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Leagues and Governing Bodies

MLB's Ongoing Pace Of Play Issue May Be Due To A Decrease In Action During Games

The average nine-inning MLB game this season is 3 hours and 4 minutes, up 4 minutes from last year and 14 minutes from '10, but the league's worry is "less the length of games than that the length has increased as action ... has decreased," according to syndicated columnist George Will. More than 30% of at-bats this year are "ending with walks or strikeouts." MLB's problems are "related to its players being ever-stronger and increasingly using what baseball people call 'analytics,'" resulting in today's "all-or-nothing -- strike out or home run -- baseball." When games should "become more exciting, in the late innings, they plod as high-velocity relief pitchers ... strike out batters who know that a home run is a more likely route to a score than getting three consecutive hits off flamethrowers." MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that fans in the ballpark "tolerate the sluggish pace of play; they can check the scoreboard, get a beer, chat." But broadcast audiences are "dwindling: Even self-described 'avid' fans watch an average of only 50 minutes, then drift away." MLB's worsening pace of play "will not attract generations shaped by ubiquitous entertainments" (Mult., 6/24). In Boston, Dan Shaughnessy wrote there are "so many things wrong with major league baseball it’s hard to know where to start." It has "become a game of walks, strikeouts, and homers." The Red Sox, whose Chair Tom Werner is a member of MLB’s Competition Committee to address the pace of games, "play some of the longest games in the majors." Meanwhile, NESN "crams as many commercials as possible between innings and the Red Sox’ modus operandi of grinding out at-bats adds to the interminable length of games." Shaughnessy: "A lot of the games this year have been unwatchable and insulting to folks who love the game" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/25).

BOSTON UNCOMMON: In Boston, Nick Cafardo cited a source saying that Red Sox players have "received their share of warning letters and fines for stepping out of the batter’s box." The league "has not been looking the other way on this matter." However, the problem is fines are "likely not enough to deter the action" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/25). In Florida, Doug Fernandes writes, "As a nearly 50-year watcher of baseball, I can say without hesitation that my lawn sprouted two inches in the time it took the Red Sox to start and finish a recent game." Multiple pitcher-catcher meetings, batters who "dither at the plate, pitchers hesitant to perform the one task they’re charged with, replay challenges that drag, are just several of Manfred’s concerns." Even with the institution of the "no-pitch rule on intentional walks, the 30-second limit in issuing challenges and two-minute limit on replays, games this season are averaging more than three hours" (Sarasota HERALD-TRIBUNE, 6/26).

TRIM THE FAT: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jason Gay wonders if baseball is "dead again," as the sport "can't win in go-go times like these." Baseball should "immediately shrink from 162 to its former 154" games in a season. Gay: "My favorite idea I've heard out there in the baseball universe is something I've endorsed here before: Seven inning games on weeknights" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/26).

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