Can Extending Relief Appearances Address Baseball’s Pace of Play Concerns?

I an not sure that I understand where the problem is.

Data:   Yes games have been a bit longer than before:

 

 

On the other hand, there are more butts on the seats than before, even though the size of the venues decreased in the teens compared to the 90s:

 

 

 

 

If that last graph looked the other way, then would be a problem with the time of games...

FASCINATING! 

Note how the game lengths average plateaued in the 1970's & 80's only to steadily rise thereafter heading into the 2000's and modern era.  I've also noticed this in reruns of sitcoms like Seinfeld, Friends and Simpsons where they are now cutting content to squeeze in the ridiculous amount of commercials which are consuming more and more time during each program. If the trend continues in another 90 years we could have games in the 4-1/2 hour length average. Kinda like junk mail.  It seems like i keep getting more and more of it.

Actually these 2 might be more relevant than attendance :

 

 

 

and

 

http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/51d6d91aeab8ea944a000018-608-457/untitled-1-653.jpg

 

 

So both teams and players have zero reason to complaint regarding the length of the games.

I wonder if you could make a correlation between all these charts (average player salaries, baseball revenue, average length of games) and commercial tv time during each game? 

I expect that I will be taking an unpopular position - again - but I think that baseball has allowed the bullpen to own the game and I do not like it.  I like the old days when starting pitchers when as long as they had to and relief pitchers were not pampered with ninth inning only appearances. 

My choice is to have the team designate 3 relief pitchers per game.  Use them as they want. But make them pitch.

Being old I am not as much of a Loogy, Roogy or what ever the hell else there is.  My love of baseball was not based on trips to the mound, or one pitch relief appearances.   I liked complete games.  I love Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette... 

I liked Don McMahon https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcmahdo02.shtml coming in and pitching until the other team was done.  I liked Hoyt Wilhelm throwing into the wee hours - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wilheho01.shtml

that was baseball and the games lasted 2 - 2.5 hours.  

So designate three pitchers a game.  Make the damn manager sweat.  Make the game move on.  Strategy, but not boredom. 

I know many of you love to see the pitching coach come out, then the catcher, then the manager.  Wow is that fun.  But not me.  

I expect that I will be taking an unpopular position - again - but I think that baseball has allowed the bullpen to own the game and I do not like it.  I like the old days when starting pitchers when as long as they had to and relief pitchers were not pampered with ninth inning only appearances. 

 

My choice is to have the team designate 3 relief pitchers per game.  Use them as they want. But make them pitch.

 

Being old I am not as much of a Loogy, Roogy or what ever the hell else there is.  My love of baseball was not based on trips to the mound, or one pitch relief appearances.   I liked complete games.  I love Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette... 

 

I liked Don McMahon https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcmahdo02.shtml coming in and pitching until the other team was done.  I liked Hoyt Wilhelm throwing into the wee hours - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wilheho01.shtml

that was baseball and the games lasted 2 - 2.5 hours.  

 

So designate three pitchers a game.  Make the damn manager sweat.  Make the game move on.  Strategy, but not boredom. 

 

I know many of you love to see the pitching coach come out, then the catcher, then the manager.  Wow is that fun.  But not me.  

you forgot the whole get off my lawn speech ;-)

Everything evolves. Baseball is no different. Some of the changes being suggested will barely be noticeable and not even be worth talking about after a couple years of implementation.

I, personally, dont care about pace of play issues, but if making a few small changes speeds it up a tad and brings more fans to the game, I am all for it.

Another thing that might bring more people to the game is marketing their young talent. Basdeball is horrible at this on the national level.

Ah, typos... ;-)

you forgot the whole get off my lawn speech ;-)

It's important to have one contrarian on the site

Still don't understand why there isn't a way to speed up pitching changes. Are the pomp and circumstance and the half-mile power-walks still necessary?

Send a laser signal down to the 'pen and send the pitcher down a zipline. Or, I have some good ideas for trap doors, similar to those used by the Romans to unleash wild beasts in the Colosseum. Or, have the pitcher on the mound keep a smoke bomb in his back pocket, smash it on the ground when he's done, and the new pitcher would have instantaneously replaced the old one when the smoke clears.

If they want to cut down time of games start with the time between innings. But that would cost them advertising money so they would not want to do that. On the same note, when they make a pitching change they need to speed that time up so no need for another commercial break.

If games are so long fans are fleeing the sport what would be the ideal length of game that brings them all back?

2 1/2 hrs like a BB or Hockey game? How can you cut half an hour off a game? Shorten the game to 7 innings would be the easiest without a bunch of rule changes. All the other stuff just nibbles around a couple minutes here or there.

Cut commercial time? Sure the owners and players will love making less money so what will happen ticket prices and beer goes up.

Extending the relief pitcher is only going to extend the inning for the offense in the extra AB. they get   Quality of relief pitching goes down without situational substitutions. The quality of relief pitching goes down when you think of pitching them multiple innings. Think Perkins as a starter vs a reliever.  

In terms of a television game, ratings seem to fluctuate with w/l record. The concern for the team and networks is the number watching.  There is a chance that for a long time baseball has been watched in intervals, not complete games. There  wouldn't be the pressure to shorten a game if that is the viewing pattern

I like this idea a lot. You could replace those 30 seconds between innings with 10 second in-game ads while the next batter makes his way to the plate. 

  And I feel like those two moves would not affect the natural flow of the game....hitters stepping out, pitchers stepping off, etc..  Cut 25 minutes off game times would help...except for the beer vendors...lol

Back in 1999 the folks at Blockbuster Video said similar stuff. 

 

a. People keep coming in and renting Toy Story 2. 

b. We are currently valued at 2.5 Billion

c. This punishing our customers with late fees thing is increasing our revenues YOY.

 

4 years later... During a meeting of the board of directors. One of the board members was suggesting that they failed to adjust to market conditions while another board member was on Wikipedia researching Chapter 11 while the Chairman was pointing at a big chart that showed a clear reversal of fortune. 

 

​The Rise and Fall of Blockbuster is completely unrelated to the future of baseball. Blockbuster ripped me off once and I have never forgiven them so I like pointing out how stupid they were when context allows. 

I think this is the point for the Commissioner and others concerned about pace of play and length of games. They're looking ahead to the next tv contract, and thinking about their ratings for playoff and world series baseball. They're thinking about how much of the revenue increase was predicated around teams forming their own tv networks or getting large deals from regional sports networks (like FSN). It's not just about attendance or participation, it's also about tv contracts and ratings. 

but I think it's fair to be concerned that attendance will start to slide if games drag out longer and longer without good reason. They also don't want people bailing early. The ticket sale is huge, but if people bail after 6 innings, that's a lot of lost concession sales too. And the goodwill slides down too: when was the last time someone spoke glowingly about the game and the fan experience when they had to bail early?