In case you missed it Major League Baseball slightly
adjusted their new pace of play rules this Friday and have made the changes
effective immediately. The main objective to the changes in the pace of play
rules was to give hitters and pitchers a little more leeway before simply
imposing fines for the new rules which I think everyone is grateful and
thankful for.
The new rules have been agreed upon by the MLB owners and
their players after game times dropped to 2 hours and 54 minutes through April
29th’s slate of games. This is down by eight minutes from the same
period last year and includes a 19 inning marathon between the New York Yankees
and the Boston Red Sox and a 13 inning game between those same Yankees and the
Tampa Bay Rays on the 29th.
These are encouraging numbers as far as pace of play but whether this is
helping draw in the casual fan and new fans is yet to be determined.
Under the previous set of rules a warning and the subsequent
fines would begin on May 1st and would become cumulative and
carrying over throughout the month. If a player took too long, pitcher or
batter, they were subject to a $500 fine with those fines stacking every time a
reoccurrence happened. Under the new set of rules each penalty would be erased
and all previous infractions would reset and start over with each new series.
This is likely to be the first of many changes and tweaks to
the pace of play this season but it’s hard to argue with positive results and
that is what Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball is facing right now. I have
not seen any radical or significant changes in my viewing experience or to the
purity of the game of baseball so I for one am very happy when a 7:05 pm start
is over by 10:00 pm. Good work Manfred and company, keep up the good work.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)