Let me make one disclaimer: baseball is not dying. Although it is no longer “America’s Pastime”, it’s still very high up on the list. It’s still very relevant.
The average age of an MLB viewer is 53, which is the oldest of the major sports. Half of its audience is 55 or older. To go along with that, the number of people between the ages of 7 and 17 playing baseball in the US went from 9 million in 2002 to 5.3 million in 2013: a drop of 41%.
The audience watching is too old and not enough kids are playing. That’s the bottom line. Therefore, the game must evolve.
One of the biggest issues in today’s game is pace of play. Baseball has no time limit; it has never had a time limit and that’s the beauty of it. But with today’s impatient younger generation, the league must take steps to reduce these games that take forever. Games are bogged down with pitcher’s taking too long between pitches, batters taking too long in the batter’s box, and even instant replay reviews.
Those three factors are uncontrollable. It would be great if the league put the kibosh on pitcher’s taking a full minute between pitches. A pitch clock would reduce average game times by significant amounts. However, the league would not do that because of pushback by the MLBPA.
Jerry Remy, the color commentator for the Boston Red Sox, recently got into some hot water for comments made about translators around the league. Remy said he believed translators should be illegal in MLB. What Remy was actually commenting on is the effect translators can have on the length of games.
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Instead of eliminating translators, the league should just eliminate mound visits in general.
Prior to 2016, MLB put a 30-second time limit on mound visits. The goal was to help pace of play, and there’s no doubt that it has. But why not eliminate them altogether?
For one, mound visits are almost pointless. The pitchers know what pitch to throw, or at least they should. Pitchers are prepared for each hitter in the other team’s lineup and know how to throw to each one. Mound visits are mostly used to help stop the bleeding. If a pitcher gives up back-to-back home runs, a mound visit will often occur.
Mound visits are used more as timeouts than they are as game-planning.
Also, in no other sport can the coach waddle out onto the playing surface and stop the game. In football, basketball, and hockey, teams get an allotted number of timeouts. Hockey has it down to a science: one timeout per team. Obviously, baseball can’t do that, but baseball has more stoppages than those sports.
Teams have between innings and an entire half inning when they’re at-bat to game plan. Why is a mound visit then necessary? If a pitching coach has an epiphany in the dugout and wants to attack a batter a certain way, use a sign.
That’s why signs were created.
There’s no need for the pitching coach to stop the game and run out onto the field to tell the pitcher of his brilliant idea. The pitching coach should have a sign for “first pitch fastball” or “slider low and away”. He shouldn’t have to elongate the game to do so.
Plus, if a batter such as Bryce Harper is slated to bat third in the next inning, the pitching coach, pitcher and catcher can convene between innings to discuss how to approach such a great hitter. Maybe Harper’s hitting the pitcher’s curveball really well; the three could meet in the dugout and make up a new game plan.
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Overall, eliminating mound visits would drastically shorten games. The game would flow much better and people would be more engaged in the game.
Part of the beauty of baseball is that there’s no time limit. But, that beauty is on the verge of turning to ugliness with the amount of mound visits that occur.
It’s time to eliminate them altogether.