Now that we’re deep into the baseball postseason and we Mets fans are enduring a great match up that we frankly all hate in the World Series, I think it’s time to mention two things that MLB needs to work on this off-season.
First of all, the umpiring has never been great, but the fact that only home run calls are reviewable is downright comedic in this day and age, especially in the postseason when every call is important. If you saw that foul ball call in the Yankees/Twins series, you know what I mean. Joe Mauer’s hit down the line was fair by a foot, and the umpire was standing 10 feet away, but he called it foul. A review puts Mauer on second base and the outcome of the game might have been different. And that’s just one small example I saw…I’ve seen a few more and heard about countless others. There needs to be a football-like system where a manager is allowed to throw a red flag twice per game. The umpires need not be insulted by this either—you don’t see football refs complaining about replay, do you? They want the calls to be right.
Of course, this directly contradicts my second thing that needs to be fixed, but I’ll bring it up anyway. The length of games is ridiculous, especially in the postseason when there are more pitching changes, weather delays, and more commercials. I live in the central time zone, and even I can’t stay up for a lot of these games that go on until midnight my time. I know most of you live on the east coast, and you have to watch games that go on until 1am or later. My red flag idea would surely make this worse, but what can be fixed are the microscopic strike zones, and pitchers taking all day to deliver a pitch. Of course, mixing in a few more day games would be nice, too, especially on the weekends.
That’s all I’ve got to say. I’m curious what you all think. And hey, try to enjoy the World Series.
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Mikey–Good article. You bring up some interesting points.
Being a ‘tradionalist’ I hope they do NOT start reviewing plays. Umpires are human and mistakes will be made. Sad but true. But to me, I would hate to see the thrill of a post-season game—players, 50,000 fans and millions of people watching on TV–staring intently at some guy in a press box looking at a video. That would be boring. And while he reviews a play for 5-10 minutes, the pitcher is standing on the mound enduring cold weather? Nah…
I also agree about the issue with game times. Esepcially this year, with 2 east coast teams playing, the games will start at 5pm on weeknights. You are in the central time zone. I’m out west and due to my work hours, by the time I get home, the game is usually in the 4th or 5th inning. Really sucks. But I know they cant start the games even later.
It puzzles me that people get so aghast at the idea about games being delayed an extra 10 minutes or so if umpiring reviews are allowed. I’m not old enough to remember Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds, but I am old enough to remember when games would start at Shea at 8:05, go into extra innings, and be over by 10:30. If we have tolerated lengthy extensions of TV commercial time, six pitching changes during regular season games (considerably more in the postseason), and inane 7:57 or 8:19 first pitches, all for commercialism, then I don’t see why we should complain about potential delays for the purpose of preserving the game’s integrity.
And as an aside – I’m not rooting for anyone in the WS, but I’d sure love to see it decided on a blown call. There have been no fans excusing the umpiring as being “part of the game” more than Crankee or Philthie fans.
Leave the human element in umpiring as much as possible, that’s what sports and competition is all about. It’s not a good idea to keep running to machines to make decisions for us in sports. Competition and thinking things out is healthy. Keep that stuff in the science and medical fields, not sports.
The main reason why games are longer now is because of pitch counts and changing pitchers. When complete games were the norm the games were shorter….and the pitchers got injured less.
One thing that has incresed the length of games has been the commercial breaks in between innings. At one time it used to be 75 seconds its slowly gone up and now it is 2 minutes and even longer in the post season. That extra minute added 18 minutes to the length of the game alone. Throw in the incessant pitching changes that used to be one or two per game up until the nineties, and now the norm is 3-4 per game for each team. Newer parks also have much less foul territory than ever before which has led to increased pitchees per at-bats and less frequent foul outs.
Shortening the game can be fixed easily – No more leaving the batter’s box between every pitch. Years ago batters would put one foot out, at most. Today, almost all hitters go for a short stroll between pitches. I’m even seeing it in Little League now (kids copy the pros). It is crazy – just play the game.
I’VE GOT A THOUGHT, TO FIRST BE TRIED IN POSTSEASON, HERE GOES… MLB ASSIGNS 3 ADDITIONAL UMPIRES TO EACH POSTSEASON GAME AS AN OFF-FIELD, LUXURY BOX(OUT OF SIGHT) SHADOW CREW WHOSE FUNCTION IS WATCHING THE GAMES ON TV, JUST LIKE “US FANS”. WHEN THEY SEE A MISCALL PLAY THEY CHOOSE TO REVIEW IT GETTING MULTIPLE REPLAYS/ANGLES JUST AS WE FANS GET AT HOME. WHEN THEY NOTIFY THE “TRAILER”: THEY’RE TAKING A REVIEW A NOTICE GOES UP ON THER JUMBOTRON INFORMING FLD CREW, PLAYERS,ATTENDING FANS,OPPOSING MNGRS. IF UPON REVIEW THEY VOTE A MAJORITY TO OVERTURN THE FIELD CALL, THE JUMBOTRON IS USED TO ANNOUNCE THEIR DECISION & SHOW THE TELLTALE REPLAY ON THE FIELD. THIS SHOULDN’T TAKE MUCH LONGER THAN A COMMERCIAL BREAK TO ACCOMPLISH, MGRS GET NO OPTION TO REQ A REVIEW IT HAPPENS SEAMLESSLY UMPS SHOULDN’T BALK AS MANY MORE OF THEM GET PAID FOR SERVING IN PLAYOFFS. ONLY FIELDING PLAYS; NOT STRIKEZONE ARE SUBJECT FOR REVIEW. THE SHADOWS BASICLY GET TO SEE WHAT HOME VIEWERS SEE INITIALLY, ADD’TL ANGLES & MULTIPLE REPLAYS ARE JUST FOR THEM ON REQUEST. IF IT ACTUALLY WORKS, PERHAPS IT CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO THE SEASON USING JUST ONE SHADOW UMPIRE PER GAME, JUST LIKE THE “OFFICIAL” SCORER JUST MY THOUGHTS, WHAT DO U GUYS THINK?
Jess
I was timing the in between, pitcher gets ball till he actually throws it, and it was close to 30 seconds everytime. I thought the pitcher had 12-15 seconds once he got ball to pitch? I think also the incessant amount of times that batters get out of box, scratch themselves, adjust gloves, wipe their face, stretch, take x-tra swings, etc is getting ridiculous. The games are longer in post season because of the almighty dollar payed by networks to MLB just allows the TV people to control the pace of game. Wrong way to play things. I couldn’t even watch the end of game. Ridiculous.