Ideas to Reduce the Length of Time in Games

1,796 Views | 23 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by diehard03
irish pete ag06
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Quote:

According to ESPN, the length of average MLB game in 2016 has stretched three hours and 26 seconds.
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/mlb-game-average-length-increase-how-to-fix-051716


I personally don't care how long the games are. I love watching baseball either way and the more baseball the merrier in my opinion, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss ways to shorten the game on here since it's still 7 weeks until opening day.
Nuke LaLoosh
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At what point did games start becoming televised?
astros4545
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If game has a greater than 5 run difference after 5 innings, get rid of commercials

People watching on tv turn the game away anyways
astros4545
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Would love to see time of game correlated to number of pitches thrown per game, number of pitchers used, and runs scored
W
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it's interesting...both MLB and the NFL talk about this a lot...but in the end actually do very little about it. Hesitant to make the major changes necessary
jopatura
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I wouldn't mind seeing AB's being capped at nine pitches. Base goes to the batter afterwards like a walk. What really makes a game drag is when there's one AB that lasts 20 minutes because the batter has foul tipped 10 pitches on a 3-2 count. Then the pitcher is gassed and pulled early because they hit 100 pitches by the sixth inning.
94chem
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AB starts 1 minute after call to pen. How the pitcher chooses to use it is up to him.
94chem
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We used to routinely go to Rangers games that started at 7:30, and get home to Fort Worth for the end of the 10 o'clock news.
jja79
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You're not watching more baseball. You're spending more time to watch the same amount of baseball.
irish pete ag06
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irish pete ag06
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We are watching more pitches.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/7533.html
jupiter
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Major League Baseball plans on testing a rule change in the minor leagues this season that automatically would place a runner on second base to start extra innings, according to Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan.

The rule will also be implemented in the upcoming World Baseball classic next month. Major League baseball could experiment with the rule used in the Gulf Coast League and Arizona League.

http://www.si.com/mlb/2017/02/08/mlb-considering-extra-innings-rule-change-runner-second-base?xid=socialflow_facebook_si
ORAggieFan
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I'm guessing there are more and more pitching changes than their used to be. Speeding that up is key. Or, shorten bullpen so less options.
Corporal Punishment
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irish pete ag06 said:



That's fantastic. I am now a Joey Votto fan. This approach alone would sufficiently shorten the games for me.

I also like the idea of relievers getter zero or maybe, 4 max warm up tosses after they've entered the game.

I'd be interested to see how much time instant replay has added also.
irish pete ag06
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Corporal Punishment said:

irish pete ag06 said:



That's fantastic. I am now a Joey Votto fan. This approach alone would sufficiently shorten the games for me.

I also like the idea of relievers getter zero or maybe, 4 max warm up tosses after they've entered the game.

I'd be interested to see how much time instant replay has added also.
Put an earpiece in the home plate umpires ear that tells him balls and strikes. Now you've got no more arguing balls and strikes which adds time to the game for consultations and ejections.

This earpiece can also communicate replay calls to the umpire as soon as the manager challenges it. It shouldn't take 3 minutes for them to determine out/safe, etc. As soon as a close call happens, the booth should be watching and ruling long before the challenge is initiated.

Don't allow the batter to leave the box unless they are physically forced to by injury or by motion of swinging/bunting/dodging. Reduce the pitch clock to 20 seconds from 25 and issue a ball if the motion is not started by then. If the batter steps out for no reason then leave it live for the pitcher to throw.

That Joey Votta at bat averaged roughly 12 seconds per pitch.
94chem
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From 1960 to 1980, game lengths stayed the same. The from 1980 to 2000, they increased by 24 minutes. Two things changed - cable television and specialization. At least that's what comes to my mind.

Maybe batters are seeing more pitches, but that seems to be only the last 20 years.

I would suggest more in-game advertising (shorter breaks), and speeding up at-bats and pitching changes.
Basketball and Chain
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irish pete ag06 said:



There's literally no reason why this can't be the norm.
ce1994
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The key is all the must scratching, glove adjustments, etc. Get in and play ball.
Quad Dog
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No coach or manager can enter the field of play unless they are challenging a play or changing players.
E
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You shouldnt be allowed to leave the box unless injured or fall out (as in getting thrown chin music and dive out).

Pitchers should be allowed to leave a certain radius of the pitching rubber unless coach comes out or catcher throws a ball too far to reach.
Gramercy Riffs
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Corporal Punishment said:


I also like the idea of relievers getter zero or maybe, 4 max warm up tosses after they've entered the game.
You have to give them something to give them a feel for the mound conditions, so maybe 4. Personally, I don't think 8 adds a whole lot of time to the game. I certainly wouldn't focus on that until a few other things are ironed out first.
Represent830
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94chem said:

From 1960 to 1980, game lengths stayed the same. The from 1980 to 2000, they increased by 24 minutes. Two things changed - cable television and specialization. At least that's what comes to my mind.

Maybe batters are seeing more pitches, but that seems to be only the last 20 years.

I would suggest more in-game advertising (shorter breaks), and speeding up at-bats and pitching changes.

Soccer/futbol has moved to this and its great.
Frok
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Gotta fix the pitching changes. Every manager uses 4 or 5 pitchers every game now.

Commercial breaks were shortened last year with the timer.
jkag89
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IMO the best way reduce the length of games is to get umpires to actually call the strike zone as defined by the rule book. The zone has widen and dropped as called by blue and this means far too many pitches that are called strikes can not be put into with any authority. This does not only lengthen games because hitters are forced to work the count, it makes for little action because a large percentage of ABs end in either Ks or BBs.
diehard03
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Quote:

it makes for little action because a large percentage of ABs end in either Ks or BBs.

I agree with this as a general problem facing baseball. I think they should focus on this rather than the length of games.
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