re game length was re braves update in article apr vax clarku edu hhenderson vax clarku edu writes ecaxron ariel lerc nasa gov ron graham writes i think that everything else being equal it s not too much to ask that if a weeknight game can be shortened by half an hour by cutting out warmup pitches dawdling outside the batter s box commercial time outs and that sort of thing i m not asking for too much how do you know they can be shortened by half an hour has anybody done a study to determine how much time is actually wasted say in these a s games oh probably ms nichols has given the average game times and average runs scored for and a very nice piece of information ms nichols who knows she may be listening and not have me in her kill file after all those numbers indicate somewhere in the neighborhood of half a run less being scored per game and the games taking minutes longer something is being done now that wasn t done ten years ago which is extending the games by minutes ms nichols thinks it s more pitches given the increasing specialization of pitchers it wouldn t surprise me if it s not simply more pitches though i don t think it s unreasonable to think that something can be done to get ten of those minutes back then i get a couple more from shortening the warmup time for a relief pitcher after he comes in and a couple more still from enforcing existing rules which have been stated in other posts in this thread and other related ones the problem is who decides whether that time is wasted you don t seem to think it is at all right now i think it is although i have heard one case favoring giving the reliever all the warmups he thinks he needs the difference in mounds between the field and pen but who knows if the rules get changed maybe something i didn t foresee will happen to change my mind but you can bet a lot of minds would fail to foresee the same thing or else nothing will be changed rg i can play me better than anyone there s only one of me barry bonds on playing himself in two movies
