Posted on 05/01/2014 2:10:31 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The Boston Red Sox spent last winter basking in the afterglow of their World Series victory. They also spent some of it pondering a couple of questions: Why do their games take so long? And what should Major League Baseball do about it?
At the request of commissioner Bud Selig, the perennially slow-paced Red Sox formed a committee of seven team executives to study the issue and recommend changes for the league as a whole. A volunteer corps of 30 front-office staffers spent over 350 hours combing through video of Boston's 2013 regular-season games, charting every little drag on the pace of play.
The Red Sox, whose games averaged an MLB-high 3 hours 15 minutes in 2013, are only about halfway done with the project. But the fact that such a committee even exists shows how little progress MLB has made in its attempts to speed up the game.
"This is one of the most critical issues facing baseball as we move forward into the next three, five, seven years," Red Sox chief operating officer Sam Kennedy said.
Selig has expressed concern about the pace of play for years. It has become almost cliché for fans to grumble about hitters stepping out of the batter's box, pitchers pacing around the mound and—no, not another pitching change! But for all of the attention the issue has received, the speed of the game continues to reach new lows.
Entering Thursday, the average game time this season was 3:08, according to Stats LLC. Never mind comparisons to the days of flannel jerseys and black-and-white telecasts: That is 13 minutes longer than the average time in 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I blame the Sox!
People who don’t care for baseball shouldn’t watch or bitch about it.
That’s all the fix it needs.
When Bob Gibson pitched for the Cardinals, the only thing faster than his wind up and pitch was his fastball. Just ask Tim McCarver.
Same goes for soccer.
Amen brother! Don’t mess with baseball.
The one suggestion I have, although it doesn’t occur very often in a game, is when a pitcher purposely walks a batter....Why not simply gesture to the ump, point to first base and walk the batter. Why throw 3 meaningless pitches?
Allowing the ‘challenges’ this season adds to the ‘minutes’ since the decisions have to come from the main center in New York.
Yikes!!! I mean 4 pitches...
Yeah, I also remember when a starting pitcher completing a game was not such a big achievement since the pitcher was expected to complete his game. Now, everything is specialized (like medicine). The Closer, the 8th inning guy, leftie/rightie pitcher/hitter match-ups.
The last time baseball decided to make baseball more spiffy, the owners and league enabled the players to cheat with steroids and growth hormones. Now baseball records which tie the past with the present don’t mean a darn thing.
This is so easy it’s stupid. 1. Intentional walk is automatic. 2. Stop batters from stepping out of the box between pitches. 3. Stop the seventh inning stretch nonsense. 4. Realign the strike zone back to knees and letters. 5. Walks must RUN to first base or you’re out. 6. Maximum 3 throws to first to hold runner on. 7. Get rid of instant replays.
Not sure. I think that 9 innings have been the standard for only about 140 - 150 years or so.
Don’t screw with the game. The length of the game has gone up for reasons that have little to do with the game itself.
It is society that has changed, not baseball. Every one is on a hyperactive cycle where if you haven’t checked Facebook in the last 30 seconds one is so out of it.
The Sunday afternoon drive through the country with your family has been replaced with so many gadgets and gizmos that no one has time anymore to just contemplate their time.
I like the new direction of the Tigers this year. Less reliance on the long ball with a lot more aggressive base running. It seems to be working with the Tigers staying on top so far.
I also think getting rid of Fielder and picking up Kinsler was a smart move. Fielder can only do one thing really well and he forced Miguel Cabrera over to 3rd base when Cabrera is a 1st baseman.
As much as I hated to see Jim Leyland “retire”, Brad Ausmus is doing a fine job. Leyland is acting as some sort of off field adviser and some informal scouting.
That’s all the fix it needs.
Amen to that! Let them go watch football players beat the hell out of each other or hockey players get into their faux fights. They obviously get their jollies out of such displays of testosterone-laden men. I prefer the display of skills and strategy in baseball.
Of course limit time between pitches for both pitcher and hitter.
But the easiest and most effective thing to do is simply get the Umps to call the strike zone as it is described in the rulebook. A lot to ask, I know. The high strike would solve so many problems. Hitters would have to swing earlier and more often. Pitch counts would lessen so you use less pitching changes and relief pitching.
Freegards
Congrats. Your post, the 16th was the first to respond to the column.
It’s true.
I just see a great deal of beauty in the game. In the video with this story Brian Holaday explains that the opposing team backs up (he was swinging for the fences) and he suddenly lays down a bunt which brought in what ended up being a game winning run.
Its a detail game.
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