I am All for the New Pitch Clock in Major League Baseball

I was listening to sports radio this morning and they brought up the new pitch rules that they did in the minor leagues last season and are doing during spring training. The new rules state, in some form, that the pitcher has 15 seconds from the time they step on the rubber to pitch the ball. If they don't the batter will be awarded a ball. If runners are on it is a balk. The batter in turn can only take two timeouts for an at bat. There is some other stuff they touched on, but the pitch clock and the fact that the batter cannot take endless timeouts left me intrigued.

I have been pretty vocal about my distaste for major league baseball. It has become incredibly boring. Batters will constantly step in and out of the box, they will adjust batting gloves, they will take timeouts right as the pitcher gets into their windup, they will do pretty much anything to mess up the pitcher. In turn pitchers will stay on the mound for too long of a time before pitching. Pitchers will also ask for a new ball multiple times. Pitchers will do herky jerky things on the mound. Both parties, pitchers and batters, are doing whatever they think they can to throw off their opponent. This has made the MLB unwatchable for me. I see enough walks and bad pitches coaching my son's little league team. I don't want to watch professionals doing the same nonsense, just at a higher level.

The radio guys talking said they did this in the minor leagues last year and it shortened games by 26 minutes. That is awesome. I absolutely love the idea of a shorter baseball game. MLB games have stretched to three plus hours now. I find that if I can make it to the 5th inning at a Cardinals game, I've done enough. I usually leave, as long as everyone else agrees, which they do. With these new rules in place, if they keep them, I'd be willing to go to many more Cardinals games. I used to love going as a kid in part due to the length of the games. They usually lasted a hair under three hours. If the MLB could cut off the 26 minutes that the minor leagues did last year, that means two and a half hour long games. I am so on board with this idea.

I understand that the new rules have already messed with some spring training games, but I could care less. I heard that a spring training game was won on a call where the pitcher took too much time. I love it. It has become a problem and the MLB is trying to fix it. And these players are pros. They will adjust. I don't doubt that for one single second. With each new rule in pro sports the athletes may gripe about it, but they adjust and it becomes a part of the game. This pitching and batting rule makes far too much sense not to keep in the game.

After hearing about this this morning I started to think other sports should enact some new rules to shorten games. I saw that college football was looking into ways to shorten the game. That would be ideal. They could cut out so many reviews and replays. I would love a college football game to be cut from the usual four plus hours to three. Ideally I would love a two hour game, but three hours feels more reasonable. The NBA could also cut out all the reviews at the end of the game. Sports are real life, and stuff happens. Refs screw up, that is human nature. I remember when I first started to watch college football games, they were about three hours long. That is because there were no reviews or extra long replays. You got the call you got and dealt with it. And you got over it if you felt your team was screwed. The NFL could cut down on some stuff too.

I love this new way of thinking with the powers that be in professional sports. Games have become far too long and there is way too much deadtime due to a ton of stuff that would be too easy to cut down on. I'm here for it and I want even more. Keep the rule changes coming, as long as it cuts down on the time. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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