Games are too long.

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I'm sorry nc...I was distracted. What were you saying?




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nc42,

Totally agree, these games are dragging on way to long. During the Yanks and Angels game on Saturday night that lasted into the wee hours, there was one inning when Jorge Posada made 6 visits out to the mound to straighten things with his pitcher. That's just out of hand.

MLB games can definately get really drawn out to those of us who watch at home. And it's a few intangible things that prolong these games. First, you have to remember that the good ole' American dollar plays an important factor in televised sporting events with advertising. I guess the best part is that we don't have "tv" timeouts in comparison to football games. But you may as well call it that way.

If you notice, after the third out, most players take their time getting out to the field. I'd love to point the finger at their lack of urgency. That could be a reason or we may be able to blame it on the fact they know tv is on a commercial break. I bet if you take a dollar bill (for arguments sake) and put it in their respective position and tell them the first to get to their money gets everyone else's that would get them moving. Secondly, minimalizing warm up pitches wouldn't be exactly the safest answer. A pitcher needs a few extra, especially after a long inning. Thirdly, the Posada v. Pitcher saga, I believe, is just either a lack of preparation or a miscommunication. And, a miscommunication is a lack of preparation in my mind. But then again they may call it strategy; strategy to sell another beer.

I think I would just minimize the warm up pitches from the pitchers coming into the game during an inning. Those pitchers have been throwing in the bullpen anyway so they should be warmed up.

The money thing is definately a factor BUT.... how much of the public is going to stay tuned in to a game at 1130 PM or one that has been going on and on for 3 1/2 to 4 hours? Their TV ratings have been dropping for years.

Personally, I find myself remote control hopping anyway and when I watch the game and they bring in 5 pitchers in one inning, I switch to something else. I love baseball but this product they are producing is BORING. It's almost better now to watch football games - even with the TV timeouts.
JMHO

They need to do something.

I can handle the length of the games.

I can't handle the SAME commercials over and over again.

nc42, couldn't agree with you more. I think these long, long games might be contributing to the worst umpiring I've ever seen, including HS ball. This is embarrassing. These are supposed to be the best umps, who get rewarded for their work to do the postseason. No wonder the ratings keep going down.

I don't know how Mike Scioscia could keep himself in the dugout when his catcher went to the mound on almost every other pitch to talk to Kazmir. Now,I know he's a young pitcher, but he's got to throw the ball eventually!

I am with you nc, channel surfing. How bout the game when Pedro pitched 7 innings and then in the 8th inning 5 pitchers, took forever just to walk in the winning run. Rosy, the umpiring is the worst I have seen at this level.

quote:

Originally posted by itsrosy:
These are supposed to be the best umps, who get rewarded for their work to do the postseason.

Actully, umps are chosen based on rotation. Every ump gets post season games. There is no choosing of umps based on their abilities. It is part of the umps CBA.

You'd think they'd want to showcase their best and brightest, instead, we see the lowest rated along with everyone else.

For the record, I am enjoying the extra-long, drawn-out baseball games of late.. Last night I got in three quality cat-naps. And that was just in the third inning!

CPLZ, this is a new low for MLB. And, based upon what you say, we still have that fat &^(*^*$&% Joe West yet to come! Volunteer umps at the LLWS would be better. Tonight, the SEC just suspended the entire crew that worked the FLA-ARK game which had numerous bad calls. This same crew also worked the LSU-GA game earlier with similar results.

The Commish of the conference said:"The entire crew shoulders responsibility for each play. I have taken this action because there must be accountability in our officiating program."

This is college football. We're talking about post-season Major League Baseball here. If there were a commissioner with any stones, he would have replaced a couple of these inept umpires immediately and you would see the remaining umpires open their eyes and stop sleeping on the job.

Glad to see everyone complaining about the umpires at the Professional Level....because i can use this site and forum when people complain about the TRAVEL teams umpiring... AND THE BIGGEST JOKE IS THAT THEY USE 6 UMPIRES A GAME AND THEY STILL CAN'T GET THE CALL RIGHT!

I'd rather watch a 3 1/2 hour baseball game than a 15 minute socker game!

Lowering the amount of warm-up pitches is not an option. Teams wouldn't send out their pitchers with the risk of being injured. Sometimes you dont get enough time in the pen to get ready for the game, and those 8 extra become very valuable. Actually, the rule of thumb is to get hot enough to where you are 6-8 pitches away from being game ready.

Anytime we play on TV I always feel like the game is rushed. We only have 2 minutes in between innings, and then we have to start playing.

The games are so much longer in the playoffs solely because of the advertisements. I still think watching the playoff baseball game that is 3 1/2 hours long is better than watching a regular season NFL game that is 4 hours long.

CPLZ, Even when they try to do the right thing, they still get it wrong! Baseball tonight released the following statement. Here is only a part of this coverup.

Stung by a rash of blown calls in the playoffs. MLB is breaking tradition and sticking with only experienced umpires for the WS.

Longtime crew chiefs Joe West (absolutely unbelievable),Dana DeMuth and Gerry Davis, along with Brian Gorman, Jeff Nelson and Mike Everitt will handle the games.

Yes, this is at least an admission that the guys they had were totally unacceptable and needed to be replaced. But, Joe West? I can remember when Don Zimmer managed the Cubs and almost had a heart attack arguing with him. He's almost, no he is right there with Bruce Froemming as wanting the spotlight and thinks he never, ever has missed a call. Bad guy.

They were talking about the very same thing on the radio the other day and they made a couple of points.

If there was a 2 minute commercial break instead of 3 minutes between innings and between pitching changes would speed up the game a little.

The second point, if the umpires enforced the 20 second rule between pitches, most pitchers would be throwing in 10 - 15 second. All they have to do is install a 20 second clock in bottom of scoreboard.

What ever happened to day playoff games? 'Back in the Day' ..I'd take the afternoon off school in case it went to extra innings.

Kenny-

So it is OK to only allow young high school pitchers 5 warm ups but not OK for MLB pitchers? Manage the bullpen! Geez Alou, they have a bullpen coach out there, telephones, cell phones and there isn't enough time to warm guys up?

I realize the commercials are a big factor but catchers/coaches/first baseman going to the mound 5-10 times an inning is just way too much. We are going to turn the public off because the pace of the game is about as slow as watching paint dry.

And now, since the umpiring is so bad we are talking about instant replay? Let's slow it down some more. 5 years ago we never had this technology that showed exactly where these balls are crossing the plate. I would venture to guess that in the "old days" the umps were missing just as many balls & strikes as they are now. Get rid of the umps and use technology to call the game if we want perfection.

We need to go back and watch some of these WS games back in the 60's/70's to realize just how ridiculously slow these playoff games have become.

5 warm up pitches for new pitchers coming in directly out of the bullpen. Catcher gets one visit per inning. Intentional walk - send the guy straight down to 1B. So they eliminate 8 beer commercials a game - big deal.

High School pitchers arent making 10 million a year, so nobody cares if they get hurt. I dont agree with the limit on pitches, you should throw as many as you need.If im a dad, I would teach my kid to throw as many pitches as it takes to get ready.

In a game of that importance, would you risk getting the signals wrong, or a sign being relayed into the hitter? If im the pitcher I am calling out the catcher every second if needed to get whatever it is straight. The game is perfect the way it is, and the way it has been. The only thing not perfect about these playoffs are the umpires. They have been ridiculously bad. That slows down the game more than anything.

Managing the bullpen consists of saving your pitchers arms. Situations pop up in games all the time where someone needs to get up and get hot really quick. The pitcher is told to be 6-8 away from hot so he saves his arm a little bit just in case he has to warm up again. You dont want a reliever getting up and getting hot then not going into the game.

After tonight, I'd guess that John Lackey wouldn't be coming back to the Angels. His "discussion" on the mound with his manager is probably the last time those two will be speaking for a while.

Kenny, I love your "chutzpah".

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I'm not sure it's warmups that are the the problem.

Take a look at 2 things...

1. The number of times a batter steps out the gyrations he goes through between each pitch, i.e. readjusting batting gloves, tugging at different uniform parts, readjusting his batting helmet, then getting in the box and doing a dance to adjust his stance. It's way, way over the top.

2. Pitchers delivery times...great example, Twins closer Joe Nathan. Walk around the mound between every pitch, adjust his uniform, adjust his hat, three deep breaths expelling air like a horse, wiggle his body around on the rubber. He's a freakin' human rain delay.

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Gyrations, pitcher delivery times are definitely annoying but would you suggest a play clock similar to football/basketball? The batter has to get a signal from the 3B coach so you have that dynamic to deal with constantly. As for the pitcher taking too much time, do you think a play clock would work for that? Mark Buerhle is my favorite pitcher because of his fast pace but it seems they have tried that 20 second period in the past to no avail. Never gets enforced.

As for the idea of 5 warm up pitches on pitchers coming in from the bullpen....if you are out there warming up and KNOW that you have 5 pitches to get ready once you hit the mound, you would adjust accordingly. You could have given me 3 pitches in my day, and I would have been ready.

It doesn't really sound like there is much that can be done. How about this, maybe just shorten the games to 7 innings!!! Get rid of the DH!!! That will definitely work.

The top of the 4th tonight was a little over 3 minutes. The commercial break was 4 and a half minutes.