The Epidemic of Long Games

2323

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If and when baseball gets passed by soccer in popularity, it will have only itself to blame. Baseball keeps making changes yet refuses to fix what is hurting the sport the most. And in some cases, it's a result of refusing to enforce it's own rules. Greatly varying strike zones, many if which are shoebox, are part of it. And there are other issues.

But notably, last night I was watching MLB network for a short while and Reynolds and Plesac were commenting during a look-in on the Boston-LAA game. They were practically mocking the Red Sox and the sport for Red Sox pitchers taking copious amounts of time between pitches. One pitcher routinely took over 30 seconds and was at times over a minute. Life's too short to spend watching this kind of crap and kudos to Harold and Dan for calling it out. The even went as far as to possibly insinuate that Boston was doing this as a matter of strategy, that they were lulling the batters on purpose.

The sad part is, the networks probably love this. When big market teams play, the longer the game, the better. It's too bad Selig is a spineless prick who let's Fox and ESPN run MLB and is also a slave to Boston and NYY.
 

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Soccer? A bunch of skinny, short LeBron James flopping wannabes running in the grass for a couple of hours for a 1-0 game. Baseball isn't getting passed because Boston pitchers are slow to deliver.
 

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If God wanted us to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms!
 

chibears55

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I though they initiated a time rule for both hitters and pitchers, or was it just for hitters to be set in box..

I also noticed the replay is taking more time then originally thought.

Managers taking that slow walk to umpires on every close play waiting for thumbs up or down

Then the review itself takes too long.. we see the replay at home and can make a quick determination but for whatever reason it takes longer waiting for a response from NY

They need to stop managers from coming onto the field to waste time for their guys to look at a replay to determine if they want umps to go to replay.. once a manager steps on field to question a call, thats their challenge.

Another thing they should do is have an official at the games doing the replay... they get 30 seconds to look at it and give their response to umps
 

2323

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If God wanted us to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms!

Too funny! That's like saying, "if god would have wanted us to use our brains, he wouldn't have made Bear Pride a meathead".
 

2323

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Soccer? A bunch of skinny, short LeBron James flopping wannabes running in the grass for a couple of hours for a 1-0 game. Baseball isn't getting passed because Boston pitchers are slow to deliver.

Don't kid yourself. Soccer has been making inroads and the genesis, largely, goes back to the baseball strike of 1994. Between kids getting into soccer because they were turned off by baseball at that time and the current health related concerns with football, soccer is growing in popularity. Demographic shifts that make the US less insulated also factor in.

But paramount here is, for many years people said watching soccer was like watching paint dry. Buy especially now, that's more so the case in baseball. It's to the point that you can't legitimately call soccer boring while being someone who watches baseball.
 

TL1961

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You are right about the length of games. I didn't hear them discussing Boston pitchers, but earlier this season they were discussing BoSox hitters taking pitches to work the pitch count up on the opponent.

While that strategy is at least more legitimate, it does explain why their games are so unbelievably long on a regular basis. a 4 hour game is routine for them.

Replay challenges aren't helping the appeal either. Watch a game, and see several replay challenges. Fun!
 

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Speaking of Boston...their game is in the 19th inning right now lol
 

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Don't kid yourself. Soccer has been making inroads and the genesis, largely, goes back to the baseball strike of 1994. Between kids getting into soccer because they were turned off by baseball at that time and the current health related concerns with football, soccer is growing in popularity. Demographic shifts that make the US less insulated also factor in.

But paramount here is, for many years people said watching soccer was like watching paint dry. Buy especially now, that's more so the case in baseball. It's to the point that you can't legitimately call soccer boring while being someone who watches baseball.
The point is that "watching the paint dry" isn't the reason baseball will be getting passed. It's called youth participation and love of sport. There are more options than here were in the early 90's. No players strike turned kids off from playing baseball.
 

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The point is that "watching the paint dry" isn't the reason baseball will be getting passed. It's called youth participation and love of sport. There are more options than here were in the early 90's. No players strike turned kids off from playing baseball.

I mentioned all of that already, smart guy.
 

Parade_Rain

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I mentioned all of that already, smart guy.

You suggested youth players stopped playing baseball because some millionaires went on strike. That is BS.
 

ChiSoxCity

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This is by design. Yankees and Red Sox lead the MLB in length of games, at 3.5 hours. It's all about viewership and sponsor revenues.
 

2323

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Don't kid yourself. Soccer has been making inroads and the genesis, largely, goes back to the baseball strike of 1994. Between kids getting into soccer because they were turned off by baseball at that time and the current health related concerns with football, soccer is growing in popularity. Demographic shifts that make the US less insulated also factor in.

But paramount here is, for many years people said watching soccer was like watching paint dry. Buy especially now, that's more so the case in baseball. It's to the point that you can't legitimately call soccer boring while being someone who watches baseball.

You suggested youth players stopped playing baseball because some millionaires went on strike. That is BS.

Learn how to read, as*hole!

Also, it's fact more than it's a suggestion.
 

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World wide soccer is the largest sport. Only Americans call it soccer. It is boring to Americans because it is not a American culture like it is in other parts of the world. Got to a pub in England and call it boring and you might lose a tooth out of it
 

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Learn how to read, as*hole!

Also, it's fact more than it's a suggestion.
Are you really this thick?
Here's what you stated-
baseball strike of 1994. Between kids getting into soccer because they were turned off by baseball at that time
Kids getting turned off to baseball because of a strike? LOL. Youth participation in baseball and love of the game didn't change because of some professional baseball strike. Trying to link the the strike to youth playing soccer instead is plain dumb. LAX is taking players from baseball. It's the fastest growing sport in the US. There is barely a professional presence of the sport. Soccer takes more kids, because they take them into bunch ball at 3 years old and then sell dumb parents on the idea that in order to be good, they have to play it year round. Baseball doesn't start until teeball at age 5 and it is a brief experience. Additionally, travel baseball/tournaments are removing kids from little league and due to expenses, LL has struggled in the inner cities, as well, and basketball has taken over there. Again, that has jack shit to do with some strike in 1994.
 

2323

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Are you really this thick?
Here's what you stated-
Kids getting turned off to baseball because of a strike? LOL. Youth participation in baseball and love of the game didn't change because of some professional baseball strike. Trying to link the the strike to youth playing soccer instead is plain dumb. LAX is taking players from baseball. It's the fastest growing sport in the US. There is barely a professional presence of the sport. Soccer takes more kids, because they take them into bunch ball at 3 years old and then sell dumb parents on the idea that in order to be good, they have to play it year round. Baseball doesn't start until teeball at age 5 and it is a brief experience. Additionally, travel baseball/tournaments are removing kids from little league and due to expenses, LL has struggled in the inner cities, as well, and basketball has taken over there. Again, that has jack shit to do with some strike in 1994.

Wow, you're dumb. I didn't say baseball's decline in participation is due exclusively to the strike. I listed other reasons. Thus was an acknowledgement that there are other factors. Overlooking this and focusing on one element that you disagree with is something a stupid person does.

But my comment wasn't meant to be some exhaustive discussion on the decline in LL participation. It wasn't even exclusively about playing the sport but since you have the reading comprehension of a gym shoe, you've tried to turn it into this.
 

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