re football vs baseball was game length in article apr almserv uucp e ucja fnma com chris allen writes in article ast saic com sac asdi saic com steve a conroy x writes major league baseball is trying to expand its appeal to people with shorter attention spans i e the football crowd invariably all the arguments from people who don t like to watch baseball on t v say the same thing the games are too long and too boring baseball is trying to find a way to shorten the games for wider t v appeal if you look at it though baseball games last around the same amount of time as football games the difference is that there is more action in that duration in football games perhaps if there were more action in baseball games you would get more of those fans to tune in anyway coming up with a solution to make baseball more appealing to a bigger crowd is going to be difficult on soapbox yet another reason to get a commisioner now since it s obvious that ruling baseball by comittee works about as fast as a snail race in nebraska off soapbox how can you say there is more action in football then baseball a football game consists of approximately plays and the average duration of a play is around seconds this means that in a game that lasts approximately hours you have about minute s of action in a baseball game you have upwards of two hundred pitches there are very few on field strategy on field stratgy sessions ie huddles and you always have a chance to win until the last out is made ah but the illusion in football is that there is always lots of action and a sense of urgency because of the game clock not all the time but it happens when there s less than minutes to go quite often this sense creates drama even when there may not necessarily be any and that holds a viewer s attention in baseball only players are involved in the action for about here comes a wild guess of the time and they re just playing a sophisticated game of catch hold the ball step out of the box adjust chains touch self in interesting locations there s a lot of dead time with the players warming up between innings or the manager visiting the pitcher at the mound or the manager removing the pitcher and bringing in a relief pitcher who then takes pitches or helen dell playing the organ dodger fans will appreciate that one to the non baseball junkie this is boring at any rate i m not putting baseball down for this i ve been an avid fan since i can remember it s just that watching a baseball game on t v at home can be tedious for the non baseball junkie that s what major league baseball and the networks are trying to address when they talk of shortening the game it s because of t v not because football has more action than baseball steve conroy conroy terminus saic com i m gone man solid gone science applications baloo international corporation
