What is it with Minnesota sports teams?
In other news...
Writer Grant Brisbee got his hands on an old baseball game video tape from 1984 and compared it to a game from 2014 he still had. BOTH games had the same number of pitches, hits, baserunners, runs, and pitching changes. The game from 1984 was 2 hours and 31 minutes. The more current game went 3 hours and six minutes.
The primary difference? It WASN'T commercials.
Pitchers simply work more slowly. They take more time between pitches. As a result hitters don't expect them to pitch more quickly and step out more often. That adds a couple of minutes to every half an inning. BOOM. There's your answer.
Pitchers are more deliberate.
One tape does not a fact make, but I think old-time baseball fans have noticed this trend over the years as well. Pitchers are slower workers today. Maybe that much rest between pitches is where all the arm troubles come from, too...
And you combine that more time from pitchers moving slower between pitches and all those balls that are fouled off and you have longer games. But if we eliminate intentional walk pitches, we should shorten games by at least an hour or more. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat intentional walk thing...what ARE they thinking?
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