The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

C'mon this was pretty fun to watch.

 

I just hope they stick to the new pitch clock during the postseason.

Among the many things Fox has done to torpedo the popularity of baseball is showing extreme closeups of fans’ faces for a good 30 to 40 seconds between each pitch.

Enough already. Show the game and let it end before midnight.

 

Time between pitches wasn't the only reason games were longer. More strikeouts and walks along with more offense in general extended games.

Nobody's mentioned Greg Maddux on the Cubs for pitching short games?

 

I counted once, and during a tense moment in some Red Sox postseason game, with the pitcher having the ball in his hand, they still managed to show 12! camera shots of different fans'/managers' faces before going back to the pitcher, who eventually decided to throw a pitch that was fouled off . . . so we could start the process all over again.

The last game I saw in its entirety was Game 4 of the 1993 World Series (tanks for nuttin', Mitch Williams). Four hours and 14 minutes in damp, chilly Veterans Stadium. Maybe that will change this season.

 

That game was also 15-14, so it would've been long no matter the rules.

The poster children for how we got a pitch clock were the 4-hour-plus Yankees-Red Sox snoozefests throughout the 2000s. Both teams pioneered the strategy of taking pitches, making opponents burn out their starters in five innings (so more pitching changes), and doing everything they could to slow the game to the pace of an amputee crawling up a mountain. I think they once played a 9-inning game that took five hours.
Eventually their philosophy spread like a virus across MLB and a cure needed to be found.

 

Those Yankee-Red Sox games, between two outstanding teams, were a horror to cover, particularly since every series ended with an ESPN Sunday nighter, the ones that used to have an 8 p.m. starting broadcast time.

 

4 hours, 45 minutes (Aug. 18, 2006).

Yankees managed to top that against Cleveland in Game 2 of the wild-card playoffs playoffs last year (4 hours, 50 minutes).

 

Dude, the hell it isn't baseball.

It's baseball as it was a generation ago, and it's a good thing.

 

Probably closer to two generations, but the point stands.

 

More than even taking time off the games, this gives baseball a marketing foothold with younger people. Actual tangible evidence the game is faster, more exciting. Sports, whether they are F1 or pickleball, have gained marketshare with, simply, good social buzz. This can be that for baseball.

 

Of course, you can't exchange six text messages in between pitches anymore, but . . .