The Effort to Revitalize America’s Pastime

Anyone who has been paying attention to Major League Baseball (MLB) over the last few years would have noticed that the game is slowing down. The average length of a game was three hours, 10 minutes, and seven seconds in 2021, a new record. For comparison, the average length in 2012 was two hours and 55 minutes, and in 1972, it was two hours and 27 minutes. The longer game times are the culmination of a variety of factors. One reason is that many players have turned into “all or nothing” hitters: they either strike out or hit a home run, both of which take longer than outs on balls put in play. Another factor is the length of time between pitches, which has also gotten longer through the years.

Overall, the slower paced games have caused many younger viewers to lose or never gain an interest in baseball. Starting in the last couple decades, baseball has become a game of statistics and information. Viewers now see front offices competing to outthink each other rather than players just, well, playing. Over 13 minutes of dead time have been added to the game since 2011, and because pitchers are always going for the strikeout, there are, on average, 14 more pitches thrown per game. Players have become chess pieces for front offices to move around. Catchers, fielders, and pitchers all have cards in their pockets telling them exactly where to be and what to do in any scenario. Now that baseball has become a game of analytics, it has become significantly less entertaining to watch.

The MLB did not do anything to combat that disinterest until a few weeks ago. Rule changes are made at least every few years in baseball, but the ones recently approved for the 2023 season have been making waves. In the last few seasons, MLB has been testing rule changes like banning the defensive infield shift and imposing pitch clocks in the minor leagues, and they have been successful enough in speeding up play and fostering more in-game action that these rules will be implemented at the major league level next year.

The first new rule is the addition of a 30-second timer between batters, a 15-second timer between pitches with the bases empty, and a 20-second timer between pitches with runners on base. If a pitcher does not throw his next pitch within that time, then the batter gets an automatic ball. If the batter is not ready by the time eight seconds are left on the clock, then he gets an automatic strike. Throws by the pitcher in an attempt to pick off the runner will also be limited. This rule is most likely not going to be very difficult for players to get used to. How it will probably play out is evident in the transition to timed serves in tennis. When serve clocks were first used, players sometimes received faults for being too slow, but after a few months or years, no one even had to think about the clock. It was just part of their rhythm and of a now more streamlined game. There are going to be a few automatic balls and strikes next year, but by the end of the season, those should be few and far between.

Another new rule will effectively ban infield shifts. The traditional alignment of defense has three players in the outfield and four on the infield, with two on each side of second base. Prior to the mid-2000s, shifts were a rarity, but from then, their use has exploded. A typical shift puts three, or sometimes even all four, infielders on the same side of the field, taking away most batters’ ability to hit to their stronger side. Other shifts may have five infielders or four outfielders. As the game is played now, over a third of batters are shifted against because it has proved very effective in helping teams get batters out. The problem with the shift, though, is that it reduces offense and makes the game much less exciting to viewers. The new rule will require two players on each side of second base and therefore a minimum of four infielders. The goal is to allow infielders to make more athletic plays and for batters to get more hits. Though the new rule will make full shifts illegal, fielders will still be able to play right next to second base to have a better chance to stop balls from being hit up the middle.

All of these rule changes are designed with the goal of making baseball faster paced and more exciting. Another, perhaps more minor, rule change will make it so that the bases are enlarged from 15 to 18 inches squared. This modification will help with safety by increasing the distance between the fielder and the runner, making it less likely that one will step on the other’s foot, an incident that has caused a number of injuries. This change will also make it slightly easier to steal bases, again making things more exciting.

A counterpoint and potential cause for concern is the fact that members of the Players Association included in the committee to discuss changing the rules unanimously voted against the changes. As they only held four seats out of 11, however, the new rules were instituted anyway. In their statement, the Players Association clarified that the players were not so much against the proposed rule changes, and instead voted against them because “Major League Baseball was unwilling to meaningfully address [their] areas of concern.” While we cannot know how the rule changes will play out in MLB, they have achieved positive results in the minor leagues. The rules will always be ever-evolving, but these changes seem to be positive, and I, for one, am looking forward to faster and more exciting games next season.