Baseball Doesn’t Need to be Shorter; It Needs to be Brisker

Baseball games are too long, which is something everybody knows.  Except, it’s not really true.  Baseball games aren’t too long; they’re too slow.  The great baseball writer, Roger Angell explained it in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last September on his 100th birthday.  Mr. Angell was discussing the changes they instituted last year because of the pandemic:

“I can understand this business of putting a batter on second base, but it goes against every baseball instinct that I have, because the heart of the game is that you have to earn every base, and suddenly that’s been abrogated.  Seven inning games, I guess I understand, but seven is a very different game than nine.”

Even though we had a regular spring training this year (thanks to the players, not the owners), baseball is still keeping the runner on second rule, which is an abomination,¹ and the seven-inning doubleheaders, which aren’t good but aren’t as bad.  They’re doing this, especially the runner-on-second rule, because they want the game to be faster.  Because the games are too long.

But that’s not the problem.  It’s not that the games are too long.  It’s that they are too slow.  Mr. Angell hit it on the head:

“I think baseball should be much brisker, but not shorter.  I hate the idea that you want to get the game over with.  I always felt, as a fan, if the game went into extra innings, great: More baseball.  And if it stretched on into extra innings, and ended up with more and more extra innings, all the better.”

Which is the key: Games don’t have to be shorter; they need to be brisker.  If you watch any old games or if you remember them, the solution is very simple:

• The pitcher gets the ball; the pitcher throws the ball.  He doesn’t walk around the mound.  He just stands on the rubber; he gets the ball; he throws the ball.
• The batter steps into the batter’s box and stays in the batter’s box.  He doesn’t walk around or tighten his batting gloves after every pitch.  If you have to tighten your batting gloves after every pitch, maybe you shouldn’t wear them. 

In other words, brisk is easy: Get the ball; throw the ball.  Stand in the box; stay in the box.

If you do this, the game will be brisker.  There will be more action in less time.  And if you get extra innings, there will be time to play them right.  Which is just what baseball needs: Brisk baseball.
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¹ It’s almost as bad as the DH.