The average nine-inning game during the MLB postseason is "lasting 3 hours and 31 minutes, which is a good deal short of forever but six minutes longer than last postseason and 17 minutes longer than the one before," according to Erik Brady of USA TODAY. This comes after a regular season in which the average nine-inning game "lasted three hours and five minutes, longest in baseball history." NBC's Bob Costas said, "With so much at stake, the strategic moves are all the more interesting. But in the regular season, pace of play is a real concern" (USA TODAY, 10/24). The AP's Ronald Blum notes the average time of a nine-inning postseason game "hasn't been below three hours" since '90. Attribute the "elongated action -- or inaction -- to mushrooming mound visits along with television commercial time." Dodgers P Clayton Kershaw said, "There's a lot of things that change over the course of the time. And we have a really good bullpen; you can't argue with that. I think the era of baseball we are in is pretty great" (AP, 10/24). MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said, "We try not to talk about pace of play in the postseason for the simple reason that extra mound visit, that extra pitching change or the pitcher taking more time to deliver a pitch -- we don't worry about that in the postseason because everything is so important, so dramatic." However, Manfred said the league is "not satisfied with where we are in terms of what went on in the regular season." He said, "We've had very constructive dialogue with the MLBPA. That dialogue is ongoing and I really do expect that we'll have a set of rule changes for next year that will be helpful for us. A number of topics that I've talked about in the past are sort of on the table ... I think we will have some change that will be helpful on that topic" ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 10/24).
GAP CONTROL: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Diamond & Costa note the Astros-Dodgers World Series matchup that begins tonight introduces a "new paradigm sweeping the sport." Instead of the "vast parity that defined the last decade, there exists a Grand Canyon-sized gap between the top and bottom of the standings." A few teams "accumulated so much talent that they simply overpowered the field, which is weakened by a phenomenon in which many executives view mediocrity as the ultimate failure -- and are willing to suffer ineptitude for a while to achieve greatness." Diamond & Costa: "Welcome to the Age of the Superteam" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/24). In Chicago, Will Leitch writes under the header, "This World Series Could Be The Distraction And Escape America Needs." MLB is about to "have its closeup." The pump is "primed for this World Series" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/24).
