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Slow and Steady Keeps Us Awake: Major League Baseball Can't Fix Its Pace of Play Problem
SI ^ | October 25, 2018 | Jon Tayler

Posted on 10/26/2018 6:48:11 AM PDT by C19fan

The first game of the 1916 World Series—otherwise known as the last time the Red Sox and Dodgers met in the Fall Classic—took two hours and 16 minutes to play. It was slow relative to that season as a whole (or so we can infer; average time of game for 1916 is unavailable, but over the previous five years, it clocked in at just under two hours), but it was a sprint compared to the marathons we’re enduring in 2018. A 136-minute contest would’ve placed in the 99th percentile of game lengths from this season and was 48 minutes shy of the year’s average of 3:04. And it’s nothing compared to this postseason, when our shortest game to date has taken 155 minutes and the average matchup is a bloated 215.4 minutes long—a three hour, 35-minute slog, or 24 minutes less than Games 1 and 5 of the 1916 Series combined.

(Excerpt) Read more at si.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: baseball; mlb
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When I was growing up the term "launch angle" was not in the baseball vocabulary. The game has become home run or strike out.
1 posted on 10/26/2018 6:48:11 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

I still love the game but it’s a joke to see leadoff hitters striking out over a hundred times a season. They obviously don’t teach contact hitting anymore.


2 posted on 10/26/2018 6:51:45 AM PDT by dowcaet
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To: C19fan

140bm edm and hippity hop music in the parks

Do they play that crap at tennis matches too?


3 posted on 10/26/2018 6:51:49 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: C19fan

End instant replay and knock 30 minutes off the total game time. Baseball was just fine w/o for 100+ years


4 posted on 10/26/2018 6:52:23 AM PDT by Michael.SF. (California: knowingly give someone aids: misdemeanor. Give them a straw, go to jail.)
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To: Michael.SF.

I would ban trips to the mound, and warm up pitches for relievers. The relievers should be all ready from throwing in the pen.


5 posted on 10/26/2018 6:53:31 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

My modest proposal is to limit each team to three pitching changes per game.


6 posted on 10/26/2018 6:53:37 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: C19fan
Not only are the games too damn long, the season is too damn long. The World Serious should start no later than Oct. 1.

If this goes back to Boston, it may well be snowed out till springtime.

7 posted on 10/26/2018 6:54:14 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Texas Eagle

I am a Generation Xer. I remember scheduled double headers. But greed got rid of that.


8 posted on 10/26/2018 6:55:14 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: Texas Eagle

It’s not going back to Boston.


9 posted on 10/26/2018 6:56:14 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: C19fan
Ah, yes. I remember double-headers.

If they're not going to bring them back, maybe it's time to go back to a 150 game season.

I know, I know. Neither of those things is going to happen.

10 posted on 10/26/2018 6:58:07 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: C19fan

baseball=snore fest.


11 posted on 10/26/2018 6:58:16 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: C19fan

Make the starting pitcher go 5 full innings.

Limit relievers to 3 per game.

And NO mid-inning pitching changes.

Allow variance for legitimate injuries. If you come out early, 15 day disabled list.

That would shave at least 30 mins from the average game.


12 posted on 10/26/2018 6:58:33 AM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: C19fan
Look at how ludicrous the stats for the New York Yankees were this season.

They set a major league record for home runs in a season, and yet they only had one player (Stanton) reach 100 RBIs for the season -- and he had exactly 100.

In other words ... Not only were the Yankees scoring most of their runs on home runs, but they were scoring many, many of them on SOLO home runs. It was pathetic to look at a box score and see that they had hit five home runs in a 7-5 win.

That's not baseball. It's batting practice.

13 posted on 10/26/2018 7:06:34 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians willm)
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To: C19fan
To be fair, remember that scheduled doubleheaders were largely a relic of the era when teams traveled by train. Teams scheduled so many doubleheaders in those days because they needed more off days to travel between cities on road trips.

I looked this up, and apparently the record for most doubleheaders played in a season was 44 -- by the 1943 Chicago White Sox. That number is even more remarkable when you compare it to the length of the schedule at the time. Teams played a 154-game season back then, so the White Sox played 88 of those 154 games in doubleheaders!

14 posted on 10/26/2018 7:11:48 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians willm)
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To: Alberta's Child

No one has mentioned that most of the time is spent watching pitchers pitch. Too few base hits. Too little ball handling by fielders. Move the pitcher’s mound back some.


15 posted on 10/26/2018 7:14:06 AM PDT by cymbeline
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To: C19fan
Nothing wrong with the pace of baseball. It is what it is. That's the way it always has been. The problem with baseball is not the game but those who want to turn it into the NBA or NFL.

I'm OK with 1-0 games. Some of the best games I ever saw were in the 1990s with Atlanta's pitching staff. Maddux would have complete games with under 90 pitches. Awesome stuff. Talk about fast paced games!
 

16 posted on 10/26/2018 7:16:35 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (Nuke the Caravan!)
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To: Texas Eagle
Not only are the games too damn long, the season is too damn long.

Amen! Preach on!

What I would like to see: <


17 posted on 10/26/2018 7:21:48 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: C19fan

End the game after seven innings instead of nine.


18 posted on 10/26/2018 7:22:20 AM PDT by Repealthe17thAmendment
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To: Governor Dinwiddie
I'm OK with 1-0 games. Some of the best games I ever saw were in the 1990s with Atlanta's pitching staff. Maddux would have complete games with under 90 pitches. Awesome stuff. Talk about fast paced games!

That was great stuff back then when starters were allowed to go deep into games. Now Maddux would be pulled after the 5th or 6th inning for a plethora of relief pitchers.

19 posted on 10/26/2018 7:23:24 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

Limiting defensive shifts and limiting pitching changes would strongly encourage more base path running. We might actually have interesting games to watch even if it lasts over 3 hours.


20 posted on 10/26/2018 7:27:21 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
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