in the outfield the size of a queen-sized mattress--hit it and instantly win the game your your team.
The Skee Ball solution: Place a (movable) target in a section of seats in the outfield the size of a queen-sized mattress--hit it and instantly win the game your your team.
Let's borrow a play from Donal Trump and select a commissioner who hates baseball and wants to abolish from the surface of the earth. I am sure that will fix it.
3
You forget that while money is being made by all those commercials, attendees are too often being subjected to objectionable and sometimes unbearable waiting. I remember going with my baseball loving family to see their beloved Cincinnati Reds. It was around 100 degrees with humidity hovering somewhere around 90%. It got to be the 7th inning and everyone got up...so did I and started to leave when my family reminded me it was the stretch and we still had a couple more innings to go. I haven't been to a game since.
The great thing about baseball is the relative continuity that is had over a century. Tinkering with it just takes away from that.
'' Ray, people will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you have a look around," you'll say. "It's only twenty dollars per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have and peace they lack.
...
And they'll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces.
---
People will come, Ray.
---
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come. ''
Stop tinkering.
'' Ray, people will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you have a look around," you'll say. "It's only twenty dollars per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have and peace they lack.
...
And they'll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces.
---
People will come, Ray.
---
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come. ''
Stop tinkering.
4
As the preponderance of both invited suggestions and reader comments indicates, the essential problem is long commercial breaks. This affects all American sports broadcasting and has made coverage of all sports less and less engaging to watch.
American television should learn from broadcasts of the world's most popular game, soccer, and keep the games in baseball, football, basketball, and hockey going while an outer rectangle on the screen or an inset box shows the logos, slogans, and commercials of advertisers.
American television should learn from broadcasts of the world's most popular game, soccer, and keep the games in baseball, football, basketball, and hockey going while an outer rectangle on the screen or an inset box shows the logos, slogans, and commercials of advertisers.
11
The problem with cutting into commercial breaks is that it cuts into revenue, which is the entire point of televising baseball games (and playing them, at the professional level, in fact).
Scratching not allowed.
1. Commercial time cut. This will never happen since commercials paid a large percentage of Alex's $275 million salary and everyone else's, including the radio and TV announcers around the country who have all kinds of complaints during their game calls, except for this one. Should baseball suddenly become the province of the selfless, cut the commercials by half.
2. By 2022, cap the number of pitchers allowed on the roster at ten, five starters and five relievers. This will allow for managing with batters, like managers used to do. It takes much less time to change batters than pitchers. This is one reason why the game was much shorter back in the good ol' days. Plenty of pinch-hitters on the bench, not so many "pinch-pitchers" way out in the bullpen. By 2022, train pitchers, both starters and relievers, to pitch longer.
3. Find a way to make it less attractive to strike out, and hence take lots of pitches.
4. The only people who actually have a problem with the length of games is sponsors and networks, who have to rearrange their schedules (and commercial time) when games run longer than anticipated. If there's any problem with time, it is that so little is devoted to baseball and so much to sausages running around stadia, a certain song added to the 7th-inning stretch in many ballparks, and lots of canned noise. But if you really want to see a game with no flow, try the NBA. They manage to stuff 48 minutes of play into a 150-minute broadcast.
2. By 2022, cap the number of pitchers allowed on the roster at ten, five starters and five relievers. This will allow for managing with batters, like managers used to do. It takes much less time to change batters than pitchers. This is one reason why the game was much shorter back in the good ol' days. Plenty of pinch-hitters on the bench, not so many "pinch-pitchers" way out in the bullpen. By 2022, train pitchers, both starters and relievers, to pitch longer.
3. Find a way to make it less attractive to strike out, and hence take lots of pitches.
4. The only people who actually have a problem with the length of games is sponsors and networks, who have to rearrange their schedules (and commercial time) when games run longer than anticipated. If there's any problem with time, it is that so little is devoted to baseball and so much to sausages running around stadia, a certain song added to the 7th-inning stretch in many ballparks, and lots of canned noise. But if you really want to see a game with no flow, try the NBA. They manage to stuff 48 minutes of play into a 150-minute broadcast.
3
Having enjoyed major league baseball since 1959, I cannot remember seeing the greats of the 1960's routinely stepping out of the box, except with one foot while adjusting something for about five seconds. Use penalties to make hitters stay in the box, and to make pitchers throw the ball within 20 seconds with no one on, and within 30 seconds otherwise. THAT will shorten games significantly.
4
First time in a long time I've laughed out loud at an NYT article. In the spirit of this story, to fix the Times, hire some of these writers!
3
Make relief pitchers start pitching immediately when they enter the game. Give them 30 seconds to groom the dirt around the pitching rubber, but that's it.
No other sport comes to a five-minute standstill for a substitute player. Can you imagine a new quarterback throwing eight warm-up passes? Or a point guard shooting eight warm-up jump shots?
No other sport comes to a five-minute standstill for a substitute player. Can you imagine a new quarterback throwing eight warm-up passes? Or a point guard shooting eight warm-up jump shots?
5
I don't hear anyone complaining about the length of an NFL football game that averages more than 3 hours. What's up with that????????
24
Perhaps it's because football fans consume a lot more alcohol than baseball fans. Alcohol speeds up your perception of time, especially if you're experiencing periodic blackouts.
Because football remains by far America's most popular sport. And more importantly, unlike baseball, football is not facing declining popularity among young people.
1
India and possibly other countries from the former British empire dealt with the issue of extra-long cricket games by having some shorter test matches, and there's the new Indian league that plays short games that would otherwise be drawn out into several days. Not saying it's a perfect solution, but has been considered in perhaps the closest analogy to baseball played in the UK.
1
Switch to cricket ;-)
1
They didn't print my fixes so I'll give them again:
1 - Stop throwing out every ball that hits the dirt once. If it hits something hard that might cut it, then inspect it. Batboys will have less to do, I suppose, and pitchers on both sides get the advantages of the scuff.
2 - Limit the number of pitchers on the roster - managers will think twice about removing the guy who came in for one out. Maybe 10 or 11, not 12 or 13. Fewer mound visits to boot.
3 - Raise the mound back up. Thanks to the .301 AL-leading average by Yaz and Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA in 1968, they worried that pitchers had too much of an advantage, so lowered the mound. With a higher mound, pitchers can use their legs more to accelerate and have an increased angle of the pitch as an advantage. They can stop depending on their arm and max velocity, and can get folks out with less stress on their arm - going longer into the game - even complete games - and no more of this 100-pitch foolishness. They might not have to wait as long between pitches to recover as well. There are less runs per hour of game time in the last few years than in the late 60's, so while we have a few more runs scoring now, the glacial pace makes them score less frequently!
1 - Stop throwing out every ball that hits the dirt once. If it hits something hard that might cut it, then inspect it. Batboys will have less to do, I suppose, and pitchers on both sides get the advantages of the scuff.
2 - Limit the number of pitchers on the roster - managers will think twice about removing the guy who came in for one out. Maybe 10 or 11, not 12 or 13. Fewer mound visits to boot.
3 - Raise the mound back up. Thanks to the .301 AL-leading average by Yaz and Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA in 1968, they worried that pitchers had too much of an advantage, so lowered the mound. With a higher mound, pitchers can use their legs more to accelerate and have an increased angle of the pitch as an advantage. They can stop depending on their arm and max velocity, and can get folks out with less stress on their arm - going longer into the game - even complete games - and no more of this 100-pitch foolishness. They might not have to wait as long between pitches to recover as well. There are less runs per hour of game time in the last few years than in the late 60's, so while we have a few more runs scoring now, the glacial pace makes them score less frequently!
6
Baseball has no clock, maybe a curfew in some cities, but no clock. Baseball doesn't need to be changed. Our lives are defined by the clock a baseball game is our lone respite from tick-tock!
8
Not that concerned about game length. How about allowing ties in the regular season?
1
A simple change in the equipment rules would surely speed up the game. Allow only batting gloves with an elastic wristband and no strap to be used. A batter would be allowed to tug the gloves without stepping out of the batter's box. The current routine is as much an effort to throw the pitcher off his rhythm as it is to fix the glove. An awful lot of time is taken up by this routine which should be banned.
3
You need to eliminate the canned music that makes the breaks unbearable. Have quiet days, no music, just the p.a. announcer. If you want to bring back music, bring back the organ!! we do miss jane jarvis and eddie layton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1l7DlPCuTQ
33
All the major sports want "wall to wall" sound. They don't want fans yelling out, especially at losing teams.
1
you are correct. and that's why i dislike going to games. booing is as much fun as cheering.
1
The loud music especially during breaks makes attending games intolerable! I would stop watching sports entirely if I could not watch on tv with a mute button.
I'm a big baseball fan. Football has just gotten too rough and, to me, the dunk is the most boring thing in sports. I think the biggest thing would be to have the batters stay in the box and not make 10 million adjustments before stepping back in. Batters will get used to it. Players in earlier times just stayed in there without all the little tugs on the batting glove etc. slowing up the game.
Also I hate the "calls to New York" on every close play, There should be a limit on how many a team could request.
Also I hate the "calls to New York" on every close play, There should be a limit on how many a team could request.
6
one thing that could be done is to play two half innings before changing sides. I tried this idea on our senior league and nobody would agree to try it
Um - I personally have no quarrel with the length of a baseball game. But I would like to see an NFL game run an actual 60 mins. (plus half-time). A long time ago I timed it and found during one NFL game the ball was actually in play only 20-mins. – talk about slow.
7
Stadium fans are routinely subjected to extremely loud electronic noises designed to rally the crowd and keep the nonchalant interested. Enough already! You'd get more people at the games and save the eardrums of fans and players alike.
38
Didn't Hank Aaron's wife complain about modern stadium noise, too?
The average football game is 3 hours plus, more if overtime. If you go to the opera, as I do, 3 or more hours is the norm. Some are longer -- 4-5 hours. If you think baseball games are long, try cricket. Sure, baseball games on TV can seem a little sluggish. Live is always best. It's all about being there, relaxing, and having a good time. And cogitating about all the possibilities of a given situation.
The length of a baseball game is not the problem. It's the American attention span or lack thereof.
The length of a baseball game is not the problem. It's the American attention span or lack thereof.
51
Cogitating -- yes! Watching baseball is about thinking between pitches.
1
And the innumerable commercial breaks..
Cricket, seeing the light, has gone from 5-day affairs to 2 hour affairs (T20). I wonder if baseball would see the light first or lose its last fan first.
I used to watch a little bit of baseball on TV 20 years ago, then I saw just the box scores. Now, I don't even bother.
I used to watch a little bit of baseball on TV 20 years ago, then I saw just the box scores. Now, I don't even bother.
I don't think 3 hours is too long, especially if I've paid over $100 for two tickets and more for food. However I rarely make it to a game, so I enjoy having baseball on the radio in the background as I cook dinner or whatever. Fewer commercials would be a blessing though.
24
Those who go to the games deserve a leisurely afternoon. Those of us who watch at home can turn off the sound, turn on our favorite music, watch the game and also enjoy a leisurely interlude.
15
Change one thing and one thing only, and it all deals with pitching/batting. Out with the incessant visits to the mound. And of course the mound conferences too. Rosin bag visits, hat adjustments, sleeve adjustments, other adjustments etc. C'mon man. Get the ball, get the sign, pitch the ball. On the batter's part, no more of the adjustments too and the "in the box" "out of the box", "time so I can ???". Take your stance and go. Fiddle while the ball is being returned and the sign given.
And just because the rules are not enforced, the umpire can call a ball if the pitcher takes too long and a strike if the batter takes too long. That would help motivate the dalliers.
And just because the rules are not enforced, the umpire can call a ball if the pitcher takes too long and a strike if the batter takes too long. That would help motivate the dalliers.
5
Baseball is not too slow; the Internet is too fast. And stupid.
58
While we're at it, how about foregoing singing a national anthem, which is counter-productive to MLB's goal of growing a global fan base? Last time I checked, MLB was not a govt-sponsored activity. Oh, and eliminate all body armor / protective gear, except helmets, for batters.
4
My kid goes to a high school with 1600 kids. Figure a freshman class of 400. 100 kids tried out for boys soccer. Lots didn't make it. Dozens and dozens tried out for basketball. Lots didn't make it. Meanwhile, barely enough freshman tried out for baseball this week to form a freshman team. And the football team has fewer than 30 kids, many of whom are playing both ways. I guess it's another battlefield in the Culture War, but a lot of kids are voting with their feet ...
4
Let us imagine several time-saving changes within the game - pitch clocks, prohibition of mound conferences, automatic intentional walks - does anyone really think that advertising time between innings won't simply increase further and eat up any time saving? So that in the end, we still have three-hour games, but with more ads and less action?
2
Anyone serious about fixing the game needs to look at what Australia has done with the game of cricket. Yes, it used to be a 5 day long game, which was reduced to a 1 day game (both are still played). However in the last few years, the 'big bash league' has emerged, which is only a few hours long. Rules have been modified, and advertisers came on board like a dream, with families thronging to games. Attendances are usually sold out, and most importantly, young people are showing interest in the game. It's a win-win for everyone - the game, the future, the advertisers. Look at that model for some inspiration.
1
Baseball is the only team sport that doesn't have a clock. Make an inning 10 minutes, five minutes per team. Then you have a 90-minute minimum game, plus commercial breaks. This puts the burden on the manager to put in his best lineup of hitters who will score quick and keep the game moving.
Pop flies are too predictable. The batter hits one and there's always someone to catch it. So allow only two outfielders and make them work for the play. More men on base, more scoring.
Foul balls add to the time at bat. So when the count is 3-2, allow only one foul ball. After two foul balls, the batter is out.
Home runs should be two points, grand slams six points. This adds to the scoring and reduces the chance of extra innings.
Pop flies are too predictable. The batter hits one and there's always someone to catch it. So allow only two outfielders and make them work for the play. More men on base, more scoring.
Foul balls add to the time at bat. So when the count is 3-2, allow only one foul ball. After two foul balls, the batter is out.
Home runs should be two points, grand slams six points. This adds to the scoring and reduces the chance of extra innings.
1
By far the biggest problem is accessibility; somehow we have a world where I'm supposed to pay for the privilege of watching lots of advertising. No thanks; it's one or the other, folks. Plus the games are on too late. I've moved on, but it's not because the games are less fast-paced than basketball.
I don't think strategic confabs should be permitted to disrupt the game; I've always felt this. Get your jibber-jabber on in the dug-out, or while play continues. But coaching visits and player confabs that interrupt play should not be permitted.
I think that MLB should take advantage of modern technology, as tennis has, to take the maddening measurement errors out of the game. There is nothing virtuous about a strike being called a ball, and vice versa. We don't need an umpire behind the plate in 2017; let the eagle eye accurately call balls and strikes. It can be done instantly.
I don't think strategic confabs should be permitted to disrupt the game; I've always felt this. Get your jibber-jabber on in the dug-out, or while play continues. But coaching visits and player confabs that interrupt play should not be permitted.
I think that MLB should take advantage of modern technology, as tennis has, to take the maddening measurement errors out of the game. There is nothing virtuous about a strike being called a ball, and vice versa. We don't need an umpire behind the plate in 2017; let the eagle eye accurately call balls and strikes. It can be done instantly.
3
Offer, for sale to TV viewers, a taped version of the game, afterwards. Something like Highlights Only. $5. No commercials, no strikes, not balls, no fouls, only the good stuff. Who would go to a stadium? Who would choose the slow live game with the commercials?
Eliminate the home run. In no other major sport is a player rewarded for failing to keep the ball within the field of play. Skill at ball placement rather than power hitting would result in faster play.
1
Maybe:
1) Allow tie games - no extra innings
2) 2 outs per inning
3) 3 pitches per batter (2 balls is a walk, 2 strikes and you're out)
4) No substitutions intra-inning
5) Mercy rule endings if team takes 10 run lead
Altogether should get the average game under an hour.
Then again, maybe not
1) Allow tie games - no extra innings
2) 2 outs per inning
3) 3 pitches per batter (2 balls is a walk, 2 strikes and you're out)
4) No substitutions intra-inning
5) Mercy rule endings if team takes 10 run lead
Altogether should get the average game under an hour.
Then again, maybe not
1
Along with all the rules, take into account the effectiveness of gentlemen's agreements and informal rules. Peer pressure is a powerful control. In golf, there’s no shot clock; slow players are chastised by their fellow players and kept in line that way. The pace of the game problem in baseball would go away if the players decided they needed to keep things moving along and policed their own to enforce it.
Just play ball. If you can't stand the pace/time of the game, find another sport. Baseball is fine as it is. Nothing like spending the afternoon at the ball park or lounging around at home listening on the Radio to extra inning baseball. That's the essence of the game. Oh and one thing while we're at it. Get rid of the ridiculous territory issue for the west coast where Hawaii is subject to national black out rules. It's not like we're gonna be able to jump in a car to drive to the game :(
5
My $0.02 worth:
The automatic intentional walk is a great idea.
I think having a pitch clock is overkill. I think it would be better for the umpire to say, "pick up the pace a bit, OK?"
Cut way down on the between-innings distractions, and cutting the length of commercial breaks should go without saying.
While I don't see how the DH rule affects the length of a game, I say get rid of it anyway.
The automatic intentional walk is a great idea.
I think having a pitch clock is overkill. I think it would be better for the umpire to say, "pick up the pace a bit, OK?"
Cut way down on the between-innings distractions, and cutting the length of commercial breaks should go without saying.
While I don't see how the DH rule affects the length of a game, I say get rid of it anyway.
Take a note from hockey. The game has changed to the point that Howie Morenz would hardly recognize it. With baseball, Roger Connors could still play the game well. Watching a baseball game, especially at the park, is one of the few moments in our lives when the clock doesn't matter, where the outcome cannot be googled, and where silence of thousands of people is possible in one place. Baseball requires time, because it requires thinking.
2
Baseball will never fix itself. Games are beyond boring, commercials too many and too long, players are enamored with themselves in the batters box which brings any type of momentum to its knees. Run commercials like soccer does - during the game itself, have 3 minutes after 3 outs, force the batter to stay in the box and stop letting coaches go to the mound
Do like chess. Time each at bat. If you run over your finis.
2
I agree with those that comment that the real problem is the length of the TV commercial time. You can always see the downtime it creates when you are in the game. Players just waiting for the umpire to signal the game is Live again. Kill the commercial time, put a little banner with Ad's on the box score like they do in Soccer. This would shave so much time, still keep some revenue and keep the game intact.
This is specially important for the playoff and the World series. I have stopped watching the games as I have no interest in going to bed at 12:30 AM on a Tuesday.
This is specially important for the playoff and the World series. I have stopped watching the games as I have no interest in going to bed at 12:30 AM on a Tuesday.
27
George Carlin had the best idea to speed up the game. Every batter gets one swing. Foul is out. :)
1
I don't get it. Isn't attendance higher than ever? Aren't players (and owners) making more dough than ever? Here in San Francisco, we go nuts over the Giants. Even 20 somethings who are plugged in throughout the game. If a game takes too long, we leave early. We also have no difficulty arriving in the bottom half of the first (or second or third). One commentor noted that the DH lengthens the game, which is obvious if one compares average times of AL and NL games. I get that aging sluggers wouldn't like it, but there is plenty of offense in the NL (and more interesting game situations). There is NO PROBLEM. Either one is a baseball fan or one isn't. Having said that, I have no objection to time limits on non-injury conferences on the mound, though I understand the problem purists have with any sort of clock (time limit) on this game which has always been without clocks. And, as one can easily see by comparing playoff and series games with regular season games, the big time waster is too many commercials. One could shorten the between inning breaks by 30 seconds and shorten any game by nine minutes. MLB could pack the extra commercials into the pre and post game broadcasts.
4
Baseball is excellent the way it is - a thinking person's game, culturally iconic, timeless. The biggest time consumer by far is the between-every-half-innings-(and pitching change) commercial time.
Most of the comments I read in this article are silly and not worth the bandwidth they're "printed" on. The game is fine. The commercials are out of control!
The Rev. Richard Belshaw
Most of the comments I read in this article are silly and not worth the bandwidth they're "printed" on. The game is fine. The commercials are out of control!
The Rev. Richard Belshaw
63
Agree completely. I think it was during a Mets game where Hernandez and Darling were discussing how commercial time during a game has increased by 20% since the 1980s.
But the empty suits who own the teams will never give up that revenue. They would sooner destroy the game.
But the empty suits who own the teams will never give up that revenue. They would sooner destroy the game.
6
But how are they going to pay players for failing to get a hit 70% of the time?
Or pitchers who don't throw all strikes and need relief well shy of 9 innings?
Who needs a pinch hitter and runner making millions?
Why are there designated hitters in only one league?
Why aren't there any designated fielders and runners?
Or pitchers who don't throw all strikes and need relief well shy of 9 innings?
Who needs a pinch hitter and runner making millions?
Why are there designated hitters in only one league?
Why aren't there any designated fielders and runners?
2
Two things which are variations of what have been suggested here:
1. Pitch clock: pitcher can pitch 15 seconds after last pitch or receiving ball after a play and must pitch within 25 seconds or it's a ball. This gives the batter 15 seconds to get a sign or adjust his batting gloves.
2. Each team gets 3 timeouts like in football. They can be used for visits to the mound or in-game pitching changes. Otherwise pitching changes need to happen between innings. If a pitcher is injured and you don't want to use a timeout to replace him that pitcher must go on the DL for a week.
1. Pitch clock: pitcher can pitch 15 seconds after last pitch or receiving ball after a play and must pitch within 25 seconds or it's a ball. This gives the batter 15 seconds to get a sign or adjust his batting gloves.
2. Each team gets 3 timeouts like in football. They can be used for visits to the mound or in-game pitching changes. Otherwise pitching changes need to happen between innings. If a pitcher is injured and you don't want to use a timeout to replace him that pitcher must go on the DL for a week.
1. Make umpires call the strike zone as written in the rules.
2. Reduce the number and length of commercials.
3. Eliminate replay except for home run/non-home run rulings.
The game of baseball has survived (and prospered) for over 100 years for a reason....
2. Reduce the number and length of commercials.
3. Eliminate replay except for home run/non-home run rulings.
The game of baseball has survived (and prospered) for over 100 years for a reason....
5
Don't watch! The game'll go by like...snap!
It’s not just the time element. The fans need to be more involved - like in football where they can constantly second guess the coaches. Here’s my suggestion. The order of the 9 batters is not set. The coach would decide who the next batter is. When the 9 batters have been used, the coach does the same thing with the next round of nine, and so forth. There would be a lot of decisions and a lot of second guessing by the fans. It would definitely be more interesting. Also, here’s an add-on to this rule. When a player is walked and he is not the 9th batter in the cycle, he can either go to first base or he can bat again and another batter, who has not batted in that cycle, will take first. Now pitchers can’t pitch around great players like Barry Bonds. No only does the pitcher have to face the batter again, he would also be putting on first a weaker hitter, possibly the pitcher, who now won’t have to bat that cycle. More decisions, more hit, and more fun - my kind of game. Charles Griffith
Agree with cutting the commercials between innings - frequent pitching changes already creates enough new slots to squeeze in ads.
Do away with lead in music and cut down on stadium theatrics.
Enforce staying in batter box.
Have teams watch old broadcasts from the 70's and just see how much straightforward pace of the game used to be.
Just play ball!
Do away with lead in music and cut down on stadium theatrics.
Enforce staying in batter box.
Have teams watch old broadcasts from the 70's and just see how much straightforward pace of the game used to be.
Just play ball!
14
You don't have to sit through the whole game. Arrive late, leave early, avoid the stampede.
Such a diversity of opinion here! Clearly there is a need to speed the pace of games but I think it important to respect and honor a sport that we have enjoyed for over 100 years (no changing to 7 innings). I like some of the suggestions that would do both:
1. batters need to stay in box once they enter
2. there should be a rule that pitchers throw the next pitch within a specific time of receiving the ball from catcher-no wandering around mound or wasting time between pitchers-this is a real time-sink
3. Commercial breaks need to be shortened
4. limit re-plays and the time for resolution
5. No spitting, everyone knows it is disgusting. Can you imagine basketball or hockey players spitting?
6. Limit mound visits for pitching coaches and managers. No mound visits from teammates
7. No more than 2 pitching changes in any half-inning
We must recognize that baseball is inherently slower than other games and is played at a pace that is a welcome change from our the rest of our lives. It needs tweaking not deconstruction.
1. batters need to stay in box once they enter
2. there should be a rule that pitchers throw the next pitch within a specific time of receiving the ball from catcher-no wandering around mound or wasting time between pitchers-this is a real time-sink
3. Commercial breaks need to be shortened
4. limit re-plays and the time for resolution
5. No spitting, everyone knows it is disgusting. Can you imagine basketball or hockey players spitting?
6. Limit mound visits for pitching coaches and managers. No mound visits from teammates
7. No more than 2 pitching changes in any half-inning
We must recognize that baseball is inherently slower than other games and is played at a pace that is a welcome change from our the rest of our lives. It needs tweaking not deconstruction.
1
Peak performance sucks up a lot of time. You see the same thing in tennis where top players are highly methodical, with all the repetitive, mind-calming routines (picture Nadal). That's what batters are doing with all their equipment adjustments. I love baseball, but I think a modest set of changes would help. It is absurdly tedious at the ballpark to watch everyone waiting for the commercial breaks to be over. Shorten those. Time clock for the pitcher, keep the batter in the box, limited visits to the mound, limited use of relief pitchers / pinch hitters. I think you'd get a benefit more than the sum of the parts as the entire rhythm of the game is speeded up.
1
Take a page out of the soccer broadcasting playbook: Make the middle innings commercial free by having someone sponsor that portion of the game - "The next three innings are brought to you commercial free by Budweiser," I can hear Joe Buck intone.
1
Baseball has become boring because the ball is so rarely in play. I love minor league games where the pitching is not so good and the fielding play is more exciting.
The problem is that the game currently mostly revolves around excellent pitching which means that ball is in play less often. MLB should take the advantage away from the pitcher by moving the mound back five feet and lowering it. The result would be more hits, players on base, and a much more exciting game.
The problem is that the game currently mostly revolves around excellent pitching which means that ball is in play less often. MLB should take the advantage away from the pitcher by moving the mound back five feet and lowering it. The result would be more hits, players on base, and a much more exciting game.
2
There are two things that have driven the popularity of sports in the past, television and gambling. Because baseball gambling is done with odds and not a point spread, it is less amenable to gambling than football or basketball.
Daily Fantasy Sports offer a legal method to overlay a gambling game onto baseball. Devise a daily fantasy sports game which could be completed in the first three innings. This would draw a large audience, and hook a majority of them for the entire game.
Thus, the rules on the field would not have to be bent dramatically. The audience would not be distracted by their iPhones because action on the field would correlate to an app.
Commissioner Adam Silver of the NBA saw this coming several years ago. Hence, he called for the legalization of sports gambling. There are too many games, too many other forms of entertainment, and the audience operates their own personal broadcasting station through Facebook and other social media.
As an entertainment vehicle, baseball has to offer more to sustain itself. By its nature, it is slow. Change the pace of the game radically, and it's no longer baseball.
Daily Fantasy Sports offer a legal method to overlay a gambling game onto baseball. Devise a daily fantasy sports game which could be completed in the first three innings. This would draw a large audience, and hook a majority of them for the entire game.
Thus, the rules on the field would not have to be bent dramatically. The audience would not be distracted by their iPhones because action on the field would correlate to an app.
Commissioner Adam Silver of the NBA saw this coming several years ago. Hence, he called for the legalization of sports gambling. There are too many games, too many other forms of entertainment, and the audience operates their own personal broadcasting station through Facebook and other social media.
As an entertainment vehicle, baseball has to offer more to sustain itself. By its nature, it is slow. Change the pace of the game radically, and it's no longer baseball.
For the money I spend each year to travel to see my beloved Orioles, I don't want the game shortened, I want the most bang for my buck! Leave the game alone. Sit down, shut up, and "play ball"
7
Why does everything have to be faster, quicker? It's summer. Relax. Enjoy the day and the game. I remember when double-headers were common place. How would that sit today? At the current pace, if you have chores to do and pick up the game in the 3rd or 4th inning, there's still plenty of game left. The problem is that too many games are night games and people want to turn in for bed before midnight--especially us older folks. :-)
4
Here's a thought. Why don't we resist the urge to speed up everything. Baseball, playing and watching is a leisure activity. Leisure. Look it up some time. This world has lost its way.
65
Play 20-20 Cricket. You'll never go back to baseball.
Instead of 9 innings of 3 outs, have 3 innings of 9 outs. Or go all the way, like Cricket: one inning per team.
2
The biggest cause of baseball boredom is the dominance of pitchers over hitters. People wouldn't mind watching for 3 hours if there was more action. Pitching changes slow down the game and allow fresh arms to enter and dominate the hitters.
Each team should be limited to no more than 4 pitchers in a nine-inning game, except to replace an injured pitcher, as determined by the umpires. In an extra inning game, 1 additional pitcher may be used for every 2 extra innings.
Each team should be limited to no more than 4 pitchers in a nine-inning game, except to replace an injured pitcher, as determined by the umpires. In an extra inning game, 1 additional pitcher may be used for every 2 extra innings.
1
I don’t believe Major League Baseball is broken, so I’m very wary of any attempt to “fix” it.
People who think the game is too slow are too stupid to know what’s going on.
They should devote their limited attention span to Nascar.
What part of “… I don't care if I never get back ...” do they not get?
Nevertheless, in my arrogant opinion, two things should be done:
1. eliminate the designated hitter
2. expunge all records, and ban for life everyone guilty of performance enhancing drug use
Additionally, for sandlot through college ball, I’d also like to see an absolute ban on bats being made of anything but wood.
People who think the game is too slow are too stupid to know what’s going on.
They should devote their limited attention span to Nascar.
What part of “… I don't care if I never get back ...” do they not get?
Nevertheless, in my arrogant opinion, two things should be done:
1. eliminate the designated hitter
2. expunge all records, and ban for life everyone guilty of performance enhancing drug use
Additionally, for sandlot through college ball, I’d also like to see an absolute ban on bats being made of anything but wood.
15
What's so bad about sitting outside (well, in most cases) on a nice day watching a baseball game and enjoying the scene with friends will have a few beers of sodas, some snacks, and talking with friends.
WHAT IS so bad is the absolutely ear-splinting constant music, sound-effects, and shrieking coming from PR systems to "fill up" time. (Worse than basketball!) Akin to torture! And it takes time!
And how about ending the endless commercial time-outs, all the 'unscheduled' time outs, promo announcements, and waste-of-time delays of the game?
And end all the pre-game tributes, special tributes, and seventh-inning singings of 'patriotic' anthems and accompanying shows
And maybe also making tickets vaguely affordable again, so people could enjoy a casual game and bring their families and buy them snacks and refreshments without getting into $150-$300 range? THAT'S why fans are in such bad moods!
WHAT IS so bad is the absolutely ear-splinting constant music, sound-effects, and shrieking coming from PR systems to "fill up" time. (Worse than basketball!) Akin to torture! And it takes time!
And how about ending the endless commercial time-outs, all the 'unscheduled' time outs, promo announcements, and waste-of-time delays of the game?
And end all the pre-game tributes, special tributes, and seventh-inning singings of 'patriotic' anthems and accompanying shows
And maybe also making tickets vaguely affordable again, so people could enjoy a casual game and bring their families and buy them snacks and refreshments without getting into $150-$300 range? THAT'S why fans are in such bad moods!
47
The official Baseball rules don't need amending... I'd like to suggest a renaissance of baseball etiquette. Over the last 15 or so years as a fan, I've grown tired waiting for:
1- Pitchers to pitch the ball.
2- Hitters to step in the box.
3- Whiners to get off the field.
1- Pitchers to pitch the ball.
2- Hitters to step in the box.
3- Whiners to get off the field.
i love baseball as it is now.
The only thing I'd change -- and it's a new thing -- are the instant replay reviews.
It's okay to have human error...after all, we're humans.
The only thing I'd change -- and it's a new thing -- are the instant replay reviews.
It's okay to have human error...after all, we're humans.
1
Leave baseball alone. Its a 19th century game - a big part of its charm.
The new "interntional walk" rule is almost as much a travesty as the suggestion the game be cut to seven innings.
Stop instant replay. The game should be played and judged by humans.
End the DH. It ain't 1968 anymore - the "Year of the Pitcher" is over.
The new "interntional walk" rule is almost as much a travesty as the suggestion the game be cut to seven innings.
Stop instant replay. The game should be played and judged by humans.
End the DH. It ain't 1968 anymore - the "Year of the Pitcher" is over.
2
I don't think the game needs to be speeded up, part of the beauty of Baseball is its chess like strategizing. The long moments of considered play punctuated by brief flashes of intense action is the core of the experience.
6
Baseball is more like checkers than chess.
1
Baseball will never be a made for TV sport like football. Each 3hr regular season baseball game has the approximate importance of 6 (football) minutes of a football game (162 vs 16 regular season games, each full baseball game “worth” slightly less than 10% of a football game). That’s just fine though. Baseball is a pastime, and there is no better place in the world to kill time than a baseball park in the summer. Plus the abundance of games lets ticket prices stay relatively low, even for the hottest teams. Sit back, relax, have a beer and enjoy the game.
3
The losing team members in the World Series should be beheaded.
Instead of playing extra innings a select group of nine fans from each city should have a gladiator duel to the death to decide the winner.
Gambling and PED use should be legalized.
Instead of playing extra innings a select group of nine fans from each city should have a gladiator duel to the death to decide the winner.
Gambling and PED use should be legalized.
1
I like the comment about the pickoff attempts - maybe allow two per-at-bat, but reducing those would shorten games for sure. That also is a change that would keep the integrity of the game - baseball isn't something that needs too much modernization!
1
You can have your opinion, but you can't call baseball "perfect". It's anything but. As long as umpires are allowed to invent their own strike zones, it will never be right. I'm sorry, but the ump should not be allowed to have one strike zone for veterans, one for rookies, one for players who "looked at me funny", one for pitchers who walk off the mound thinking a ball is strike 3. A "pitcher's ump" or a "batter's ump"...come on! The strike zone is the strike zone. And if review shows that an ump is WAY off, which they frequently are, well then the changed call was worth it. I want umpires to perform better, and everyone knows they can. But if they refuse, I'll be happier with a computer. Every umpire's record should be made public; how many bad calls, how many good calls? Why is this virtually kept secret?
1
Heat the balls to 150 degrees.
1
Oh, hey, how about electric shocks? Full frontal nudity (to engage female fans), or at least the hint of a wardrobe malfunction? Maybe eliminate a player from each side every inning?
Nah, just leave this one game alone, will ya?
Nah, just leave this one game alone, will ya?
1
Make the field smaller.
Easier to make outs.
Easier to make outs.
1
Football games last longer on average. Next question!
1
I'm in the "use the existing rules to speed up the game" camp. (And I hate the DH, too.)
There's one "tradition" (maybe it should be called a "practice") that could be changed to help enforce the 30-second pitch/hit-or-be-penalized rule.
Catchers always wait until the batter is in the box to call a pitch. Lots of times they wait until the batter is getting settled in the box, then look over to the dugout to get a signal from a pitching coach that gets relayed to the pitcher.
Why not call the pitch while the batter is standing outside the box scratching himself? Then as soon as the batter steps into the box, the pitcher is allowed to go into a windup, or if there's a man on base, to go into a stretch.
It seems to me that it would be to the pitcher's advantage to keep the batter on edge. That's OK. And if the pitcher's is in trouble and wanting to slow things down while someone warms up in the bullpen, he can use the existing rules to do so, including one visit by the pitching coach/manager.
And fans, write letters to companies that advertise at *the end of commercial breaks* and tell them that you will no longer buy their products. Hopefully this would shave 30-90 seconds off of commercial breaks. They can pay more to be first in line.
Lindy
There's one "tradition" (maybe it should be called a "practice") that could be changed to help enforce the 30-second pitch/hit-or-be-penalized rule.
Catchers always wait until the batter is in the box to call a pitch. Lots of times they wait until the batter is getting settled in the box, then look over to the dugout to get a signal from a pitching coach that gets relayed to the pitcher.
Why not call the pitch while the batter is standing outside the box scratching himself? Then as soon as the batter steps into the box, the pitcher is allowed to go into a windup, or if there's a man on base, to go into a stretch.
It seems to me that it would be to the pitcher's advantage to keep the batter on edge. That's OK. And if the pitcher's is in trouble and wanting to slow things down while someone warms up in the bullpen, he can use the existing rules to do so, including one visit by the pitching coach/manager.
And fans, write letters to companies that advertise at *the end of commercial breaks* and tell them that you will no longer buy their products. Hopefully this would shave 30-90 seconds off of commercial breaks. They can pay more to be first in line.
Lindy
The best response is from Bill Leeman in San Rafael, CA.
Leave the game alone!
Right on, Mr. Leeman!
Leave the game alone!
Right on, Mr. Leeman!
2
No one came up with the obvious. You simply have to make all pitchers pitch over 100 mph, runners run faster, and fielders field the ball 15 feet in front of them!
1
Here's a twist, from the perspective of attending games live. Speed the game up a little, but not too much!
With the cost of going to a game having become almost prohibitively expensive, what used to be something I would do a dozen or so times a season is now a 2 or 3 times a season proposition, and when I go, I want to savor the experience as much as possible. There's nothing worse than springing for tickets, schlepping out to the stadium, and getting one of those 2-hour 10-minute affairs. Give me something for my troubles!
With the cost of going to a game having become almost prohibitively expensive, what used to be something I would do a dozen or so times a season is now a 2 or 3 times a season proposition, and when I go, I want to savor the experience as much as possible. There's nothing worse than springing for tickets, schlepping out to the stadium, and getting one of those 2-hour 10-minute affairs. Give me something for my troubles!
1
After a batter has two strikes, he should be allowed only 2 foul balls thereafter. If he hits 3 foul balls after he has two strikes, he should be out. These 12, 13, and 14-pitch at bats are torture to watch. They slow the game down. No at bat should be longer than 8 pitches (3 balls, 2 strikes, 2 foul balls after the two strikes). If he hits a foul ball on the eighth pitch, he should be out. Also, the pitch clock should be strictly enforced at 25 seconds. If the pitch has not left the pitcher's hand after 25 seconds, it should be an automatic ball. There should be loud buzzer that the players, fans, and umpires can all hear. If this causes pitchers to tire easier, that is OK. One reason scoring is low these days is that the pitchers are bigger than they were years ago. The average pitch-speed today is about 5 miles per hour (or more) greater than it was years ago. Yet the distance between the rubber and the plate is still only 60 feet, 6 inches. So the pitchers have big advantage today. There should be better balance between pitchers and hitters. Ironically, shorter games might produce more runs. What is most frustrating about games that last 3.5 hours is that the score at game's end is often only 2-1, not 12-11. It shouldn't take 3.5 hours to score 3 runs.
Like two of Bill Pennington's ideas the most, but I would tweak them. Call a strike for each time a batter steps out of the box after the first time. I would give them once per at bat. Also like the concept of a timer on the pitcher, but I would leave the penalty at 1 ball if time is exceeded and not eject the pitcher.
The other idea (not from Bill Pennington) is to set a limit on the number of mandatory commercial breaks for games that are broadcasted (virtually all these days) and limit the time of those breaks.
The other idea (not from Bill Pennington) is to set a limit on the number of mandatory commercial breaks for games that are broadcasted (virtually all these days) and limit the time of those breaks.
I agree with Harvey Araton, 7 innings are all you need. I'm ready for the 7th inning stretch by the 5th inning and ready for it to be over by the 7th. Seven innings would be perfect.
I sat through to 7th inning stretches once. Until Jim Thome ended it with a towering drive to right that allowed my White Sox to walk-off with victory.
1
Shorten the game? So we can all get back to what: bills, politics (ugh!), cleaning the gutters? No thank you! More than ever lately, baseball provides a respite from the stress and absurdity of modern life. I want to get lost thoughts about game strategy. I find Big Papi's obsessive glove adjusting after every pitch bemusing. I like watching the pitcher and catcher trying to agree on the next pitch. And what is more aggravating or pleasing than a runner being picked off base? But you can't pick a runner off if you don't make pick-off attempts.
Having said that, I definitely am in favor of shorter commercial breaks between innings. The other change I would like to see is getting rid of all the mindless 5-second audio-visual chunks that barf forth during a live game whenever there is a break in the action so that there is never a moment when you can just peacefully hear the murmur of the crowd, talk with your buddy about the next inning, or hear the vendor's call of "be-ar here!" Bring back the organ!
Having said that, I definitely am in favor of shorter commercial breaks between innings. The other change I would like to see is getting rid of all the mindless 5-second audio-visual chunks that barf forth during a live game whenever there is a break in the action so that there is never a moment when you can just peacefully hear the murmur of the crowd, talk with your buddy about the next inning, or hear the vendor's call of "be-ar here!" Bring back the organ!
3
Time clock for pitches is the obvious and easy fix even if blasphemous. Basketball and football didn't have a time clock in the ancient past. They are better off for instituting one. I love baseball but wouldn't mind expeditious pitching. Otherwise it's just too tempting to shop on Amazon and only look up for the replay when something, anything, happens. While we're at it, we also need a time clock for tennis.
So, as games have gotten progressively longer over time, and more and more calls have arisen for measures to shorten games, what does MLB do? Institutes a feature that not only lengthens games in a big way, but completely interrupts the flow of the game when implemented. I'm talking, of course, about replay review.
Granted, super slo-mo technology combined with an increase in the number of cameras has revealed just how often the umps miss the call, but, just like the lucky breaks in games, I believe the missed calls tend to even out over time. To those who'll cite the infamous Don Denkinger call, I say, ok, allow review just in the post-season, when most of us are willing to tolerate a slightly more dragged out game, and a missed call can be so much more crucial. Otherwise, leave it to the fallible umps and their naked eyes. Jeering them when it's plain to our naked eyes that they blew it is one of the old-time joys of the game. It's one of those human elements that gives baseball its special charm. And, after, it's not life and death.
Granted, super slo-mo technology combined with an increase in the number of cameras has revealed just how often the umps miss the call, but, just like the lucky breaks in games, I believe the missed calls tend to even out over time. To those who'll cite the infamous Don Denkinger call, I say, ok, allow review just in the post-season, when most of us are willing to tolerate a slightly more dragged out game, and a missed call can be so much more crucial. Otherwise, leave it to the fallible umps and their naked eyes. Jeering them when it's plain to our naked eyes that they blew it is one of the old-time joys of the game. It's one of those human elements that gives baseball its special charm. And, after, it's not life and death.
1
"Don’t fix baseball, FIX YOUR SOULS!...Breathe!"
IN my opinion, this was the best response.
It's not that baseball is too slow, it's that society is too fast, too ADD with all the damn gadgets we have; too not in the present moment.
Baseball is the chess game of sport. It should be timeless. That's why there is no clock. It's the perfect NON TIME , non linear game and should remain so or it's very essence is threatened!
IN my opinion, this was the best response.
It's not that baseball is too slow, it's that society is too fast, too ADD with all the damn gadgets we have; too not in the present moment.
Baseball is the chess game of sport. It should be timeless. That's why there is no clock. It's the perfect NON TIME , non linear game and should remain so or it's very essence is threatened!
137
By that reasoning we should all be happy with 5-hour games.
I'm 46. I've been a baseball fan my entire life. But the game I loved as a kid now takes 30-45 minutes longer to play than it did back then. Since it's still the same 9 inning-game, that means 30 to 45 minutes more dead time. Get on YouTube and look at a broadcast from the 70s -- the game was so much faster, with so much less filler, that it's almost a different sport. I watched Game 7 of the 1971 World Series recently and it looked like a split squad spring training game.
Blaming the new generation is all very nice but it completely overlooks the fact that baseball isn't what it used to be.
I'm 46. I've been a baseball fan my entire life. But the game I loved as a kid now takes 30-45 minutes longer to play than it did back then. Since it's still the same 9 inning-game, that means 30 to 45 minutes more dead time. Get on YouTube and look at a broadcast from the 70s -- the game was so much faster, with so much less filler, that it's almost a different sport. I watched Game 7 of the 1971 World Series recently and it looked like a split squad spring training game.
Blaming the new generation is all very nice but it completely overlooks the fact that baseball isn't what it used to be.
2
Second best. The best is the guy who keeps a straight face and suggests doing away with the fourth inning.
I find it odd that you compare baseball to chess, and yet claim it should have no clock. Chess uses a clock, and allows a set amount of time for each player to make all his or her moves.
Most other major sports use clocks. I think it would be an interesting experiment to try an innovative game of baseball using a clock.
Most other major sports use clocks. I think it would be an interesting experiment to try an innovative game of baseball using a clock.
1
I have an idea: Shut up. Play ball. It's spring.
74
Baseball is like golf. They are both slow deliberate games steeped in their traditions. In order to "fix" itself, baseball can learn a lesson from golf's recent history. Golf saw a spike in its attention when one of its young stars (Tiger Wood) attracted the attention of the media and the marketers. Nothing about the game changed (in fact golf limits its equipment and changes courses to make the game harder), but folks were suddenly interested in one of its faces. This drove interest in the game. In turn, when that face fell out of the limelight, interest dropped as well. Baseball needs to do the same thing. Shaving seconds off of the game by eliminating the intentional walk is not going to draw millennials to the ball parks. Marketing the games young stars will!
It's harder to do in baseball. The game is very local, whereas golf is national. Baseball games are rarely broadcast nation-wide, so the audience never gets to see the "young stars" on a consistent enough basis to learn who they are.
All American sports have been corrupted and subordinated by the needs of advertising. Not one major league sport in the United States play an uninterrupted competition. The turgid pace of American football, baseball, basketball, and hockey, are due to the constant need for the proverbial time out. Many of my fellow Americans have left the American sports universe for the joys of such competitions as Rugby Union, Rugby League, and of course, Association football (soccer). These gifts from the UK, provide nearly nonstop play-action, with a guaranteed running time of under two hours. Once upon a time, baseball games were completed in under two hours; the natural rhythm of the game has been completely destroyed. Because of our business first culture, our sporting events have turned into three hours of advertising, spiced up with the occasional play, between the beer ads, truck ads, and the push for pharmaceutical-prescription consumption. A shame, don't you think.
100
The changes themselves are ruining baseball. DH in American League games make those games longer. No longer is the 9th batter a probable, quick out. The instant reviews by the umps in a booth in NY completely disrupt the game. So what if an umpire gets the call wrong. No one's perfect.
Baseball is perfect as it is. And go back to playing day games in the World Series if you want the next generation to get excited about the game.
Baseball is perfect as it is. And go back to playing day games in the World Series if you want the next generation to get excited about the game.
36
The 1985 World Series and Armando Galarraga's bid for a perfect game were decided by bad calls.
I care. That's who.
I care. That's who.
Long live the DH!
Learn from cricket. They used to only have 5-day long test matches. Now they have 20-over (each side) games that are over in three hours. Yes, cut down all the wasted time that many others have commented on, but what is so sacrosanct about 9 innings? Why not just 5 innings?
1
My kid plays and is very good (this is not to boast but to set the tone of this message). Despite this, the games are soooo boring. Aside from this, the games are stressful...not because I'm worried about him making an error or and out; I'm worried that some kid out there will take a grounder in the teeth or worse. It's a terrible game for kids.
My kid's prowess as an athlete are better spent on the futbol pitch or basketball court. This is our last season in a ridiculous and out-dated sport.
My kid's prowess as an athlete are better spent on the futbol pitch or basketball court. This is our last season in a ridiculous and out-dated sport.
Does your kid like playing baseball? Do you care? Or is the fact that you don't like baseball all that matters? I feel sorry for your kid. People who obviously just don't like the game of baseball do not have valid opinions on what rules should be changed. You like basketball so much, confine yourself to that and spare the rest of us baseball fans from your ignorance of the game. Thanks.
"Futbol pitch"? Wayne does not seem to be someone who grew up with baseball. Terrible game for kids? Please.
I see a lot of snarky posts that suggest that if they make any changes to the game at all, suddenly the game will be completely changed and it won't be baseball anymore and the sport will die out! That's ludicrous. A small number of minor changes shorten the inactive time during a game.
Note my language: "inactive time". Game length is not necessarily the issue; the most exciting games I've ever seen, ones with many lead changes and home runs, have been longer games. But that doesn't mean people should have to sit through pointless time-wasting behavior that still exists in the sport.
Ban conferences. If a manager or coach visits the mound, the pitcher must be removed. The new intentional walk rule is good; keep that. No batter time outs, except due to injury, in which case the batter must be removed. Put pitchers on a clock; charge a pitcher with a ball if he misses the limit; charge a hitter with a strike if he is too slow coming up to the batter's box.
We don't have to fundamentally change the sport. A few minor changes will make it more exciting.
Note my language: "inactive time". Game length is not necessarily the issue; the most exciting games I've ever seen, ones with many lead changes and home runs, have been longer games. But that doesn't mean people should have to sit through pointless time-wasting behavior that still exists in the sport.
Ban conferences. If a manager or coach visits the mound, the pitcher must be removed. The new intentional walk rule is good; keep that. No batter time outs, except due to injury, in which case the batter must be removed. Put pitchers on a clock; charge a pitcher with a ball if he misses the limit; charge a hitter with a strike if he is too slow coming up to the batter's box.
We don't have to fundamentally change the sport. A few minor changes will make it more exciting.
1
"If a manager or coach visits the mound, the pitcher must be removed."
Well, that's just dumb.
"No batter time outs, except due to injury, in which case the batter must be removed."
Also dumb.
If this is what you think, you don't know anything about the game, or even the part of competition that involves out thinking your opponent. There's a reason pitchers and batters mess with each other by quick pitching, making the batter wait too long, where the batters response is to step out. It's all head games, and is part of the "chess" aspect. Intricacies of the game you will never understand. If it hurts your brain too much, then stick to watching cage matches or professional wrestling. Keep your uninformed opinions to yourself. There are very few baseball games where I don't learn something new about strategy, and managers decisions, and pitch selection, and location. There are so many details to all of this that require close attention to pick up on. That's the beauty of the game. Some just can't appreciate that. And, that's ok. To each his own. But at least acknowledge this fact.
Well, that's just dumb.
"No batter time outs, except due to injury, in which case the batter must be removed."
Also dumb.
If this is what you think, you don't know anything about the game, or even the part of competition that involves out thinking your opponent. There's a reason pitchers and batters mess with each other by quick pitching, making the batter wait too long, where the batters response is to step out. It's all head games, and is part of the "chess" aspect. Intricacies of the game you will never understand. If it hurts your brain too much, then stick to watching cage matches or professional wrestling. Keep your uninformed opinions to yourself. There are very few baseball games where I don't learn something new about strategy, and managers decisions, and pitch selection, and location. There are so many details to all of this that require close attention to pick up on. That's the beauty of the game. Some just can't appreciate that. And, that's ok. To each his own. But at least acknowledge this fact.
Well, someone's panties are in a bunch.
I see nothing substantive in your explanation that would justify calling either adjustment "dumb". All I see is someone who has a particular subjective preference retching out a series of ad hominem attacks the depth of spilled coffee.
The head games you're glorifying are not nearly as interesting as you seem to believe; in fact, they are pretty straightforward and obvious to anyone. There's a reason why sportscasters launch into long stories whenever a mound conference happens: all the strategic considerations amount to a couple of sentences, and then they need something else to talk about.
Further, "strategy, and managers decisions, and pitch selection, and location" do not require long interruptions of play. There does not need to be a conference to determine what pitch to throw. Batters stepping out of the box? That doesn't make the game more strategically complex, only more tedious.
But if you'd like to believe that these time-wasting elements somehow constitute the "beauty of the game", you go ahead and keep believing that.
I see nothing substantive in your explanation that would justify calling either adjustment "dumb". All I see is someone who has a particular subjective preference retching out a series of ad hominem attacks the depth of spilled coffee.
The head games you're glorifying are not nearly as interesting as you seem to believe; in fact, they are pretty straightforward and obvious to anyone. There's a reason why sportscasters launch into long stories whenever a mound conference happens: all the strategic considerations amount to a couple of sentences, and then they need something else to talk about.
Further, "strategy, and managers decisions, and pitch selection, and location" do not require long interruptions of play. There does not need to be a conference to determine what pitch to throw. Batters stepping out of the box? That doesn't make the game more strategically complex, only more tedious.
But if you'd like to believe that these time-wasting elements somehow constitute the "beauty of the game", you go ahead and keep believing that.
If you can't appreciate the game, then don't watch it or bother the rest of us with your uselessly uninformed opinions on a game you don't know, and don't care about.
No one said anything about pitch selection needing a conference. Reading comprehension much? You vote for Trump, or what?
No one said anything about pitch selection needing a conference. Reading comprehension much? You vote for Trump, or what?
Lets first start with how we define this "problem". I do not know a single fan of baseball that complains about a 3 hour game... I just don't. If they can average and keep most games ending within 3 hours, playoffs aside... that's fine with me and millions of other fans. Do not ruin what makes baseball great to save on average something like 10-15 minutes a game. Do not tarnish the numbers and history of those numbers by altering the factors going into their creation...Those numbers are like a divine sacred text to many, many baseball fans... If they want to start the weekday games closer to 6 rather than 7, as my local AAA team has done to bring in more food revenue (the team is barely turning a profit in this market unfortunately, and its not because the length of game, its the local culture), I'm fine with that too. The thing is, baseball is doing well and doesn't need a great deal of changing to begin with. I believe American's are reconnecting with baseball because of a new crop of young talent is emerging, and in general MLB aren't abusive and evil to their players like the NFL.... People notice that.
23
Only let Greg Maddux pitch. We're gone in 2 hours, tops.
18
Yeah - call the pitch a strike if the batter leaves the box to adjust equipment or if he's not ready to go within say 20 seconds. Exception for a broken bat. Call the pitch a ball if the pitcher doesn't throw to home plate within 30 seconds or so (including attempts to pick off batters.)
If the manager removes a pitcher mid-inning, the replacement pitcher must remain in the game until the end of the inning.
I kinda like the 7 inning rule - but make it based upon the score - 5 runs or more - end it.
If the manager removes a pitcher mid-inning, the replacement pitcher must remain in the game until the end of the inning.
I kinda like the 7 inning rule - but make it based upon the score - 5 runs or more - end it.
1
Some time ago high schools in NJ eliminated stepping out of the box except in the case of a swing and a miss, or a foul ball. I couldn't believe it myself as a coach, but every 7-inning game was about 15-20 minutes quicker. Alas, the rule was soon eliminated by all the whining by coaches.
For years now, MLB has been all talk and no action with respect to changes that would actually save time without changing play: pitch clocks and keeping batters in the box.
Now, instead of enforcing those measures and trimming empty moments from the game, MLB proposes a bunch of Calvinball antics that would interfere with the substance of the game.
Stop. Step back and get serious about those earlier proposals first.
Mostly I’m with the crowd here who believes the problem is overstated. It is inherently contradictory to say you love baseball and wish there were less of it.
Go watch hockey or something if you’re in such a hurry.
Now, instead of enforcing those measures and trimming empty moments from the game, MLB proposes a bunch of Calvinball antics that would interfere with the substance of the game.
Stop. Step back and get serious about those earlier proposals first.
Mostly I’m with the crowd here who believes the problem is overstated. It is inherently contradictory to say you love baseball and wish there were less of it.
Go watch hockey or something if you’re in such a hurry.
5
Baseball is not timed and that's part of it's beauty.
7
The best way to improve baseball - at least in my area - is to put it back on broadcast TV. The only way to watch our home team play live baseball here is on cable, and many of us have cut the cord. Our "national pastime" should not be restricted that way.
I also agree with keeping batters in the batters box, and having a pitcher's clock. Both of these issues have grown in more recent years. Trips to the mound by catchers should not be eliminated, but limited in number per inning and time. All the rest of the complaints are just baseball. You don't want to touch the heart of the game.
I also agree with keeping batters in the batters box, and having a pitcher's clock. Both of these issues have grown in more recent years. Trips to the mound by catchers should not be eliminated, but limited in number per inning and time. All the rest of the complaints are just baseball. You don't want to touch the heart of the game.
1
Some of these suggestions are helpful, many are pointless and a few are just ignorant. But here is one more suggestion that would make a real difference: Limit TV commercial breaks between innings or for pitching changes to 60 seconds. After each break, broadcasters can then borrow an idea from NASCAR and continue to show their precious commercials in a portion of the screen while action resumes in a temporarily shrunken picture. The game speeds up, viewers get their action sooner and advertisers still sell their beer and car wax. The only downside is that radio broadcasters would find it difficult to live by this rule, but I trust their ingenuity to make it work.
4
Ban Velcro on batting gloves. Hitters step out of the box after every pitch and readjust, even if they haven't taken a swing.
Reduce commercial breaks. Each commercial can only be aired once. Reduce on air babble by announcers. We don't care what they ate for dinner or what kind of suit they are wearing or why they wouldn't leave the hotel room in Japan. I like to hear tactical discussions and theory such as the comments by Eckersley.
2
I love baseball for all the traditional reasons. But, reducing the game to 5-7 innings sounds like a good idea. Leave the rest alone.
Expand the strike zone. Batters have to take fewer pitches and ergo swing more ergo more balls in play--quicker outs and more offense AND defense.
Strict adherence to pitch clock.
Batter may step out of box once per at bat, no questions asked--or Ump may give permission for small injury, equipment adjustment. Step out of box more than once you are charged with a strike.
Pitcher may step off mound once, as above etc. , etc. more than once w/o permission charged a strike.
One catcher/pitcher conference per inning--or a ball will be charged . Same for coaching visits.
Video Review--have portable equipment for Umps on the field to review--not by others in a remote office reviewing the re-play. A decision must be given in under 3 minutes or else the original call is upheld.
Cut each between-inning break by 1 minutes and expand the 7th inning stretch with an additional 5 minutes. That's a net loss of only 4 minutes of commercial time but increases the PACE of each game.
A fielder may choose to field and throw a ground ball hit foul and attempt to make a play on it. More action! quicker pace!
A foul GB untouched will just count as a strike. Foul FLY balls hit out of play past first or third are automatic outs. Quicker pace!
With two strikes a batter may foul off 3 pitches only and on #4 he's out. Quicker pace!
A quicker pace and more action will shorten games as much or even more than actual time reduction since it's HOW we experience the game that matters most.
Strict adherence to pitch clock.
Batter may step out of box once per at bat, no questions asked--or Ump may give permission for small injury, equipment adjustment. Step out of box more than once you are charged with a strike.
Pitcher may step off mound once, as above etc. , etc. more than once w/o permission charged a strike.
One catcher/pitcher conference per inning--or a ball will be charged . Same for coaching visits.
Video Review--have portable equipment for Umps on the field to review--not by others in a remote office reviewing the re-play. A decision must be given in under 3 minutes or else the original call is upheld.
Cut each between-inning break by 1 minutes and expand the 7th inning stretch with an additional 5 minutes. That's a net loss of only 4 minutes of commercial time but increases the PACE of each game.
A fielder may choose to field and throw a ground ball hit foul and attempt to make a play on it. More action! quicker pace!
A foul GB untouched will just count as a strike. Foul FLY balls hit out of play past first or third are automatic outs. Quicker pace!
With two strikes a batter may foul off 3 pitches only and on #4 he's out. Quicker pace!
A quicker pace and more action will shorten games as much or even more than actual time reduction since it's HOW we experience the game that matters most.
when tommy john was on the mound, the game would last 2:15 or less. therefore, get TJ's progeny to pitch for all teams. Problem solved. You're welcome.
2
Lots of good, and some funny suggestions here but I think the most useful ones are
1. Limit number of foul balls allowed. After you foul off 3 pitches your out.
2. If the catcher or coach or manager visits the mound, the pitcher has to come out.
3. Batter can't leave the batters box once he's in
4. Pitch clock
5. Set time between innings 2 minutes
6. 3 time outs per team per game.
7. After 11 innings it's a tie. We're done.
Or you can put a time limit on the whole game, even though that would allow the team in the lead to drag their feet when their at bat to run out the clock.
1. Limit number of foul balls allowed. After you foul off 3 pitches your out.
2. If the catcher or coach or manager visits the mound, the pitcher has to come out.
3. Batter can't leave the batters box once he's in
4. Pitch clock
5. Set time between innings 2 minutes
6. 3 time outs per team per game.
7. After 11 innings it's a tie. We're done.
Or you can put a time limit on the whole game, even though that would allow the team in the lead to drag their feet when their at bat to run out the clock.
Start each game with a finite set of balls...say a dozen. When the dozen is used the game is over.
The game can continue if someone throws the ball back on the field after it's hit into the stands. But if the fan doesn't do so within a minute of catching it, that right is forfeit and the ball cannot be used.
The game can continue if someone throws the ball back on the field after it's hit into the stands. But if the fan doesn't do so within a minute of catching it, that right is forfeit and the ball cannot be used.
1
If they were serious about speeding up games, a simple fix would be to change the number of balls for a walk to three and the number of strikes for a strike out to two. This would have the side benefit of extending the careers of pitchers (at least the good ones). In the history of baseball, the numbers of balls and strikes and how they were defined has been all over the map, so this is not a radical recommendation. If only two strikes were allowed, once a batter got to one strike they would have to adapt and become more focused. Likewise for a pitcher throwing two balls to a batter.
As a lifelong baseball fan, most of these suggestions make me cringe. Though I very much enjoyed D. Francis Barry's contribution!
The one thing that makes glaringly obvious sense, is to cut down on the advertising time. Maybe some of the minor changes could help, but the ads drive me crazy. The only advantage is for bathroom breaks... Cut the time down to 1'30 as was suggested by one writer. The owners could make up by charging more for the ads. And definitely more day games (I watch from France)!
Otherwise please leave this beautiful game alone.
The one thing that makes glaringly obvious sense, is to cut down on the advertising time. Maybe some of the minor changes could help, but the ads drive me crazy. The only advantage is for bathroom breaks... Cut the time down to 1'30 as was suggested by one writer. The owners could make up by charging more for the ads. And definitely more day games (I watch from France)!
Otherwise please leave this beautiful game alone.
4
Baseball is like anything else - you can change it if you want to, or you can pretend you want to and pretend to change it. If the way the game has pretended to follow the written rules about the strike zone over the years is any guide, it's quite clear that they're going to pretend on these changes as well, and then pretend they're surprised the changes didn't work.
As someone who watches nearly every single met game, I can tell you after the sixth inning most nights the game suddenly changes and turns into a ridiculously drawn out battle of middlemen ,most of whom aren't very good,and seem unable to throw strikes.managers suddenly become Einstein and overthink every single move this is where the game seems to lose fans ,many nights I can find myself dozing off as the pace Slows.unfortunately this is the way the game is played now and I really don't see them changing it much.
When I was young I remember games lasting between two to three hours and a large reason for that was much shorter TV commercial breaks. We can squawk all we want about manager's visits to the mound, players taking forever to adjust at bat, etc., but if you take a minute away from each commercial break then you knock almost 20 minutes off a game time right there. Of course, that would mean MLB would have to earn a little less money from advertisers, so it isn't likely to happen. But commercials are the major culprit for the length of today's games.
7
Charlie Finley figured it out years ago. Yellow baseballs a la tennis. It is impossible to follow white ball flight from the upper deck or from deep grandstand seats. Yellow balls improve everything, hitting, fielding, fan appreciation and excitement. Baseball is the ultimate anticipation sport. Pitchers are prima donnas anyway.
Sarah Lyall for Commissioner!
This new intentional walk rule is lipstick on a pig. As you reported last week, there were only 932 intentional walks last year. We're talking less than .01% reduction.
2 areas are ripe for reform, but given the present climate, it won't happen: instant replay gets eliminate along with the challenges. "Getting It Right" may matter in football because betting is based on point spreads. The challenge rule, initiated with the best of intentions, has been perverted. Last year we saw Girardi go out to challenge a call in the ninth inning with Yanks down something like eight runs. WHY?
Next we need an Anti-La Russa Rule, limiting the incessant trips to and from the bullpen for situational relievers and all the lefty/righty switches.
Maybe Torre and Manfred should get some stop watches and see how much time is wasted, but they won't because all the stoppages allow time for more beer or car ads or promos for upcoming shows.
2 areas are ripe for reform, but given the present climate, it won't happen: instant replay gets eliminate along with the challenges. "Getting It Right" may matter in football because betting is based on point spreads. The challenge rule, initiated with the best of intentions, has been perverted. Last year we saw Girardi go out to challenge a call in the ninth inning with Yanks down something like eight runs. WHY?
Next we need an Anti-La Russa Rule, limiting the incessant trips to and from the bullpen for situational relievers and all the lefty/righty switches.
Maybe Torre and Manfred should get some stop watches and see how much time is wasted, but they won't because all the stoppages allow time for more beer or car ads or promos for upcoming shows.
2
Boring game. Period. Implement every suggestion here except leaving the game as is. Most especially cut the length and frequency of commercials! Same applies, incidentally, to football. I'm sitting with my 10-year-old at a second tier college football game. It's snowing like hell and the aluminum benches might as well be icebergs. Yet time after time after time the game mysteriously stops and everybody stands around for two or three minutes. No timeout had been called. Nobody was injured. Just dead time. Those smart enough to be watching at home have left the TV commercial behind to grab a beer and whip up some nachos. We weren't completely dumb; we left before halftime. Who knows, who cares, what team won.
There is an alternative approach for casual fans of either baseball or football. Listen on the radio while doing some kind of stuff with your hands--gardening, turning wood, weaving, painting the house, mopping the floor, changing the spark plugs (if you can find them) in your car.
There is an alternative approach for casual fans of either baseball or football. Listen on the radio while doing some kind of stuff with your hands--gardening, turning wood, weaving, painting the house, mopping the floor, changing the spark plugs (if you can find them) in your car.
1
I don't know if there's research showing that 8 warm up pitches before the start of each half inning are really necessary to preserve a pitcher's arm health. If he's using those pitches to find his rhythm and accuracy, he probably shouldn't be out there in the first place. But let's say 8 pitches are necessary. Why do they have to occur on the field? Install a mound in each clubhouse that's groomed exactly like the one on the field. After his team records 2 outs, the pitcher retreats to the clubhouse mound and warms up. He'll only need 2 warm up pitches when he takes the field.
allow ties
1
I think that would cut down on the excessive spitting at least. Nobody spits when they're dressed up.
4
I don't mind the pace, but I do mind the interruptions. For me, the worst are frequent changes of pitchers in the late innings. Righty/lefty/righty drives me up a wall. Here is how that annoyance can be fixed. Make a new rule requiring that any pitcher must stay on the mound to face at least two batters or until the inning ends. Relief pitchers would scream, but fans would find it a huge relief.