Speeding up the Game

Non-starter. TV will never go for it, and that’s the end of it.

Same with pitch clocks. TV promo chatter in between pitches is something the networks are not likely to be willing to give up, nor the extra ad avails.

Not to mention it’s a silly idea in the first place.

What’s an embarrassment is there’s people getting paid to come up with stupid ideas like this. Yikes!

I don’t care the pace it’s slow. It’s expected because it’s baseball.

That would be a good way to get the length of games down. I don’t think you can do much about the time between half-innings because of TV commercials. I can’t blame younger people for not liking baseball with its slooooow pacing these days.

You’ve got to keep in mind how many people live in the eastern time zone. A game that starts at 8:05 PM eastern that lasts four hours is going to end at 12:05 AM eastern. That’s too late. Half the country lives in the eastern time zone.

but the pace of the game has never bothered me, and I don’t understand the obsession with speeding up the game. True, games used to played in about an hour and a half, which amazes me. I don’t know how they did that, other than the fact that pitching changes were much fewer and far between. Still, the game is what it is, and it’s a great game. Sure some games are slower than others, but for every fast worker like Carlos Zambrano, you’re always going to have an occasional human rain delay like Rick Sutcliffe or Steve Trachsel. That’s just baseball. Never bothered me.

with nobody on base, you could just wait 80 seconds and they wouldn’t count those 4 pitches against your pitch count!

The simplest way to reduce game time is to reduce the amount of offense.

Over the last 40 years, the average number of runs scored per game has increased by almost an entire run:

As you’d expect, runs scored has an positive correlation with pitch counts:

That 1 run per game increase in runs scored has a serious impact on pitch counts, which have a linear relationship with game time:

Why make crazy, convoluted rule changes (a shot clock? really??) when you can handle this by going back to larger foul ball territory, deeper outfields, and a baseball that isn’t juiced? Alternately, raise the mound back up – that would have a negative impact on runs as well, speeding up the game.

Most of them are talking about something productive for their pitchers, especially the younger ones. And yeah I’m assuming they are talking about something productive because most of those guys wouldn’t lug their beer bellies out to the mound for no reason.

I’d like to see some sort of stats on the effectiveness of mound visits. In my experience of watching games they are very helpful to settle the pitcher down and remind him of scouting reports on opposing batters. Something that could have been used to settle “The Employee” down in ’03 after you know what.

I’ll throw this out there. What about if a pitcher was required to either finish the inning or come to conclusion with at least TWO batters? That would cut down on the number of pitching changes. Would this increase offense because the hitting team would still be allowed to put up a pinch-hitter when the pitching team would not be allowed to change pitchers? Very possibly. I’ve never liked LOOGY’s and ROOGY’s anyway. I like the relievers who are out there that can get both lefty and righty hitters out.

between pitches and between innings is worth trying, but there is no need to cut down on the number of visits by coaches to the mound.

But at Wrigley, it would just lead to a lot of workman’s compensation claims by the manual scoreboard operators. Zing!

What time frame would be acceptable for an average 9 inning Major League Baseball game?

…offer to eliminate the roll-out-the-red-carpet-7th-inning-God-Bless-America extravaganza, I’ll start to pay attention to the rest of their (or these) suggestions. I thought this was just another New York Yankee we’re-better-than-everyone-else happening, but I was at a Dodgers game last week and they pulled the same stunt. Set up some microphones, rolled out a few mats and then trotted out some choir to sing GBA.

And this was on a Wednesday!

Average 2009 NFL broadcast: 168 (2hrs. 48min.)
Average 2009 NBA broadcast: 155 (2hrs. 35 mins.)
Average 2009 MLB broadcast: 174 (2hrs. 54 min.)

Not really a noticable difference. Besides that, I have never watched a game (on TV or otherwise) and wished it would end sooner, except maybe when Hawkins used to close games. Pretty much everytime I hear this argument, it’s football/basketball fans complaining, and i have to explain its the pace, not the overall time, that they are unhappy with. Baseball isn’t EVER going to be a fast paced game, and its not for everyone. Maybe people just need to realize this, and either love it or shut up. Personally, I wouldn’t change a thing.

so length isn’t always a barometer of excitement

TNWSS. Sounds like a personal issue.

pitchers need to learn how to pitch not just throw. Maddux is a perfect example. When he pitched the game was over before you knew it. Too many pitchers just pull back and throw without the control they should have.

“Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don’t care if I never get back”

When I am at a game, especially at Wrigley I don’t want the game to end. The game itself is an escape from realty. What’s the difference if a game goes 2:45 of 2:58

Of course I am a purist, I don’t like the DH, wild card teams, replay review, or interleague games. I still refer to the Diamondbacks, and the Devil Rays. I hate video gamization of the game.

1 strike = 1 out
2 balls = a walk
slaughter rule
no more than 10 can bat in one inning

should be examined closely and assumed to be incorrect or detrimental somehow.

but I’d be ok with a No-Pitch intentional walk…just point to 1st base and give it to him.

Limit the number of times a hitter can step out of the box. That’s gotten WAY out of hand.
Can’t they get their signals from the coach like they use to do? Do they have to step out of the box after every pitch to find out “what do I do now”?

Forget these warm-up pitches every time there’s a new pitcher, except in the case of injury.
Pinch hitters and pinch runners are prepared to enter the game, why aren’t pitchers? (probably because it’s a chance to squeeze in another commercial or two).

The seventh inning stretch doesn’t have to be an event and if there is a need to trot out some choir for some special occasion then do it after the game or before.

How long should it take between innings? One commercial? Two? Three?
Limit the amount of dead time due to commercials and the game would speed up considerably. The broadcasters can tell me to buy a Chevy truck while the game proceeds. They usually burn up air time with bullshit anyway, why not be more efficient with it?

Speaking of commercials…look at how much can be said in a one minute commercial.
Do arguments need to be any longer than that? 30 seconds for the manager, 30 seconds for the umpire (MAX). The result is always the same anyway. The horse is already dead before you start to beat it.

A few things:
High schools have used the no-pitch IBB for a while now, but I don’t see that as necessary for MLB. There are not that many IBBs so eliminating throwing the four pitches is not going to save you much.

Batters still get their signals from the 3rd base coach, but I agree that batters waste a lot of time between pitches with their OC-like antics. High schools out here have a one foot rule, the batter must keep one foot in the batter’s box between pitches. Unlike the no-pitch IBB, this is one rule MLB should copy.

Eliminating warm up pitches is a colossally bad idea … really.