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To: SMGFan

They want to shorten the length of the game. Here’s two ideas.

Intentional walks are just waved to first.

There is a designated leadoff area at 1st base which a runner can’t leave until a pitch is thrown. If the area is a little tight the pitchers won’t be throwing over to 1st a lot.

The second one could speed up the game a lot.


68 posted on 02/09/2017 2:59:09 AM PST by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: KSCITYBOY
Intentional walks are just waved to first.

A popular idea, but a bad one, IMO. We've all seen that pitch intended to be a wide one for an intentional walk that gets away and causes some mayhem with the baserunners. That's interesting.

Furthermore, there are those occasions (extremely rare, but they do happen) where a hitter decides he's had enough of this and swings -- and gets a hit.

What they ought to do is require the catcher to keep one foot in the catcher's box, thus preventing them from lining up up the baseline and making the ball impossible to hit.

There is a designated leadoff area at 1st base which a runner can’t leave until a pitch is thrown. If the area is a little tight the pitchers won’t be throwing over to 1st a lot.

And kill the stolen base once and for all? Stolen bases are exciting. Good for the game.

And again, what about the errant throw that gets away and instead of second, now the runner's on third? You'd eliminate that in the name of saving a minute or two.

It's not about the time of games -- it's about the pace of games. I'll watch a four-hour baseball game if something is happening, if it's close and teams are playing baseball instead of just trying to hit homeruns. Or if it's a pitchers' duel and they're trying to make a run or two. That's much more interesting than a two-and-a-half hour game in which 12 pitchers appear and everyone who doesn't hit a homer strikes out.

79 posted on 02/09/2017 9:52:26 AM PST by TBP (0bama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: KSCITYBOY
They want to shorten the length of the game. Here’s two ideas.

Intentional walks are just waved to first.


Intentional walks happen less than once a game so I don't see a real timesaver there.

There is a designated leadoff area at 1st base which a runner can’t leave until a pitch is thrown. If the area is a little tight the pitchers won’t be throwing over to 1st a lot.

Thats just an awful idea. You would really be taking an important and exciting element of the game away. Besides teams don't really start slowing the pace of the game with that until playoff time.

If you want to speed up the game, force pitchers to work at a faster pace and call borderline pitches strikes. The pitchers that work at a faster pace and throw strikes in this league consistently play in shorter games.

80 posted on 02/09/2017 10:09:59 AM PST by Honcho
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To: KSCITYBOY

The reason the games are so long are the breaks between the innings, that’s for television commercials. They wouldn’t dare think of shortening those.


87 posted on 02/25/2017 9:53:52 PM PST by dfwgator
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