The Plan to Speed Up Baseball

The Wall Street Journal ^ | APRIL 3, 2015 | MATTHEW FUTTERMAN

[MinorityRepublican]

As the 2015 Major League Baseball season dawns, the lords of baseball are asking for our forgiveness. They want a second chance, and to get it they are making changes that could shake the game to its foundations.

This isn’t about tinkering with the playoffs to make a few extra dollars from the television networks. The 30 team owners have ordered the new commissioner to modernize baseball and make it appeal to an audience that is increasingly weary of the game’s slow pace. There will of course be cries of sacrilege from traditionalists about putting the national pastime on a clock. Many players are resisting, too. But they are unlikely to slow the transformation.

[kvanbrunt2]

see my post below:
I loved to watch cricket matches on tv when i was in NZ for a month in 2000. They changed the game to be a one day game because they used to have to play for several days to complete a game.

[cripplecreek]

Harwell was a man of true faith and never hesitated to make it known.

Right there in the booth he announced that he probably wouldn’t live another year but not to feel remorse because he was looking forward to the next great adventure that God had in store for him.

[jy8z]

There is a lot more going on in baseball than is obvious. It really is a thinking mans game.

It really is. Too many people just don't realize how the strategy changes pitch by pitch.

[Cry if I Wanna]

No scratching and spitting in Golf, yes. But the lyin’ King has poisoned that game for me forever.

Golf is dying too. It also is too slow. Young people don't want to spend five hours chasing a little ball. Golf is also a beautiful game. But in its current form it will not survive.

[P.O.E.]

TV should stop showing pitcher-batter-pitcher-batter.

There’s 9 men on the field. They should film it like the old Spanish channel soccer games, from way up in the cheap seats.

[doorgunner69]

Was being sarcastic, would rather watch paint dry than watch either of them.

With commercials, I cannot stand to sit through much of anything not dvr recorded these days.

[Ditto]

OK...I can understand that. The World Series used to be in early October, but it seems to be getting later and later in the year.

It was in early October back when there were only 16 teams -- 8 in each league.

Now there are 30 teams which means league playoff to see who gets to the World Series.

Back when Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner were traveling on trains, the regular season was 154 games. Now it only 162 games, 8 more games, when they can travel from city to city in a few hours on jet planes.

The long season is a part of baseball and always has been.

If you want to reduce the number of regular season games, you will need to start a new record book.

[Paladin2]

Many around the world agree with you. I prefer to watch Hockey.

[left that other site]

Never watch any sports on TV...If I’m not there to watch it , I can’t be bothered! LOL!

[BookmanTheJanitor]

Bring back the bullpen car! :o)

[Cen-Tejas]

MLB’s problems remind me of that old saying “every dog has its day”.....

I used to coach high school ball. Haven’t watched an inning in 25 years!

[dfwgator]

Have a limit on foul balls, once you hit your third foul ball during a single at bat, you’re out.

[left that other site]

I don’t think the next generation will be into sports at all, because it’s not CGI.

[Ditto]

Soccer is boring but at least there is almost continual action.

... which is mostly boring as well. ;~))

I loved playing soccer when I was young, -- you are busy all the time running your ass off -- but IMHO, without excessive amounts of adult beverage, it's a damn boring game to watch.

Baseball, OTOH, has things going on even when the ball isn't in play. It is a thinking man's sport.

[ziravan]

I was a huge Astros fan. Bagwell. Biggio. Even a World Series.

I was at the 18 inning playoff game in 2005 that notched Roger Clemens a save.

Then. Bud Selig, in order to save Milwaukee from having to go back to the American Leagues where they belonged, sold out Houston to that fate.

Now. The Astros, and MLB, can go to hell. I haven’t been to or watched a game since. I have no interest.

[Paladin2]

The game has no clock.

[dfwgator]

[Sven Tremain]

Gave up baseball when they went on strike during a pennant race in 1994. Those players are now finally gone, but when they have a game on at the local watering hole, I find it almost as boring as soccer. Slow, slow, slow. And, the umps make up their own strike zone despite having a rule book.

[dfwgator]

Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything’s dying.

In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who’s up?

In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.

Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...
In baseball, if it rains, we don’t go out to play.

Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.

Baseball has no time limit: we don’t know when it’s gonna end - might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we’ve got to go to sudden death.

In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there’s kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there’s not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you’re capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I’ll be safe at home!

-George Carlin

[InterceptPoint]

2 strikes = Yer Out
3 balls = Ya walk
2 outs = Yer time at bat is over
5 innings = Ye Old Game is over
Game tied after 5 innings = Tied Game