With the concerns about the pace of play in baseball recently, perhaps teams today could take a page from the Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators, who played a game in 89 minutes on this day in 1943.
Recently, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred bemoaned the pace of play in Major League Baseball. Games are routinely taking over three hours to play, with a multitude of pitching changes and the various delays with replay and mound visits. The MLB has attempted to change this, instituting a time limit for mound visits and in trying to decrease time between innings. Yet, games continue to take a long time to play.
Perhaps, as baseball looks for a way to be able to speed up games, they could look to the game between the Chicago White Sox and the Washington Senators on this day in 1943. Playing a night game, the White Sox defeated the Senators by the score of 1-0 in a matchup that lasted 89 minutes.
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Yes, 89 minutes. And it was not as though the offense was lacking. The White Sox, in getting that lone run, had nine hits and two walks, but left nine runners on base. The Senators struggled against Johnny Humphries, who allowed only three hits and two walks while striking out three batters. In total, Humphries faced 31 batters in throwing his masterpiece.
This game also proved to be a record for the American League in terms of a night game. However, it is not even close to the record for a nine inning game overall in baseball history, as the New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1 in 1919 in just 51 minutes. These days, 51 minutes into a game, fans are still pulling into the parking lot and looking for their seats, let alone expecting to have a full game played in that time.
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Yes, it was a different era in baseball back in 1943, but perhaps the MLB could learn something from looking back at those games. If they really want to quicken the pace of play, modern baseball could take a page from the Chicago White Sox and the Washington Senators.