Major League Baseball’s (MLB) campaign to speed up its games in the hope of winning over more young fans has shown some signs of success in the first month of the new season.
Before the season began, new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he wanted to reduce the amount of dead time during games without compromising the integrity of the game.
However, he conceded that he was probably being overambitious in his goal of cutting the average running time of big-league games to less than 3 hours, or two minutes lower than last year.
To his pleasant surprise, the average game so far in the new season has lasted 2 hours, 53 minutes, seven minutes less than at this time last year and nine minutes shorter than during the full season last year.
“Everybody’s been really pleased with the results so far,” said Chris Marinak, the MLB senior vice president overseeing the program. “People who watch the games on a regular basis say they just feel crisper.”
The length of baseball games has creeped higher for years, worrying executives who hear the grumbling. Thirty years ago, the average time of a game was 2 hours, 35 minutes.
The average time of game shot up 5.4 minutes last season from a year earlier, largely because of expanded use of video replay.
To cut the time between innings, Manfred instituted several clocks, one in the outfield and one behind home plate, to ensure that players are ready to play.
The timers count down from 2:25 for locally televised games and from 2:45 for nationally televised games. Pitchers no longer take any warmup pitches with 30 seconds left on the clock, and hitters are “encouraged” to get into the batter’s box with 20 seconds left on the timer, MLB said.
Hitters can no longer leave the batter’s box during their turns at bat to take practice swings or adjust their helmets.
Also, managers cannot leave the dugout to request a video review. During the first year of replays, managers would typically confront an umpire first and then request the review.
Manfred’s up-tempo mandate is seen as a way to cultivate a new generation of fans at a time when many Americans have strayed from the game.
On average, baseball’s fans are the oldest of the four major US sports. Television audiences for last year’s World Series had a record-high median age of 55.6, compared with 43.7 for that year’s Super Bowl, according to Sports Media Watch.
Baseball audiences are much smaller, as well. Last season MLB’s top regular season game had just 2.9 million television viewers, while the least-watched National Football League game had 4.9 million.
Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was among the players who initially complained that the new rules would disrupt their rhythm at the plate.
However, Marinak said Ortiz, known for his penchant to stroll out of the batter’s box between pitches, has not been cited once this season for leaving the batter’s box.
Ortiz, who has four homers this season, but a tepid .240 batting average, has been quiet on the issue.
“He’s known for his routine, but he’s made a quick adjustment,” Marinak said.
“I don’t see any issue with the rules,” said Washington Nationals manager Matt Williams, who played in the majors for 17 years. “I’m not even sure we even notice the clock. We don’t let it rent space in our brain. We just play the game.”
For the first month of the season, violators of the new rules have been getting a warning from MLB with a video link showing their transgressions. MLB has not revealed the number of warnings issued.
Fines could ultimately be an option for flagrant or repeated violations.
Players and managers have generally been agreeable with the up-tempo mandate, so far.
“I haven’t heard anyone complain,” said St Louis Cardinals infielder Kolten Wong, who has not yet received a warning. “They’re trying to make the games go quicker, and it seems to be working, so they’re going in the right direction.”
Marinak said the networks, and the game’s bottom line, have not suffered as a result of the hurry-up mandate between innings, adding that the new rules merely clean up the dead time once a broadcaster comes back from a commercial.
ESPN senior producer Phil Orlins said that no advertising has been lost and said the quicker game is a plus.
“A crisply played game that has the same amount of action in a little less period of time is a good thing,” he said.
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