For years, Major League Baseball has been hearing the complaint that games take too long. At some point, changes were bound to be made in an effort to speed up the game. A step in that direction was taken on Friday.
MLB announced a series of rule changes that will take effect during spring training with hopes they will cut down on the time of games. Managers are now required to say in the dugout during replay challenges. Batters must keep at least one foot in the batter’s box during at-bats, with a few exceptions. Also, pitching changes will now be timed and there will be a concerted effort to return to play quicker after television commercial breaks.
There will, of course, be an adjustment period for players and it will be interesting to hear their thoughts during the acclimation process. Mat Latos of the Marlins gave us his early reaction, and it wasn’t favorable.
Marlins pitcher Mat Latos, on MLB's new pace-of-play rules: "Terrible. You rush a hamburger, it's not going to be completely done." Huh?
— Brian Costa (@BrianCostaWSJ) February 20, 2015
Well, that’s certainly an interesting way to put it.
Part of what makes baseball unique is that there’s no game clock. While there still won’t be, timers will appear in each ballpark this season to assist in the break between each half inning. With many fans enjoying the non-specified time it takes to play a game, that may be enough to have them saying the new rules are “terrible” as well.
