May 16, 2015 5 min read

The message is clear for players in the Frontier League.

Speed it up.

The league issued a “Pace of Play Rules” mandate earlier this week aimed at eliminating unnecessary delays between pitches and innings with the ultimate goal of reducing game times.

The new rules were used in the Wild Things’ season opener Friday night against Schaumburg and most fans in attendance probably didn’t notice because many of the changes are subtile.

Some pace-of-play rules are simply stricter enforcement by umpires of current rules, but one is a significant change that will impact many extra-inning games and is sure to irritate some “old-school” baseball fans.

The Frontier League will utilize the international tiebreaker currently used in the independent Can-Am League along with the Arizona Fall League and World Baseball Classic. It is similar to the tiebreaker used in high school and professional softball. When a game reaches the top of the 11th, each half-inning will begin with a runner on second base and no outs.

The tiebreaker is designed to make it easier for teams to score, thus preventing games from turning into marathons that deplete bullpens. That’s not always the way it pans out, however, as fans of the Pennsylvania Rebellion found out last year when one of their National Pro Fastpitch games at Consol Energy Park lasted 17 innings, including eight played under tiebreaker rules.

“The biggest reason (for the tiebreaker) is, unlike Major League Baseball or affiliated baseball, we do not have a farm system. If we have a game go 18 innings, we don’t have the ability to call up a guy from a different level to bolster the bullpen to give you an extra body to play the next night,” Frontier League deputy commissioner Steve Tahsler told Schaumburg broadcaster Tim Calderwood during an interview Thursday night.

The international tiebreaker was used last year by the independent Can-Am League and the Arizona Fall League, the latter featuring many of Major League Baseball’s top prospects. In addition to the Frontier League, the independent American Association and Atlantic League are using the tiebreaker for the first time this season.

“We are fortunate to have former Frontier League managers – guys who have spent significant time in the Frontier League and are coaches in the American Association, Can-Am League and Atlantic League – and on the tiebreaker rule they all admitted that they were skeptical at first,” Tahsler said. “But after they saw it in play, how it saved the bullpen, how it helped save the pitching arms and how it prevented injuries by not taking a guy who was used to throwing 20 pitches in one inning then all of sudden throws four innings because you’re in the 18th inning of a ballgame, the reports we got back were very positive.”

Not everybody in the Frontier League likes the tiebreaker. Washington manager Bob Bozzuto and Schaumburg manager Jamie Bennett each gave it a thumbs-down rating.

“We played long games in recent years at Windy City (19 innings in 2013) and Southern Illinois (17 innings in 2011) and that’s just baseball,” Bozzuto said. “Let’s play and earn a win. Now, it becomes bunt the runner over and try to drive him in. I’m not really into that. I prefer straight baseball, but I understand why they’re doing it.”

Bennett is a former pitcher in the Frontier League, but even he prefers a good battle of the bullpens instead of the new tiebreaker.

“I hate the rule, but I understand the reasoning for it,” he said. “They have been playing baseball with the same rules for more than 100 years, so I don’t see a need to change. Those 15-inning games – yes, they wear down your bullpen, but they’re fun to play. It becomes a battle to see which pitching staff goes deeper.”

Some of the other pace-of-play rules are:

• The time between innings is limited to 2:05, which is 20 seconds shorter than in affiliated ball. If a promotion goes too long, the home team should be levied a $25 fine. If a pitcher is not ready in 2:05, he and his manager can be fined $25.

• The pitcher should deliver the pitch within 20 seconds of receiving the ball, if no runners are on base. The batter must be ready within 15 seconds. There will not be automatic balls or strikes enforced for violating these rules, unlike in college baseball and Class AA and AAA games.

“What we stressed to managers and umpires is this is not going to be a drastic change,” Tahsler said. “All we’re doing is casually enforcing the existing rules. … Umpires will casually be reminding batters, ‘Hey, get in the batter’s box.’ … If there is a violation, then it’s first going to be a warning.”

The Frontier League tracked times of its nine-inning games over the last three years. Last season, they averaged 2:51 leaguewide with Washington playing the fastest home games, averaging 2:44. The Wild Things’ home-game average of 2:42 over the last three seasons was the second-fastest, behind only Traverse City’s 2:41. The longest games were played at River City, averaging 3:08 last year and 3:02 for the three-year period.