By Doug Upstone from 3Daily Winners
Joe West, I love you man
I’ll check the “Yes” box for what umpire Joe West said about the Yankees and Red Sox games taking WAY too long.
Last season the average game lasted 2:54 minutes and unquestionably television has played a role in games being longer with breaks between half-innings for commercials at 2 minutes, 5 seconds or 2 minutes, 25 seconds for nationally televised games.
The three games played in Boston lasted 3:46, 3:48 and 3:21.
Bud the commish has been trying the last couple of seasons to get umpires to pick up the pace and word has filtered to every MLB team about moving the game along. Two teams that have ignored this edict are the Yankees and Red Sox. Though I have no ill feelings towards either, I’ve read material about both teams choosing to ignore what they are being asked to do. Why, well there can be only one reason, they believe they are above the game.
A 2-1 or 3-1 contest should never take three hours to play but this is common today. Batters have to adjust everything on their person after every pitch. Though managers can only make two trips to the mound, they instead send any of the infielders or catcher to talk to pitcher as soon as anyone is on-base and those conversations typically are 5 to 10 seconds and a normal game has 10 of those, which creates more dead time.
I’ve heard TV and radio types say New York and Boston don’t give away at-bats like other teams. They work the count longer and fight for every pitch in order to win.
Oh I see, than these are the only two teams that care about winning is their logic. Philadelphia, St. Louis, Colorado, the Dodgers, Tampa Bay and the Angels to name a few are all out there for the exercise and lack the same dedication to winning as the two AL East giants. Please!!!!
If you would happen to turn on ESPN Classic and an old baseball game was being shown before 1990, you would be amazed at the pace of the game. The pitcher gets the sign, the batter gets the pitch and if it is a ball or strike, this sequence is immediately repeated again, without the batter ever leaving the box.
If someone is really to be blamed it should be Mike Hargrove, former big league manager and player, who was known as “the human rain delay” for setting the tone for what most players do today, stepping out the box after every pitch.
So if the umpires don’t want to grant the batter’s time or if they hurry out to the mound to break up yet another conference, count me among those in favor. I prefer baseball to any other sport because I’m a student of the game, not just a fan. We lost a whole generation of fans because the game became too dull with all the dead time.
The NFL found a way to speed up their game, even if just slightly and I have no problem with a long game if the score is 8-7 or 10-9.
If you don’t believe this is an issue, than answer this for me, why has baseball enjoyed record attendance the last several years, yet the crown jewel, the World Series, has been hovering around record low levels?
Baseball has become social entertainment, not must see TV, which to me is a condemnation on the sport and steps must be taken to improve the product, which includes having it move along.