MLB News With Pitchers

Baseball’s love affair with having a pitcher for practically every inning has made sure that three-hour games are the norm and four-hour contests are hardly news (see nearly every Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees game).

One change that Major League Baseball would like to either impose or negotiate now appears to fit more into the latter category, meaning it won’t happen soon. ESPN reports that loose plans for a 20-second pitch clock – limiting how long pitchers can dally between offerings to the batter – won’t be implemented until at least 2022.

Then it would probably be part of a package of changes that might invigorate a game that saw a decline in attendance last year. The current labor agreement expires after the 2021 season.

Changes being considered include having pitchers face a minimum of three batters – the game has its own one-and-done mentality with relief specialists – and shortening the break between innings by about 10 seconds. The pitch clock is being tested during spring training.

By limiting visits by coaches and managers to the mound, the league managed to shave five minutes off games last year, bringing them to about three hours. But games had gotten five minutes longer the year before, so they’re right back where they were in 2016 and that’s four minutes longer than in 2015. By comparison – and in a time when there were no television commercials and way fewer pitching changes – games averaged one hour and 51 minutes (in 1920).

Baseball likes to boast that it isn’t governed by a clock. It unfolds at its own pace. And that is true. But that can be hastened. Keep the pitcher on the mound, the batter in the box, the manager in the dugout. Have a little pity on kids – the next generation of fans – who can’t stay up all night to see the end of games.

And spare the rest of us so much dead time. We like the game – we just can’t dedicate endless attention to watching relievers, who threw for 10 minutes in the bullpen, walk to the mound, throw eight warmup pitchers, pitch to one batter and depart, only to be replaced by another.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman