Got to step it up and go

Because you can put a stopwatch on your bookshelf.

The regular season was over but the post-season hadn’t started yet. What to do? I know! Let’s talk about how to speed up the games. That’s appropriate right before you air even longer games, thanks to team introductions (including the trainers) and more elaborate “honoring America” presentations. (Just imagine how much longer they’d be if the Toronto Blue Jays had made it; they’d have to play the Canadian national anthem, too.)

ESPN’s Outside the Lines took up this crucial topic on a recent program. Among the panelists: former player Doug Glanville, analyst Tim Kurkjian, columnist Terrence Moore, and Rick White, president of the independent Atlantic League.

Among the suggestions, many of which were common sense: enforce the rule in the book that requires the pitcher to deliver the ball within the proscribed time limit; limit the number of times the defense can call time (catcher/pitcher confabs), and make batters stay in the box. One of the more outlandish ones was sending the runner to first base on an intentional walk without having the pitcher deliver four pitches. Yeah that takes a lot of time. This is actually in place in the Atlantic League. There was even some mention about “making” the batters be more aggressive so they wouldn’t take so many pitches.

What wasn’t mentioned? The role television plays in all this. I love how (most) broadcasters omit this little item from their list of complaints. You know why games prior to the 1960s took such much less time? They didn’t have to wait for the commercials to be over.

And while we’re at it, here’s my suggestion. It seems most of the pitch selection comes from the dugout these days. How much time is wasted because the battery can’t get together on the signs? So instead of having the catcher look over to get the signs and then relay them to the pitcher, why couldn’t he wear an earpiece, like quarterbacks? Can’t you just see it? You could have a coach with a computer immediately updating scenarios based on count, runners on base, number of outs, crunching all the outcome probabilities and coming up with the “perfect” pitch. IT, get someone on that right away, will you?

(Ooh, ohh, even better. Eliminate the middle man and give the earpiece to the pitcher!)