SPORTS - Baseball's New Rules

"With new rules aimed at speeding up the game, MLB hopes to strike a sweet spot" PBS NewsHour 3/12/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The average length of a baseball game is three hours and two minutes, half an hour longer than in the 1980s, and officials are concerned the game is going on too long.  To speed up the sport, Major League Baseball is experimenting with new rules during spring training, including what happens in between innings and in the batter's box.  Hari Sreenivasan learns more from Mike Pesca of Slate's "The Gist."

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Baseball has always been, famously, a game played with few concerns about time and pacing.  With no time constraints to guide it, play goes on, until someone wins.  Well, spring training has begun and there are new rules this year intended to speed up the game.

Hari Sreenivasan has the story.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Have you been to a baseball game any time in the past few years or even watched one on TV?  The average length is now three hours and two minutes.  That is about a half-hour longer than it was in the early ’80s.

And Major League Baseball is concerned about that.  With exhibition games under way in Arizona and Florida, the league is making some adjustments, including what happens between innings and in the batter’s box.

Mike Pesca joins us now.  He is the host of Slate’s daily news and discussion podcast “The Gist” and a contributor to NPR.

So, first of all, what are the changes that they’re trying to make?

MIKE PESCA, Slate’s “The Gist” podcast:  Well, one of them is just enforcing a rule that’s on the books.  The batter cannot step out of the batter’s box, always has to have a foot there.

And the reason is, if you watch a baseball game — and this is a recent trend — the batters adjust every piece of equipment, even when all they do is stand there and take a pitch.  Somehow, their batting gloves got loose during that.  And one of the things — it’s a few things.  It’s an affectation.  It’s a habit.  Sometimes, it’s trying to get in the head of the pitchers.

But here’s baseball saying, guys, stay in the batter’s box and get ready for the next pitch.  And another thing that they’re doing is, there’s not a clock during the game, but in between innings, it will be two minutes, 25 seconds, or in a nationally televised game, two minutes, 45 seconds between innings.  Things will be timed to that.

So, with 20 seconds remaining, they will start to announce that the batter is entering the box.  And then the pitcher will be ending his warmups before the inning starts.  So when you come back from commercial, the batter will be right there ready to receive the pitch, the pitcher will be ready to go.  This will speed things up a little, they hope.