I read an interesting article the other day about baseball's pace of play "problem" that Commissioner Rob Manfred has been obsessed with ever since taking office. We've already seen some of Manfred's pace of play initiatives put into place this season, and we're likely going to see more next year. He just can't get over the fact that people consider baseball to be "too slow." The fact that the people who make those complaints don't identify as baseball fans doesn't seem to be relevant to him, either.
It reminded me of something I saw a month or two ago about McDonald's. After years of having "healthy" options on its menu, McDonald's has decided to drop them and focus on its traditional choices. Why? Because people who want to eat healthy don't go to McDonald's and people who eat at McDonald's don't want "healthy" options. With that in mind, McDonald's made the wise decision to give their customers what they want and not try to bring in people they're probably not going to get anyway.
There are a lot of similarities to what happened at McDonald's with the argument that Jayson Stark made in his last ESPN.com article (still shocked about the number of people, and some of the big names, let go in ESPN's latest round of layoffs). Baseball fans don't think the game is too slow. And the people who do think baseball is too slow aren't watching the games anyway. So which one do you cater to?
The answer to that question should be an easy one. Except to Rob Manfred. Manfred's not concerned with the fans in the ballpark. All he hears is the criticism from the armchair quarterbacks. Those that might not watch the game even if they thought it was a "reasonable" length. And if they are watching the game, they're not watching the whole thing (which, by the way, is OK).
Everyone loves to point out that, with the notable exception of last year, the World Series ratings are on a steady downward trend. There are a number of reasons for that, with the start time being one of the primary ones. World Series games start at 5:00 Pacific (when people are just getting home from work) and end around midnight Eastern (when people are either getting for or already in bed). There's also a lot more for people to watch. The World Series isn't going to get the monster ratings it once did. Yet it still does very well in comparison. And you've still got those people who are loyal to their team and are going to watch the game every night, regardless of how long it is.
Manfred is in a tough spot, though. Because even those who do describe themselves as baseball fans think the game moves slower on TV than it does at the stadium. I can tell you why, too. Commercials. At the stadium, the game isn't interrupted by two and a half minutes of commercials every half inning and every pitching change. But when you're at home and they call on the lefty reliever in the seventh inning of a 5-4 game, you're getting a commercial as he comes in, then another at the next pitching change. That's a lot of commercials surrounding not a lot of action. I can't blame people for being frustrated about that.
Fans in the ballpark don't care about any of that stuff. There's so much to do at Major League stadiums these days that you don't even need to necessarily watch the game. But you can do that, too, if you want. And if you're at the stadium, you're going to enjoy the experience. That's something Rob Manfred needs to be careful he doesn't spoil just so he can appease the people who view baseball games as nothing more than television programs. Although, as MLB correctly noted, teams play half their games on the road, and most people don't go to every home game, either, so they're still watching a majority of the season on TV.
That's not to say there aren't things that can improve both experiences. Because he is right about one thing. Whether it's in the stadium or on TV, games can definitely drag. Although, I think it's important to make the distinction between pace of game and length of game. A thrilling, back-and-forth 9-8 game that takes four hours can have you on the edge of your seat much more than a 6-2 snoozer with 11 pitching changes that takes three and a half. And who doesn't love the 15-16 inning marathon that takes five hours plus and you've got middle infielders pitching at 1:00 in the morning? (I remember one time the Yankees were playing in Seattle on a Saturday, so I watched the Met game at 1:00, and the Met game was so long that I watched the end of it after watching the entire Yankee game!)
My proposals, which I've mentioned before, include limiting the number of throws a pitcher can make to first base and putting some sort of restriction on the frequency of mound visits (Omar Vizquel and Yadi Molina were out there every damn pitch during the WBC!). It's that stuff that kills the flow more than anything else.
For the most part, fans don't care how long the game is. For a day game, you're making a day of it. For a night game, you're coming from work and if it gets too late and you have to leave, so be it. The point is you've still got people buying tickets to both Major League and Triple A games at record rates, so they've got to be doing something right. So why mess with it?
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