
Opinion: Speeding Up Baseball to Save It - ilamont
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/07/748972052/opinion-speeding-up-baseball-to-save-it
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BurritoAlPastor
Counterpoint: stop trying to “save” baseball. It’s a fine game the way it is.

Jon Bois had the right of it: [https://www.sbnation.com/a/mlb-2017-season-
preview/there-is-...](https://www.sbnation.com/a/mlb-2017-season-
preview/there-is-no-future-of-baseball)

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mikekchar
I was a big baseball fan when I was a kind (like under 12). I lost interest
after that and it was rekindled by watching Japanese baseball. My own personal
opinion is that the length of the game is not really a problem. Take a look at
cricket -- it's both longer, more boring and dramatically more popular than
baseball.

The thing I find about American baseball is that I think it lacks drama. I've
felt the same way about a lot of Premier league football (soccer). At the top
end in soccer, they can pass the ball endlessly and then suddenly score for 30
yards out. It's breathtaking, but ultimately boring, IMHO.

With American baseball, it's similar. You have guys who can hit ridiculous
home runs. You have pitchers that are so good that they can play the entire
game without really losing much. Often, in American baseball, you'll only have
2 pitchers for the whole game.

What I've enjoyed about Japanese baseball is that it's really never over. Your
pitcher can suddenly just stop being able to throw the ball over the plate. Or
the batters learn their timing. Even if you are losing 7 - 0, you still have a
chance! There is a saying that baseball doesn't start until there are 2 outs.
Your whole goal is to get a man on base and then start putting on the
psychological pressure. In Japanese baseball, it is common strategy if you
have a man on base and no outs, to throw away your next 2 outs advancing that
man to 3rd -- because _this_ is where baseball starts.

With American baseball, the pitcher will just shut you down. The batters
usually have a single goal: hit a home run. There are obviously amazing
players in the US and all the best players in the world want to play there....
But, I don't find it as interesting, personally. Nothing at all to do with the
length of the game. Longer games mean that I can drink more beer! (Just like
cricket... Um... I assume that's not true of Pakistan. They must actually love
cricket ;-) ).

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astura
>Often, in American baseball, you'll only have 2 pitchers for the whole game.

!!!???

You must have not watched baseball in the past several decades, major league
teams are averaging 4.5 pitchers per game now and it's rare for a team to use
three or fewer pitchers in a game. [1]

[1] [https://baseballwithr.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/historical-
lo...](https://baseballwithr.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/historical-look-at-
pitcher-usage/amp/)

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mikekchar
Admittedly this is the truth :-) Maybe I should start watching American
baseball again!

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bostonpete
I agree, but he doesn't really propose a solution. I guess he kind of hints
that batters shouldn't be able to step out... but that only really works when
the pitcher has a time limit... and that only works with no runners on. Am I
missing something?

A magic bullet to speed up games would be welcome by all, but if they start
making drastic changes (like 2 strikes for a strikeout and 3 balls for a walk,
which I've seen proposed), I suspect they'll lose fans even faster

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ryanhuff
Drastic changes aren't needed. The rules just need to be tweaked to encourage
efficient play.

Not allowing batters to step out is one good idea. Excessive pitcher changes
is a huge problem. Each change adds 3-5 minutes to a game. One thing I haven't
heard mentioned is providing a way for catchers (teams) to call pitches in a
more secure manner. Catchers go through so many signs just to communicate a
pitch type while a runner is behind the pitcher. Each pitch could add an 5-10
seconds to hide the sign from the runner, depending on the scenario.

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vadym909
For god's sake- please speed it up. I have a kid playing AAA little league and
most games go over the 2 hour limit with just 4 innings played. Soccer,
Basketball, Flag Football are all 1 hour games tops and involve a lot more
running, action. Baseball has 1 poor kid pitcher trying real hard to get the
ball in the strike zone and most often missing, walking the batter and
repeat...while all the other players (batting team and fielding team) are just
watching idly and praying- 'for god's sake just throw the damn ball straight,
so we can move on!'

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cybwraith
I have to disagree with the author's premise. The home run is _boring_ in its
current form. When it was a relatively rare sight it was more exciting and
impactful. Because the home run is so much more prevalent (and other reasons
of course) the truly exciting stuff is nearly gone. You don't see
trick/special plays nearly as often anymore. When home run hitters are up
every other batter, whats the point of risking stealing third base? There are
less bunts, squeeze plays, pickles. Its the risks and the payoff (or lack
thereof) that makes baseball games fun to watch (and to play, to be frank).

You end up with boring, high scoring games like 11-6, 10-2, etc depending on
which team's home run hitters got streaky that game. The NHL had a similar
problem in the past where scores were creeping way up and it wasn't uncommon
to see things like 7-3, 6-1 kind of blowouts. Those are exciting if they are
rare occurences but if they are regular it makes the game boring. A 2-1, 3-2
game is far more exciting in hockey. The NHL has made changes to curtail (and
encourage) high scoring games and waffle back and forth on which they think is
better, but its not really clear that baseball can really do the same without
fundamentally changing the game itself or rebuilding stadiums to have a much
larger minimum outfield wall distance.

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sunnyP
Minor league games with a pitch clock[1] move at a faster pace.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_clock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_clock)

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snissn
I have a whacky theory to share - making baseball 6 innings with four outs
instead of 9 innings with 3 outs. It will make the game slightly shorter but
also make the scoring potential a lot higher

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bsder
> I lost interest after that and it was rekindled by watching Japanese
> baseball.

I would recommend hitting up the local minor league baseball team, then.

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AzzieElbab
I've always thought of baseball and American football as two sports designed
to be televised for the amount and length of commercial breaks. Always found
it impossible to watch a full game by myself

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ShadowKitten
So they finally jazzed it up

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King-Aaron
What just happened? Why is the ball on that springy thing?

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ecf
Baseball has a lot more problems than just length of play. Umpires, for
example. A good way to get me to watch again would be to move to an electronic
strike zone.

I have no interest in watching man-children think everyone is there to watch
their show.

[https://youtu.be/s-me7_Y42qQ](https://youtu.be/s-me7_Y42qQ)

