Speeding Up Baseball Games ?

First off --
I thank god baseball goes to it's bank of commercials -- in between innings !
( for the most part )
Unlike the NFL - which will go to 6 truck commercials, in 6 minutes +
we end up seeing three live football plays and 5 replays - in that span !
( I have stopped watching "live" NFL games on TV --- I DVR my team + watch
after the recording has started + skip ALL COMMERCIALS !...it's beautiful !!!..try it ! )
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My #1..........Speed up the game ?
--- continue to to stop these batters from "stepping out" of the box after EVERY pitch.
It has been working.....but lately, I have witnessed this sliding backwards.
I'm seeing more hitters once again...stepping aside ( not out of the box ) + doing
their adjustments + pretending to look at 3rd base coach for a sign.
The guy is a millionaire power hitter + he's checking in with 3rd base for a sign ?
( Touch hat, touch crotch, pick nose = "your check is in the clubhouse, swing away" ! )
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My father mentioned this --
"bullpen pitcher warms up......walks out to the mound......and why give him another 8 pitches ?
He's suppose to be warmed up, right ?....he throws one batter + the next pitcher gets another 8 ?
( and "no" = having a relief pitcher with a "pitch or batter count" rule is completely silly !
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my 2 cents

 

OK...you really want to speed up baseball?
Here are my two suggestions:

1. After the first pitch to any batter, allow no more than 10 seconds between pitches. If the batter is not ready & in the box, it's an automatic strike after 10 seconds. If the batter is there but the pitch hasn't happened yet, it's an automatic ball... yes, this would require an automated, audible alarm. Only calling for, and receiving an 'ok' for time-out would stop the timer.

2. Discontinue the 7th inning stretch songs.

 

Get rid of reviews

 

Don't get rid of the review get rid of the manager going to the top step and looking over his shoulder while someone else is looking at a replay in the dugout. If the manager cant make up his mind then too bad give them 5-10 seconds after a call to decide and move on.

 

3 strikes and you're out.
3 balls for a walk
More offense!

 

I'm a season ticket holder for an MLB team. I think it's disingenuous for baseball to try and speed up the game, only to offer (effectively) unlimited challenges by allowing managers to politely request them. It should be that if you lose your challenge, you're out of 'em for the rest of the game.

 

"On August 15, 2013, Major League Baseball announced that it will expand its video review process for the 2014 season, granting managers one challenge over the first six innings of games and two from the seventh inning until the end of the game."

 

bd... I thought that they were only allowed 1 challenge in the first 6 innings and one in the last 3.
I like 'review' challenge being available.
I actually wish they would use the TV strike-box to determine balls & strikes & send a signal to the home-plate umpire as to what the pitch was...then he calls it.
He would still be necessary for other decisions, like hit batters, checked swings, calls at the plate, foul bunts, etc... but we already have the technology to electronically call balls & strikes with 100% accuracy...why not use it?

 

When I was a kid we used to ride the el to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs-you could buy a non-reserved kid ticket back then and sit anywhere. I always kept score and my one good memory is that a game usually lasted about two hours and fifteen minutes or less, unless it was like 16-9, which happened sometimes if the wind was blowing out.

I can't figure out exactly how may things are so different as to make the games so long now. I can't watch a whole baseball game any more, and I don't. Used to have season tickets but gave them up. Too slow, too expensive.

I absolutely cannot stand watching these fools step out of the box and adjust their gloves on every pitch. Jeez. I thought it was now against the rules to do that.....

 

GPS technology could call balls and strikes, fair or foul, HR or off the wall, etc (it could do the same in the NFL for first downs and touchdowns, too).

That being said, the only time savings would be in avoiding reviews and arguments, and those don't happen every game. Limiting relief pitcher warm ups and speeding up the act of replacement balls after fouls and the batter stepping out is about all you can really do.

In a way, defensive shifts have sped up baseball games by recording more outs. Eventually when batters learn to go the other way (or drop a bunt) the pendulum will begin to swing the other way.

 

I believe that is the biggest reason. ESPN rarely shows old baseball anymore, but check out a game on YouTube... the pitchers get the ball and they are already on the rubber looking in for the sign. Watch the Yankees / Tigers game from '76 with Fidrych pitching.

Another reason are the guys who don't move off of the on-deck circle until their "at bat music" begins. Yet another is that for every ball that hits the dirt (especially on a curve ball or foul ball) the ball is thrown out of play. The ump throws a new ball to the pitcher, who takes it off the mound and rubs it up. Another delay that happens multiple times per game.

Though there are more pitching changes than years ago, relatively few are in the middle of an inning. But its the routine delays by the pitcher and batter that happen after seemingly every pitch... that's what needs to go away.