The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

Speaking as someone who very rarely covers MLB and whose in-game experience is as a ticket-buyer, the in-game experience of baseball is vastly better than the other major pro sports ... and it has zero to do with game length.

Not once have I bought a ticket, regardless of whether I paid a premium or went cheapo on the second-hand market, and hoped for a four-hour game, nor have I been disappointed when I saw the rare one in recent years that clocked in around 2:30.

For me? The 2:30-3:00 range is the sweet spot. If the changes make that a regular occurrance? I'm all for it.

After all, if we're not going to parse what traditions of the game make it better or worse, than the game gets worse by default because we're holding on too tight to evolution without cause, which is what most of the dicking around in baseball is rooted in. There is nothing sacred, at all, about pitchers or batters dicking around on the mound or at the plate. The need for a crackdown has been there for ages.

Rob Manfred may very well be a joyless dickhead, but he's right on this one. (And on the shift ban too. The shift made sense from a game theory point of view, but game theory is very often at odds with entertainment value and this is, we tend to forget, an entertainment enterprise.)

If I do get a four-hour game? I want it to be for a good reason, like a back-and-forth slugfest or a taut extra-inning affair (oh wait, the idiotic ghost-runner rule has removed that from the equation, Manfred gets a huge demerit for that moronic rule), not because baseball participants have become entitled to dick around for time immemorial.

 

Eh, get the food before the game. Do you really need any more over the next 2 1/2 hours?

 

Missing the obvious: Dick Pole.

 

The sight of concession lines at most ballparks would suggest most people do.

 

Wait until they find out they can order from their seat and their food will just be delivered to them.

 

Nearly every major league franchise has a basketball or hockey franchise down the street. Go find out how they make it work with a running time of 2:30 or less. And if you are dead determined to maximize your time in the park, go watch batting practice.

 

By June, we'll hardly notice the new rules. Same for the players.

 

Ya know, if you think about it for a second those security guards are pretty brave folks; it’s not inconceivable that the guy was holding a detonator.

 

Trout Creek’s own

 

Yeah, because before they were missing maybe one at-bat . . . in a four-hour game.

 

Don't forget Pete LaCock.
Of course most people knew at the time he was the son of "Hollywood Squares" host Peter Marshall, who wisely adopted a stage name.

 

Many of the complaints about the new rules seem to come from fans thinking the rules should never change. Good grief, look around. Anyone remember basketball before the shot clock and three-point shot? The NHL tinkered with the game to eliminate the way the neutral zone trap was suffocating the games. And the NFL changes something every year, it seems. Hell, even soccer is starting to embrace VAR. Gotta keep with the times.

The other complaint I hear is how they're trying to cater to younger fans. All for it. Us old fans aren't going to be here forever.