More Than One-Third Of World Series Games Spent In Commercials

Doug Kern, ESPNBoston:

After the first two innings of [World Series] Game 1 alternated long and short, Stats & Info set about timing each half-inning, from first pitch to final out. Those times ranged from a five-pitch frame in 1:41 all the way to 24:37.

Overall the Red Sox spent an extra 48 minutes batting (7 hours 21 minutes to the Cardinals' 6:33), mostly because they saw 76 more pitches. Both teams averaged 30 seconds per pitch when rounded.

Those extended commercial breaks between innings accounted for over six hours of the Series' 19:57 total. And that doesn't include the waits during mid-inning pitching changes.

Boston Red Sox batting       7 hours, 21 minutes
St. Louis Cardinals batting  6 hours, 33 minutes
Between Innings Commercials  6 hours, 03 minutes
                            19 hours, 57 minutes

But under this breakdown, as Kern writes, the time of commercial breaks for pitching changes is included in the two teams' batting times.

Jerry Crasnick, ESPN:

Between-innings commercial breaks account for a significant chunk of the longer running times in October. The standard break for an MLB regular-season game is 2 minutes, 5 seconds, and extends to 2:25 for a nationally televised game. During the postseason, the between-innings break increases to 2:55.

Let's assume that, in the World Series, the commercial break for a pitching change is the same as the between-inning commercial break (2:55).

There were 44 pitching changes during the six World Series games, but only 20 of the 44 happened during an inning.

Mid-inning pitching changes while BOS batted: 12 (or 35 minutes, 0 seconds)
Mid-inning pitching changes while STL batted: 8 (or 23 minutes, 20 seconds)

Adding those times to the mid-inning commercial time (and subtracting it from the teams' batting times), we get:

Boston Red Sox batting       6 hours, 46 minutes
St. Louis Cardinals batting  6 hours, 11 minutes
All Commercial Breaks        7 hours, 00 minutes

At least 35.1% of the Fox broadcast was spent showing commercials. This, of course, does not include any short advertisements mentioned by the announcers or any time spent showing the many ads posted throughout Fenway Park and Busch Stadium.