The power to alter the rules to accelerate the pace of action -- or to forcibly negotiate the alterations it wants -- is contained within Article XVIII of the collective bargaining agreement, page 77.

[Satyr3206]

8 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

My Rules for making the games shorter:

1. Five foul balls and batter is out - If you can't put pitches into play after five fouls you deserve to be out. 12-pitch at bats with the batter constantly fouling off pitches until he gets a pitch he likes is not good for the game. Foul outs count as strikeouts.

2. Five 60-second mound visits (Time outs) per game - This doesn't include pitcher changes. During pitcher changes the manager must indicate he's bringing a pitcher in before he reaches the mound or is charged a mound visit. If anyone besides the pitcher comes to the mound it counts as a mound visit.

3. When no runners are on base, pitchers have a 20 second pitch clock from the time they get the ball back from the catcher. Pitch clock starts with new batter when batter has both feet in box. No pitch clock with runners on base.

4. Batters have 30-seconds to get into the box after the end of the play before. That's plenty of time to walk to box, get signs, and prepare.

5. Take away one 20-second commercial (will save about five and half minutes per game) and make a two minute clock between innings. For the first 20-seconds of the next inning, an advertisement will be allowed in some manner that doesn't take away from the action to make up for the lost commercial. Perhaps a shrunken down game action that allows for a "picture frame" advertisement around the game or a "This inning is brought to you by statement at the bottom."

6. Except on certain days like Memorial Day or the 4th of July, no 7th inning songs that require players to stop warming up. I'm as Patriotic as the next guy, but we've already sang the National Anthem, let's get to the game.

7. Relief pitchers have 2:30 seconds to deliver a pitch from the time the manager summons him whether that be as the manager is walking out or once he gets to the mound.

Other than the foul balls thing, this doesn't change the game much and honestly, the foul ball thing just runs up pitch counts and is not fun to watch. I believe these things will shave at least ten minutes off of a game if not more.

4 and 5 maybe. Not a big fan of the rest.

[Satyr3206]

15 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Before lights baseball was played at a much quicker pace.

Luckily for baseball's sake they've found a revenue model that doesn't depend on the fans actually paying attention to most of the game. 

I'm not sure what your point is?

[Satyr3206]

15 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Before lights baseball was played at a much quicker pace.

Luckily for baseball's sake they've found a revenue model that doesn't depend on the fans actually paying attention to most of the game. 

Pace of play in Baseball is funny anyway. How long does the last 5 minutes of any Football or Basketball game take? 30 to 45 minutes? Give me a break.

[DrungoHazewood]

8 hours ago, Satyr3206 said:

What is your point? Baseball played day or night is about the same. Fans paying attention is neither here or there..

My point is that you can play Major League baseball games in 2:00.  It was done for a century-plus and it was just accepted as the way things are.  It was the natural order of the universe.  The idea that baseball needs to be a game with 3:15 average games is incorrect.  That's just how we've allowed it to evolve.

[DrungoHazewood]

8 hours ago, Satyr3206 said:

Pace of play in Baseball is funny anyway. How long does the last 5 minutes of any Football or Basketball game take? 30 to 45 minutes? Give me a break.

Basketball games take, what... two hours total including halftime and timeouts and everything?  I don't know, don't watch much basketball.  I think hockey is similar.  Soccer games take about two hours, maybe 2:15.  Football is played once a week, if you're a big fan you can schedule around four or five hours once a week, mostly in the afternoon.  I watch a fair amount of college football, and even with bowls and playoffs that's maybe 14 or 15 games a year. 

The Orioles are playing baseball about 500 hours a year (plus playoffs and spring training), much of that at 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 at night on the east coast.  That's about 19 hours a week during the season.  My kids go to bed somewhere between the third and the sixth inning.  They're 9 and 11 and have never seen the end of a Sunday-Thursday night game. But they've seen countless soccer games to completion.

If you're good with the kids of today being more fans of Leo Messi, and the Ravens, and Alex Ovechkin than Manny, I guess that's fine.  That's the direction we're heading.

[DrungoHazewood]

The problem of ever-increasing game times is one of imbalance.  In sports most things are balanced, and that allows the game to reach an equilibrium.  Things rarely get way out of whack because there are opposing forces battling in opposite directions.  You don't see players hitting .450, or hitting 100 homers because it is very much in the pitcher/defense's best interest to stop them from doing that.

But there are a handful of things where both teams, both sides, the offense and the defense, have most of the incentives on the same side.  Two obvious ones are strikeouts and game time.  And both of those have grown unchecked for decades.

With strikeouts, hitters have little incentive to cut down strikeouts because with power comes strikeouts.  And power is a tremendously good thing for a hitter.  But for pitchers, strikeouts are also a tremendously good thing - every strikeout is an out.  The only downside is throwing really hard means you can't go nine innings... and that's fine with 13-man pitching staffs.  So strikeouts have gone up, with only brief dips, for at least 120 years.

Game time is the same thing.  Delaying things lets players compose themselves.  Making lots of pitching changes enables the last paragraph, along with playing matchups better.  Adjusting equipment makes players feel more comfortable.  Pitchers can use delays to impact batter's timing, and vice versa.  Breaks mean more commercials and opportunity for revenues. There is a small advantage to pitchers to work quickly, but that's offset by an avalanche on the other side.

There needs to be a countervailing incentive to make the game go quicker.  It used to be the sun setting and that worked very well.  I'm only half joking when I say we should turn the lights off after 2:30.

[weams]

Quote

The infielders already have been told to stay away from the mound. Xander Bogaerts and Dustin Pedroia were among those who often called time for pep talks if a pitcher lost the strike zone.

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2018/02/24/red-sox-being-extra-careful-with-martinez/eVoaNlD860EeYI6VnvDq0I/story.html

[OFFNY]

o

 

On the subject of the pace of a (baseball) game ........

 

UNC Beats Oregon State in Longest 9-Inning Game in College World Series History

(By Sam Kahn, Jr.)

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/23815959/north-carolina-tar-heels-beat-oregon-state-beavers-longest-nine-inning-game-college-world-series-history

 

o

[24fps]

2 hours ago, OFFNY said:

o

 

On the subject of the pace of a (baseball) game ........

 

UNC Beats Oregon State in Longest 9-Inning Game in College World Series History

(By Sam Kahn, Jr.)

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/23815959/north-carolina-tar-heels-beat-oregon-state-beavers-longest-nine-inning-game-college-world-series-history

 

o

Orioles first round draftee Cadyn Grenier commits an error on the first pitch of the game.  The first pitch!  Already on the fast track.  The kid's gonna fit right in.

[Nevermore]

The problem with TV is that need/want commercials , the more the better. If the commissioner tries to shorten the time between innings, there is less time for advertising.  Same as when there's a pitching change. The longer it takes for a new pitcher to warm up, there is more time for commercials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[weams]

On 2/20/2018 at 1:52 PM, Tony-OH said:

 

6. Except on certain days like Memorial Day or the 4th of July, no 7th inning songs that require players to stop warming up.  I'm as Patriotic as the next guy, but we've already sang the National Anthem, let's get to the game.

 

Anthem. That's it. Yep. No New York Rangers songs or Philadelphia Flyers songs. Or Fruited Plains.