Baseball is too slow, so here's how to fix it
Sal Maiorana
@salmaiorana
The average length of a Major League Baseball game is now three hours.
Teams use an average of four pitchers per game, and those changes all take time.
The dramatic rise in strikeouts in recent years is another reason why games take longer.
If only the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York, when it was formulating standard rules for baseball in the mid-1840s, had just held firm on its original plan to limit games to seven innings, perhaps baseball wouldn't be in the time crisis it faces in the 21st century.
Games are too long.
Consider that between 1901 and 1946, the highest average length of time for a game over an entire season was 2 hours, 9 minutes in 1941.
As late as 1977, the average length of time for games over a full season was a quite reasonable 2 hours, 32 minutes. Since then, and at a time when people's attention spans are shorter than ever and baseball has fallen behind several other sports in popularity and interest, games took three hours to play in 2016. That was the average, meaning about half the games were longer.
Commissioner Rob Manfred recognizes the problem, and he's trying to be proactive in finding ways to shave minutes off games.
Well Mr. Commissioner, I have come to the rescue. In keeping with the whole metric of nines that so pleased old Louis F. Wadsworth, who in the 1840s lobbied for nine innings rather than seven to match the nine players on the field, here's my nine-point plan to get baseball back on track.
1. Institute a pitch clock. They have a 20-second clock in the minor leagues, and it's working. There is no reason why a pitch can't be thrown within 13 to 20 seconds when the bases are empty. If the pitcher fails, a ball is awarded to the batter.
2. Batters staying in the box. As part of the pitch clock, the hitters must be required to stay in the box unless a swing causes them to get off balance and come out of the box. In that case, give them a couple seconds to get re-situated, and then get them back in there. If they do not swing, they can't leave the box, and if they still decide to take a stroll to tighten their batting gloves, it's a strike against them.
3. Raise the strike zone. Baseball is currently working on this, and now the umpires have to call it properly. The low, almost un-hittable strike that has permeated the game in recent years is one reason why strikeouts are occurring at absurd levels. Strikeouts take time, and if you raise the strike zone, it stands to reason that more balls will be put in play earlier in the count. Fans want to see the ball in play. A good percentage of those balls in play will result in quicker outs. On the flip side, it would probably lead to more hits and walks, too, which is also fine because there's nothing wrong with more offense.
4. Limit on foul balls. This is the most outside-the-box idea I have, but this alone would help the pace of games improve, probably by several minutes. There's nothing I dislike more than when a batter fouls off pitch after pitch after pitch. There's nothing entertaining about it. It bleeds time, and it drives up pitch counts, which ultimately lead to time-draining pitching changes.
So I propose that once a batter gets to two strikes, three more foul balls and it's a strikeout.
5. Drastically cut catchers' trips to the mound. This is the latest 21st-century-born habit that is beyond annoying. There are games when catchers are trotting out to the mound two times per at-bat, five or six times an inning. I propose that each team gets five timeouts per game to be used for mound visits by catchers and/or position players. Coaches/managers would still get their two visits per inning that would not count as timeouts. If a game goes to extra innings, you get one timeout per inning. Other sports have timeouts, why not baseball?
6. Pick-off throws. This is a subtle change, if not a bit radical. If there are runners on first and second, or second and third, the pitcher can try to pick off only the lead runner. If the bases are loaded, he can try only to pick off the runner at third. In the case of first and third, then he is free to pick off either runner. Now, how would you prevent the base-runners who can't be checked from getting too big a lead? Institute a restriction on how far those runners can lead, say 15 feet.
7. Warm-up pitches for relievers. Cut this from eight to two. I have no idea why they ever settled on eight. The reliever has just spent the last 10 minutes getting warm in the bullpen. Between innings, eight is still fine.
8. Relievers must face at least two batters. Again, another 21st-century analytics drain on our time, relievers who come in to pitch to one batter. No more. He has to pitch to at least two batters. If you don't like that, I'll suggest this: The maximum amount of pitchers you can use in any inning is three, barring injury. The guy who starts the inning, and then two changes. That's my compromise, but I'd fight for the original idea.
9. Eliminate the 40-man September roster. Obviously this would affect only games from Sept. 1 until the end of the regular season, but that's fine. In no other sport do you change the roster limit in the middle of a season. Why play by different rules in September? What the 40-man roster does is give managers almost limitless opportunities to make pitching changes or use pinch-hitters, thus adding minutes to games. It has always been a dumb idiosyncrasy of baseball and the time has come to end it.
My change would be to allow a 30-man September roster. You could call up your five best minor leaguers, and then you have to designate 25 men who are available for the game. Football does it this way, and so does hockey.
I love the game regardless, but baseball needs to change, and if the movers and shakers don't like my ideas, then I challenge them to come up with a better plan.
MAIORANA@Gannett.com