re how to speed up games marginally realistic davidm gvls vfl paramax com david madden writes in article c she lkf ucdavis edu ez chip ucdavis edu gary built like villanueva huckabay writes you want to speed up ballgames mandate a rule permitting only n seconds between pitches the current rule is too lenient and then enforce it fifteen seconds is more please pardon my ignorance if this is well known but what is the current rule than enough time if the pitch isn t released in call it a ball and restart the clock i remember a post from last year indicating that a pitch clock was tried in one of the minor leagues some time back and did not work i don t remember why they said that it did not work anyone remember this jody mcdonnel on wip in phil has been saying that a pitch clock was inevitable how would a pitch clock work on throws to first maybe we could limit the number of throws to first that the pitcher can make and award a balk if he exceeds it i d have another question who would operate the pitch clock one of the umpires add another one to the crew another pair of suggestions remove the balk rule it is the runners responsibility to stay safe no matter what the pitcher does i m not sure i like this idea i think it would severely diminish the number of stolen bases and limit the availability of such neat strategic ploys as the hit and run and the squeeze play one of my personal favorites if a pitcher throws to an occupied base more than x time x to without successfully picking off the runner the runner advances a base as if walked ahhh i suppose i should read the whole article before i hit the f key eh obviously from what i wrote above i like this idea the no balk seems to give the pitcher the advantage the base walk allows the runner to challenge pitcher to throw over to the base it may also increase the number of wild throws to the bag since the pitcher knows he doesn t have very many chances to pick off the runner so he may hurry too much i d rather see runs scored as the result of sound hitting and sound baseball strategy rather than on the sloppiness that could result from this kind of rule so i suppose there are some disadvantages to that idea too baseball games take about in the nl and just a shade under hours in the al that s just too damn long i don t like to play in hour games much less watch a game for that long my butt falls asleep and if i m watching on tv i ll channel surf between pitches catching colorized versions of mr ed leave it to beaver and those wacky nieporents on nick at nite i too find myself surfing when i know that it will be enough time between each pitch to allow the batter to adjust his jewlery i remember in little league if when up to bat we stepped out of the batter s box even for a moment we were automatically out that may be a little harsh for the majors but seriously how about putting a limit on the batters being able to step out take several dozen practice swings pound their shoes scratch their balls etc maybe forcing them to stay in the batter s box wouldn t be such a bad idea that could save a few minutes randy
