game length in major league baseball (mlb) began increasing, with the 1988 new york yankees being the first team to average over three hours per game. from 2004 through 2014, mlb games had increased from an average of 2.85 hours to 3.13 hours. this was in spite of decreases in scoring, with mlb teams scoring 4.1 runs per game in 2014, down from 5.14 in 2000.