QUOTE
Major League Baseball is trying to cut seven minutes off the average time it takes to complete a regular season game without disrupting the game's rythym. Mel Antonen reported in Thursday's edition of USA Today that MLB is having teams and umpires watch a 20-minute video that shows ways to quicken the pace of play.
\"Baseball likely will begin experimenting on those steps -- including making batters stay in the box and limiting time between pitches to 12 seconds -- in Spring Training games in the next week to 10 days with the intent of implementing them this season,\" Antonen wrote. \"'We want to take out the dead time, the significant gaps of time where there is no action,' says Sandy Alderson, vice president of baseball operations.\"
The average time of a nine-inning game has dropped from three hours to 2 hours, 52 minutes in the American League, and fallen from 2:55 to 2:52 in the National League, since 2000. The video being shown to players and umpires says commercial time between innings is part of the reason for longer games -- the average nine-inning game took 2:33 in 1981.
Antonen reported that MLB plans to take the following action this season:
Enforce the time of 2 minutes, 5 seconds between innings, with the home-plate umpire alerting the next inning's leadoff batter when 25 seconds remain.
Enforce the rule that says a batter cannot leave the batter's box during an at-bat. If a batter refuses to take his position, the rule states, the pitcher may pitch, and the pitch is an automatic strike.
A pitcher has 12 seconds to deliver a pitch with the bases empty, eight seconds shorter than before.
On a second trip to the mound in an inning or with the same pitcher on the mound, which makes a pitching change mandatory, umpires will approach the manager at the foul line if the manager hasn't indicated he's decided on a new pitcher.
\"Among the video's examples of slow play are Boston's Manny Ramirez, constantly stepping out of the batter's box, taking 44 seconds to take three pitches ...\" Antonen wrote. \"Texas' Kenny Rogers took 43 seconds for a three-pitch sequence; Boston's John Burkett took 24. A hundred pitches at Rogers' pace, as compared to Burkett's, could add 15 minutes, 40 seconds to a game.\"
Average time of the game in '81 was 2:33?!?! They've added 1:20 in 20 years? That's bullshit--no wonder people call baseball slow and boring.\"Baseball likely will begin experimenting on those steps -- including making batters stay in the box and limiting time between pitches to 12 seconds -- in Spring Training games in the next week to 10 days with the intent of implementing them this season,\" Antonen wrote. \"'We want to take out the dead time, the significant gaps of time where there is no action,' says Sandy Alderson, vice president of baseball operations.\"
The average time of a nine-inning game has dropped from three hours to 2 hours, 52 minutes in the American League, and fallen from 2:55 to 2:52 in the National League, since 2000. The video being shown to players and umpires says commercial time between innings is part of the reason for longer games -- the average nine-inning game took 2:33 in 1981.
Antonen reported that MLB plans to take the following action this season:
Enforce the time of 2 minutes, 5 seconds between innings, with the home-plate umpire alerting the next inning's leadoff batter when 25 seconds remain.
Enforce the rule that says a batter cannot leave the batter's box during an at-bat. If a batter refuses to take his position, the rule states, the pitcher may pitch, and the pitch is an automatic strike.
A pitcher has 12 seconds to deliver a pitch with the bases empty, eight seconds shorter than before.
On a second trip to the mound in an inning or with the same pitcher on the mound, which makes a pitching change mandatory, umpires will approach the manager at the foul line if the manager hasn't indicated he's decided on a new pitcher.
\"Among the video's examples of slow play are Boston's Manny Ramirez, constantly stepping out of the batter's box, taking 44 seconds to take three pitches ...\" Antonen wrote. \"Texas' Kenny Rogers took 43 seconds for a three-pitch sequence; Boston's John Burkett took 24. A hundred pitches at Rogers' pace, as compared to Burkett's, could add 15 minutes, 40 seconds to a game.\"
They need to enforce the rules. Without fail. It'll be nice for the fans and the play will be better too as the players I'm sure will stay more involved. Of course, my boy, Jim Thome, will be impacted in a big way as he's inhereted Mike Hargrove's title of Human Rain Delay. After almost every pitch it's: adjust The Anaconda, tug at one batting glove, tug at the other, shrug shoulders, a few test swings, step in, claw at the dirt, swing the bat around a few times and THEN be ready. Poor Thome.......
[ March 06, 2003, 12:57 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]