MLB Pitch Clock Is A Big Hit

[Ron Madden]

Since introducing the pitch clock and banning the shift, MLB has seen its number of three-and-a-half-hour regular season games go from 391 in 2021 to seven so far in 2024.

Baseball has gone through some transformative changes over the past few years, and the results of said changes are in.

Automatic runners were introduced in extra innings in 2020, as was the three-batter minimum for pitchers. The next wave of massive rule changes came in 2023, when the league added a pitch clock, limited pickoff attempts, increased the size of bases and placed heavy restrictions on defensive shifts, all after the universal designated hitter arrived in 2022.

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https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fas...s-01j8syf25ytk

[M2]

Since introducing the pitch clock and banning the shift, MLB has seen its number of three-and-a-half-hour regular season games go from 391 in 2021 to seven so far in 2024.

Continue Reading Here
https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fas...s-01j8syf25ytk

Went to a game at Fenway tonight. Well-pitched game from both teams. Ended up 2-1 and running 2:25. Brisk pace, some nice defensive plays, a proper baseball game. Most of the crowd stuck around until the end too instead of leaking out. It was kinda glorious.

[redsfan9988]

Went to a game at Fenway tonight. Well-pitched game from both teams. Ended up 2-1 and running 2:25. Brisk pace, some nice defensive plays, a proper baseball game. Most of the crowd stuck around until the end too instead of leaking out. It was kinda glorious.

There are plenty of dude-bros who hate whoever’s in charge. I’ve got a bit of anarchy in me too if I’m being honest.

But the pitch clock is to baseball what replay review was to football. It’s just objectively a better product in every way imaginable.

I’ll admit I was skeptical. But this has been a welcome change.

[Ron Madden]

MLB average game time drops to 2:36, the lowest since 1984

The average time of a nine-inning major league baseball game dropped to 2 hours, 36 minutes in the second year year of the pitch clock, the lowest since 1984.

The average was down 4 minutes from 2023 and 28 minutes from 2022. It had not been this low since 1984’s 2:35.

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https://apnews.com/article/mlb-pitch...448e38bd6add6b

[HalKing]

I'm just hoping they install some version of the challenge system they've been using in the minors very soon. Nothing like putting something in place to correct all the ball-strike discrepancies would improve the game more in my opinion.

[Ky Fried Redleg]

I was always a fan of three and a half hour games back in the day. Went to a doubleheader at Riverfront about four decades ago. First game went 16 or 18 innings. Nightcap was long one, too. I think from the time I got to the ball orchard until the time I left that night, I had been there for over 10 hours. One of the most glorious days ever. I had no where else to go, no one else to see. I could have lived at the ballpark back then. We are in such a hurry now, aren't we?

I miss the cat and mouse between pitcher and hitter , between pitcher and base runner. I miss the 15 minutes tirades of Earl Weaver, Don Zimmer, and Lou Piniella. Yeah, the games used to last longer, but those few extra minutes(which you really didn't miss) gave baseball it's unique personality that made it America's pastime. Baseball has lost a lot of it's personality in this person's view and, in the view of many observers, is no longer our national pastime. I'd say Facebook/social media has probably replaced baseball as our national pastime. Damn shame.

[M2]

I miss the cat and mouse between pitcher and hitter , between pitcher and base runner. I miss the 15 minutes tirades of Earl Weaver, Don Zimmer, and Lou Piniella. Yeah, the games used to last longer, but those few extra minutes(which you really didn't miss) gave baseball it's unique personality that made it America's pastime. Baseball has lost a lot of it's personality in this person's view and, in the view of many observers, is no longer our national pastime. I'd say Facebook/social media has probably replaced baseball as our national pastime. Damn shame.

Those extra 30 minutes, which are a 21st century development, weren't personality. They were just dreary timewasting. You're talking about back in the day when games ran about as long as they do with the advent of the pitch clock, and the pace of play was stellar. That's back. They're once again playing at Earl Weaver/Whitey Herzog pace. Whether the game has as much personality (and whether openly psychopathic behavior counts as personality) is an open question, but I would submit it's not tied up with games taking longer. Again, games were shorter back in late 20th century. If you went to a longer game, it was longer because there was a lot of stuff happening, not because everyone had to check their messages after every pitch.

There are games which last longer in 2024 too. And if you're at one, there's a lot of stuff happening. I went to Mariners-Red Sox game in July where the teams combined for 10 doubles, 5 HR and 21 runs (worst game of Logan Gilbert's life) and they wrapped it up in 2:47. Holy hell was that great. I caught a 12-inning Rays-Red Sox game in May that ran 3:12. It was a blast. Lots of stuff happening (including a bunch of boneheaded plays). In the 2000s and 2010s, 3:12 was your standard Sox game. And you spent something like 1/4 of that time waiting for them to do something.

[TRF]

MLB average game time drops to 2:36, the lowest since 1984
Continue Reading Here
https://apnews.com/article/mlb-pitch...448e38bd6add6b

I was always a fan of three and a half hour games back in the day. Went to a doubleheader at Riverfront about four decades ago. First game went 16 or 18 innings. Nightcap was long one, too. I think from the time I got to the ball orchard until the time I left that night, I had been there for over 10 hours. One of the most glorious days ever. I had no where else to go, no one else to see. I could have lived at the ballpark back then. We are in such a hurry now, aren't we?

I miss the cat and mouse between pitcher and hitter , between pitcher and base runner. I miss the 15 minutes tirades of Earl Weaver, Don Zimmer, and Lou Piniella. Yeah, the games used to last longer, but those few extra minutes(which you really didn't miss) gave baseball it's unique personality that made it America's pastime. Baseball has lost a lot of it's personality in this person's view and, in the view of many observers, is no longer our national pastime. I'd say Facebook/social media has probably replaced baseball as our national pastime. Damn shame.

It's funny, the thing you remember wasn't really a thing then. You've taken the extreme, a multi-inning extra-inning game coupled with a doubleheader to show how things were, when they just weren't. 40 years ago, teams still had 4 man rotations. The starters had complete games. Like a lot of complete games. 12 pitchers in 1984 had 11 or more complete games. the 10th most IP that year was Joe Niekro at 248 who had 107 career CGs. Games were faster then. The cat and mouse you think you remember, wasn't there. That was the late 90's through the pitch clock era.

This brand of baseball today resembles 1984 in that the extra time of 2-4 RPs in a single inning, warming up to face 1 guy then exiting is gone. Sure we get relivers in the inning still, but a lot of the time, if the SP goes six, he's done. And it takes the same amount of time to get a new pitcher ready for the 7th as it would to keep the starter there.

I prefer today's game over the game from 2019. Miles better.

[KYExtemper]

I don't miss the Yankees and Red Sox playing a Sunday night game at 7:30 or something and ending at 1 a.m. or something absurd.

Pitch clock has been a godsend for baseball. I give Manfred a lot of hate but not on this one.

[Reds Freak]

Time of game probably matters more for the casual fans than the diehards like us posting on a baseball message board.

I could sit in a ballpark and watch baseball for eight hours a day if I could but I imagine the sweet spot is about 2.5 hours for most folks.

The major difference for me though is the pace, not just how long the game lasts. The games in the years right before the pitch clock became really hard to watch at much length with all the idleness, the step outs, the step offs, the walking around the mound after each pitch, etc.

[Roy Tucker]

Pitch clock is doing it for me. The batter stepping out multiple times and pitchers stepping off the rubber and then doing a whole big long reset I just don’t miss.

Followed closely by staring down hitters and throwing over to first 5-7 times just wasn’t what I go to baseball games to see.

[Ky Fried Redleg]

I liked when there was a real possibility for a game to last 18 or 21 innings. Ghost runner to start the tenth inning is the worst thing in the history of modern civilization. It's purpose , of course, is to end games sooner . I don't like the idea of clocks in baseball, including pitch clocks, or batter clocks. I didn't mind watching Richie Hebner tug at the back of the neck of his uniform 20 times before he got ready to hit. I didn't mind, in fact I enjoyed, watching Al Hyrabosky make his pilgrimage to behind the mound to meditate for twenty seconds before staring down the batter for 10 seconds before finally delivering a pitch. I didn't mind Mark The Bird Fidrych doodling in the dirt for a half minute before ascending the mound to talk to the ball for 15 seconds before delivering a pitch. Where else would I want to be for 4 hours than at the ballpark? 1 hr, 48 minutes??? Hell no, I would have felt like asking for half of my $3 ticket price(Top Sixer in the early 70's) back.

I heard Brennaman(the old man) say recently that the Reds asked him to stay on for five more years. He told them hell no. He said the changes in the game was a key factor in accelerating his voluntary departure from baseball. Too much emphasis on analytics. Game not played the way it's supposed to be played, according to the Hall of Famer. Maybe I have morphed into a crusty old "Get off my lawn" curmudgeon like Marty but it's just not the game that I fell in love with as a 8 y.o. kid. I don't begrudge anyone for loving 21st century baseball. If you like it, I say good for you. Maybe there will come a day when MLB will opt to load the bases in the ninth inning of tied games in order facilitate a quicker end to games. Maybe we'll see that sub-one hour game someday. Maybe then you will feel like I do. What in the hell have we done to our once great national pastime?

[Ron Madden]

I liked when there was a real possibility for a game to last 18 or 21 innings. Ghost runner to start the tenth inning is the worst thing in the history of modern civilization. It's purpose , of course, is to end games sooner . I don't like the idea of clocks in baseball, including pitch clocks, or batter clocks. I didn't mind watching Richie Hebner tug at the back of the neck of his uniform 20 times before he got ready to hit. I didn't mind, in fact I enjoyed, watching Al Hyrabosky make his pilgrimage to behind the mound to meditate for twenty seconds before staring down the batter for 10 seconds before finally delivering a pitch. I didn't mind Mark The Bird Fidrych doodling in the dirt for a half minute before ascending the mound to talk to the ball for 15 seconds before delivering a pitch. Where else would I want to be for 4 hours than at the ballpark? 1 hr, 48 minutes??? Hell no, I would have felt like asking for half of my $3 ticket price(Top Sixer in the early 70's) back.

I heard Brennaman(the old man) say recently that the Reds asked him to stay on for five more years. He told them hell no. He said the changes in the game was a key factor in accelerating his voluntary departure from baseball. Too much emphasis on analytics. Game not played the way it's supposed to be played, according to the Hall of Famer. Maybe I have morphed into a crusty old "Get off my lawn" curmudgeon like Marty but it's just not the game that I fell in love with as a 8 y.o. kid. I don't begrudge anyone for loving 21st century baseball. If you like it, I say good for you. Maybe there will come a day when MLB will opt to load the bases in the ninth inning of tied games in order facilitate a quicker end to games. Maybe we'll see that sub-one hour game someday. Maybe then you will feel like I do. What in the hell have we done to our once great national pastime?

You have told us many times that you haven't watched a baseball game or checked the baseball standings in decades.

That's long before any of these rule changes.

[Ky Fried Redleg]

You have told us many times that you haven't watched a baseball game or checked the baseball standings in decades.

That's long before any of these rule changes.

If you can find the post where I said I haven't watched a baseball game or checked standings in decades, I will correct myself because that's not true. I actually checked standings a few times this season. I did say that I haven't paid to attend a game in person for decades. I doubt that will change anytime soon. I have watched a few Reds games on internet or TV in the recent past and listened to Thrall and Brantley for parts of games throughout the season. I learn most of what I need to know about today's baseball from the game thread and from guys like Lebowski, who seems to know more than Reds' brass about which guys really suck and should be cut. I'm there for most games. It's fertile soil for learning about baseball and about people. I love the diverse views and opinions shared there. Just because I don't watch a lot of baseball now doesn't mean I don't have a pretty good knowledge how the game works today. It's just not as important to me as it was decades ago.

I think I'll go to bed tonight and ponder the question of which came first---did I leave baseball or did baseball leave me? Maybe we just grew apart. Irreconcilable differences, so to speak. Enjoy the rest of the exciting playoff season. I'll check in on the playoff game thread to see who's winning. I can remember when the playoffs were in the afternoon and I would run home from school as fast as I could, so as not to miss much of the early innings of a Reds playoff game. And now, fifty years later, I will probably not watch very much, if any, of playoff baseball. Don't think that I haven't any envy of those who are still in love with the game like I used to be. To me , baseball is like my ex-gf. I miss the time when I was still in love with her but I sure as hell don't miss her. She's just not the same girl I fell in love with. I think Marty and Joe, would agree with me about baseball today. And so it goes...

[M2]

I didn't mind watching Richie Hebner tug at the back of the neck of his uniform 20 times before he got ready to hit. I didn't mind, in fact I enjoyed, watching Al Hyrabosky make his pilgrimage to behind the mound to meditate for twenty seconds before staring down the batter for 10 seconds before finally delivering a pitch. I didn't mind Mark The Bird Fidrych doodling in the dirt for a half minute before ascending the mound to talk to the ball for 15 seconds before delivering a pitch.

All of that stuff happened at a time when games ran even quicker than they do with the pitch clock. The stuff you're recalling didn't chew up as much time as you remember it taking. For instance, Fidrych worked fast. Sometimes he'd throw in something wacky, but most of the time he was a bulldog. The game moved at a faster pace back then. They didn't need a pitch clock because pitchers were drilled in working fast and keeping their fielders alert. What perhaps made those occasional interludes so memorable is that they were notable exceptions to the rule. And if probably all feels like it took longer in the rearview because everything else was happening at a brisk pace.

The pitching clock is just restoring normal order. There's still plenty of time to tug at your shirt, stare down a hitter or whisper to the baseball.