Time is of the Essence: Shortening MLB Games

5:46. Any guesses as to the significance of that number? No, it’s not that it’s the travel time of a flight from LAX to JFK. And it’s also not a reference to an inspirational bible verse. Five hours and 46 minutes is the amount of time it took the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies to play a simple game of baseball Tuesday night. Granted the game went to 14 innings, there really is not an excuse for a game taking longer than it takes Prince Fielder to squeeze into his pants each morning.

Tuesday night featured three extra innings games. All three of them took over four hours to complete (TEX/NYY- 4:51, OAK/HOU- 4:09 being the other two). Obviously extra innings games inherently will take longer than the usual nine inning game, but just take a moment to observe the overwhelming length of those games. I love baseball as much as anyone, but I simply can’t justify devoting four straight hours to sitting in an uncomfortable chair to watch a game. There’s got to be a way to at least increase the speed of a game by 20-30 minutes on average. Right?

Time is of the Essence: Shortening MLB Games

Consider this, in Tuesday night’s contest between the Giants and Phillies, the average inning took nearly 25 minutes to complete (346 minutes divided by 14 innings). Plain and simply put, it should not take 25 minutes for the two teams to record a combined six outs. If that number were cut down even a tad to 20 minutes per inning, still a maddening amount of time, the game would have been a much more manageable four hours and 40 minutes; as opposed to the nearly six hours the game lasted. All of this eludes to the fact that the average MLB game lasts more than 20 minutes longer now than back in the 1970’s.

Baseball has seen a sharp increase in game time over the years. Whether that be due to television, or just simply the fact that pitchers and batters are taking too long, the problem needs to be fixed. After all, there are few things less American than a lack of efficiency. American’s love saving time. We love the idea of getting a lot of stuff done in a very short amount of time. So why shouldn’t our country’s pastime be played the same way? The simple answer is, it should.

This issue was first brought to national attention back in 2010, when umpire Joe West somewhat-famously blasted the Red Sox and Yankees for churning out a grueling four hour contest. West was right, a nine inning baseball game should never take that long. But what exactly is causing this sharp rise in game time?

I decided to do a little bit of research on this subject; starting with the basic rules of the amount of time the hitter and pitcher have in between pitches. With the help of my invaluable friend, Google,  I found what I was searching for with ease. Apparently, so long as the batter has one foot in the box, or calls a timeout with the umpire, there is technically no precise time limit for him to step back in the box and ready himself for the next pitch. In the official rulebook, words like “promptly”, “interpretation” and “momentarily” are used to describe the amount of time batters are awarded between pitches and in specific situations. Momentarily? Are you kidding me? That’s the kind of response I expect to get when I’m put on hold with United Airlines.

Furthermore, pitchers are given ample amounts of time to get into their set position or windup. When there are no runners on base, pitchers get 12 seconds upon receiving the ball to deliver a pitch. Ok, seems reasonable enough I guess; although I’d personally cut that number down to 8-10 seconds. But wait, what happens when a runner reaches base? Suddenly that 12 seconds balloons to… no time limit? In fact, there is not even a rule addressing that situation. Rule 8.04 applies to situations involving no base runners, but there is no such rule with base runners. That’s like telling someone they need to complete their assignment by the deadline unless the assignment becomes important. It doesn’t make sense. That’s where the problem is.

The argument that it is replay’s fault for further delaying the game is egregious. This issue began before baseball was even seriously considering instant replay. The only thing slowing play is the pitcher pacing around the mound and the batter readjusting his gloves and looking at his bat like it’s trying to talk to him between pitches.

But this isn’t all on the players; the umpires are at fault too for letting this all unfold right before their eyes and not taking action to speed up play.  If Joe West wants to see faster games, he’s one of the only guys in America who has the ability to fix it. Most would probably agree with him, that a crisp, two hour and 45 minute game is much preferred to four hours of stalling.

All things considered, the increase in game time hasn’t harmed baseball’s attendance or reputation. In fact, attendance and TV ratings are doing phenomenally. So from a money standpoint, there isn’t an incentive to fix anything, so I wouldn’t expect any serious action to be taken anytime soon. After all, the only thing more American than efficiency, is capitalism.

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