Frank
DeFord talks baseball with the Online NewsHour.
 Listen
to a RealAudio version of
this interview.
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NewsHour
Backgrounders:
March 31, 1998
A look at the new kind of corporate
baseball owners and the effects they are having on baseball.
March 31, 1998
The
Minnesota Twins demand a stadium.
October 17, 1997
Doris Kearns Goodwin shares her baseball
memories.
October 24, 1996
The ups and downs of the 1996
baseball season.
OUTSIDE
LINKS:
The official site for Major League
Baseball.
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| If you've ever been
to a professional baseball game,
you probably know those moments when nothing seems to happen. A batter
steps up to the plate. He digs his back foot into the batter's box, and swinging
the bat like a pendulum, prepares for the pitch. The pitcher checks the runner
on first and fires a warning shot to the first baseman. The batter steps out of
the box, adjusts his glove, checks his third base coach for a sign, and steps
back in. The batter motions to the umpire for 'time.' For
some fans, this is the beauty of baseball -- after all, as Yogi Berra said, it
is the game that's "over when it's over," not when the clock runs out. But in
this MTV era, Major League Baseball is worried that the game takes too long for
television, too long to attract a new generation of fans.
RULES FOR SHORTENING THE GAME:
Pitchers must throw the ball within 12 seconds after the hitter settles into
the batter's box with no one on base. Umpires should not automatically grant
permission for a batter to leave the batter's box. When given permission to
leave the batter's box, batters may not step more than three feet from the box.
Hitters are to give bat boys second bats to have ready in case of a broken
bat. |
The ideal length of game is a debate that seems
to heat up at the beginning and end of each season. In the last 20 years, the
average length of games in the American League has increased from 2 hours 30 minutes
to about 3 hours. In the World Series, it's even worse. Last year the games averaged
over 3 hours and 30 minutes. Bud Selig, the acting commissioner of baseball, has
instructed umpires to start enforcing new rules aimed at quickening in the pace.
The speed-up program has the support of both the players association and the umpires
union, but whether it will work remains to be seen. IS the game too
long? Will new regulations ruin the flow and rhythm of the game? Sports writer
Frank
DeFord answers your questions. |
