A faster Game

it’s Time to Make Baseball a Sport More Enjoyable to Watch

Robert Pannier May 19, 2017 Baseball, Independent Baseball, MLB, Perry Port

It’s Time to Make Baseball a Sport More Enjoyable to WatchNo matter what your opinion is of Pete Rose, including current Wichita Wingnuts Manager Pete Rose, Jr.

Rose, Jr. never reached the status of his father on the field, but did play professional baseball for 21-seasons, and has managed in the Chicago White Sox organization as well as in the American Association.

Pete Rose, Jr. loves the game of baseball, but when he was asked recently on his podcast show, Fan Interference, to rebuke a man’s friend who said that football is much better than baseball, Pete could only agree – football is better. Why does Pete think so? “Baseball is boring,” he declared. This is the son of a man who was declared as one of the greatest players who ever stepped between the lines and, yet, he sees the problem of why baseball is slowly losing traction with American audiences – it simply isn’t as exciting as football.

It’s Time to Make Baseball a Sport More Enjoyable to WatchMajor League Baseball Is Changing with the Times

Newly ordained MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred agrees. Over the last two seasons he has taken steps to make the game more exciting, focusing most of his attention on speeding up the game. This has included the league adding a 30-second count between pitches and a player receiving an intentional walk without the pitcher having to throw a pitch. These results have created some success (average games dropped from 3:02:21 in 2014 to 3:00:42 last season), yet more is needed to be done.

In a society where people want microwave food, DVRs to edit out commercials, and 24-hour news, sports, and even cooking shows, the attention span of the general public has decreased more than ever. This is the dilemma that faces baseball, because it is truly a three-minute game that is played in three-hours. The action is limited in terms of what actually goes on during games, and that flies directly in the face of millennials and others who want constant action.

Battling the Traditionalists

Interestingly enough, Rose, Jr. does not like the rules implemented by Major League Baseball. He agrees that the game is “boring,” but is a traditionalist in terms of the way that the game is played. This is the challenge that the sport faces. While there is a need to speed up games, there are also a large number of people who love baseball the way that it is. They explain that if commercials are decreased between innings, something that will never happen, then the game would drop to 2:45 or even less.

Wichita Wingnuts Manager Pete Rose, Jr.

The problem with this thinking is that commercials are not the only thing that is keeping games longer. If you have been to a minor league or independent league game recently then you know that commercials are far from the real issue. Games regularly last three-plus hours, even going as long as four hours for a regulation 9-inning game. There has to be something else going on here.

Hitters take forever to get ready for each pitch. If anyone saw former Texas Rangers prospect and St. Paul Saint Ian Gac at the plate, they would get why games take so long. After each pitch, the former slugger would readjust his wrist bands, fix his helmet, and dig back in at the plate. It was a ritual that helped his timing, but clearly set off the timing of the game.

He is not alone. It seems that every player has some kind of ritual when they step to the plate and if the pitcher dare do something to throw off the timing of that ritual, then the batter will start all over. It is the psychology part of the game intended to get into the head of the opposing player, but all it really does is make a fan base that needs to go to work in the morning bored and ready to leave after the seventh inning. At the rate this is going the seventh inning stretch will have to be moved to the fifth inning just to keep fans around.

What Can Be Done

Major League Baseball is making what some traditionalists feel are “drastic” changes to speed up and improve the game, but rule changes need to go beyond the Big Leagues. All minor leagues need to impose these rules, as do the four major independent leagues (American, Can-Am, Atlantic, and Frontier). All the players in the independent and minor leagues are looking to make it the Big Show one day, so they might as well start learning the dance now. If not, what will they do when they reach the Majors?

This article reflect's the Texas Independent Baseball League's approach to game day and training of the prospect pro-ready talent, we will have an entire league playing the game fast, their will be aggressive play on base, and attacking defenses by ball placement hitting in every teams defensive alignment, the league's not looking to change the game simply play it faster.

At the rookie level this can become the norm, people who attend games also have other things to do, even though the TIBL is a rookie short season league academy professional training program, this could help young players develop the habit's needed for the ever changing MLB game moving into the future.