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Speed up America’s favorite pastime

4 min read

A baseball game could hardly be more crucial than the Oct. 13, 1960, World Series battle between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees.

The word “legendary” is used too frequently to describe people and events that aren’t, but this game lives up to the designation, and sports fans in this region are well-acquainted with the particulars of it. The seventh game in the series, it ended with the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski slugging a home run over the left field wall of Forbes Field in the bottom of the ninth inning, ending a tense standoff that had the score seesawing back and forth between the Pirates and the Yankees over the course of that autumn afternoon. The Pirates, considered underdogs against a Yankees squad that had won 10 of the last 20 World Series, bested the Bronx Bombers.

In a game where every pitch counted and every swing of the bat was critical, it only took two hours and 36 minutes for the game to be transacted.

In recent times, a Major League Baseball game unfolding that quickly is hard to fathom. Even if you tune in to a game in September between two teams that both fell out of contention a couple of weeks after Opening Day, it will frequently transpire at a pace one would associate with the crowning of a monarch. Batters fidget, adjusting their gloves and fiddling with their helmets. Pitchers are plucked from the bullpen to throw a single pitch, then yanked for another pitcher, who has to warm up. The game grinds to a halt. Once the pitcher is limber, he will face a batter who will fidget, adjusting his gloves and fiddling with his helmet …

Given most games now have a running time equaling that of “Ben Hur” or “Gone With the Wind,” October becomes a season of sleep deprivation for baseball aficionados, as playoff and World Series games run deep into the night, well past the bedtime for most of us in the Eastern time zone.

The powers that oversee the game are increasingly concerned its pace is repelling potential fans, particularly young ones, when remote controls and smartphones have whittled away at attention spans and other, faster-paced distractions abound. To that end, Major League Baseball announced a selection of changes in game rules it hopes will put a little more spring in the step of the Boys of Summer.

In the coming season, team managers are being asked to stay in their dugouts when they challenge an umpire’s call and requesting a video replay – something that has only been added to the game in the last couple of years. Hitters are also being asked to keep at least one foot in the batter’s box when they are at the plate, which will do away with some of the dilatory practices they adopted, which are designed to either psych themselves up or psych out the pitcher they are facing. Baseball also hopes play will resume within two minutes or so after a pitching change or a commercial break.

Clint Hurdle, the Pirates’ manager, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he is OK with the changes: “We’re all for keeping the game interesting and keeping it the game it needs to be as well. I think that’s in everybody’s best interest moving forward.”

Part of baseball’s mystique is it is perfect to watch on warm summer nights or languid afternoons, and it’s not governed by a clock, unlike basketball, hockey, soccer or football. But the frequently sluggish velocity of games is not helping Major League Baseball replenish its fan base. Speeding it up will not only benefit its current followers, but help ensure it will find new ones.

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