MLB Needs to Pick up the Pace

Three days into the Major League Baseball season and already the games are going much longer than any of us want. Four hours is just way too long for any fan to endure, even a die hard like me.

The National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, and National Football League all have time constraints on each and every game. They all put limitations to certain aspects to keep the game flowing. The NHL allows five seconds for the road team to decide to change lines after a whistle, and the home team has five seconds after that to decide on their change, then the puck is dropped. The NBA has the shot clock, and the NFL has a play clock. There is no such instance of this in MLB. Pitchers can take as long as they want in between pitches with no harm or foul. According to this report in 2005, the average time in between pitches was 26.3 seconds, an eternity in my opinion.

So the question is, what can be done? What rules could MLB put in place to speed up the game? One possibility would be to call a balk on the pitcher if he exceeds a certain time between pitches when runners are on base. But that would mean an umpire on the field would have to keep a stopwatch and keep track of the time. Another scenario would be to limit the trips to the mound by catchers and coaches. This would certainly help matters, but do we want a rule like that effecting the outcome of a game? We all know catchers and pitchers get crossed up a lot of the time even with these trips to the mound.

I am not an expert in this situation and these suggestions are two of many that are out there. Time between innings isn't a problem, we know bills need to be paid and revenue needs to be collected. In game alterations need too take place so that the games go faster. MLB should be experimenting, and quickly, the use of some method to help speed up these games so we can all get a decent night sleep after they end.

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