MLB's pace-of-play initiatives could make the '15 season the first time since '04 that the average time of game "won't increase from the preceding season," according to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY. MLB games this season "have been shortened by eight minutes from a year ago ... reducing the average time of a nine-inning game to 2 hours, 54 minutes." Tigers 2B Ian Kinsler said of the effort, "It's definitely helped. The big difference you see is all of the antics being cut out." Nightengale notes MLB "will begin fining players May 1 for any rule violations," and has been "sending out warning citations to players." The Tigers said that they have two or three hitters who "have received at least 10 warnings the first three weeks of the season." Kinsler said, "I've gotten three or four, and I don't even leave the box. I don't know if they're trying to let everybody know it's for real, or what." Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira also received an infraction notice, and he "still has no idea what he did wrong." Teixeira: "I was in the box before the pitcher was even on the mound, so I don't know what that was about." Nightengale notes MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is "delighted with the early results." Manfred said Thursday, "We are down, it's hard to ignore that. The games are shorter." He added, "We're not interested in the letter of the law so much as we are interested in the mind-set of the players in terms of moving games along." But Twins RF Torii Hunter said, "It feels like you have no time to think at the plate. ... Instead of you thinking about hitting the ball and what this pitcher is trying to do, you're thinking about pace of play" (USA TODAY, 4/24).
OLD-TIME TRADITION: SiriusXM Radio and MLB Network’s Chris Russo appeared on CBS’ “Late Show” Thursday night, and host David Letterman said, “Usually I have many things in sports that aggravate me. I really only have one concern now -- the future of baseball. How are we doing with the time of the length of the games?” Russo said, “No matter what they try to do to make baseball quicker and make it sort of 21st Century, they are never going to do it because baseball is a slow, evolving game, and games take a long time.” But Letterman said, “It's not batters stepping in and out of the box, it's not catchers going to the mound. It's like the Academy Awards. Everybody always talks about how long the show is. They don't care. They want the thing to be as long as possible!” Russo replied, “They want to sell the commercials!” Letterman said if Manfred “had any brains or any vision, he would step in right now and say, ‘Sorry, make up the revenue on the warm beer you're selling at the ballpark. We're yanking six commercial spots out of there’” (“Late Show,” CBS, 4/23).
