In an effort to speed up play, the American League ... passed a rule curbing pitching mound conferences. But it now develops that the move was only the opening gun in its fight against the wearisome marathon contests.Harridge Demands Pilots Speed Games
"We feel that the lengthening time required for completion of our games is a serious problem that must be dealt with in order to keep baseball interesting and attractive to the fans," said President Will Harridge of the American League.
[Over the past 13 seasons, the average length of games has increased by 33 minutes.]
"There are a lot of minor things that could be eliminated to reduce playing time, but in the final analysis we have found that the main responsibility for the problem lies with the manager and the pitchers. ...
"[The manager] can have his batters stop their frequent delays by stepping out of the box, he can instruct his infielders to keep their mound huddles to a minimum ... and he can even school his pitchers not to waste so much time before they get ready to pitch. And there, of course, is the other big answer to the speed-up of games. Most of the time consumed is taken by the pitcher. First of all, they are more deliberate than they used to be and, secondly, they throw more pitches." ...
[Cal Hubbard, American League supervisor of umpires:] "Pitching is consuming so much more time because the pitchers have grown so cautious. They throw so many pitches because they have to be careful with every hitter who steps up there. Anybody can knock it out of the park now - even the little guys ... If they throw one down the pipe now the ball game is gone. Everybody swings from the end of the bat and goes for the fences. They didn't always do that. But the bats are better now. They are lighter, better made and easier to swing.
"When we started to enforce the 20-second rule that requires a pitcher to deliver the ball in that time after he steps on the rubber, we found no violations. ... Some pitchers, of course, aggravate you with their antics around the mound. They step off the rubber a couple of times before they deliver the ball. That wouldn't make much difference if such a pitcher threw only two or three times to each batter. But where time piles up is the 3-2 and 2-2 counts on every batter. ...
"[I]n the old days they threw that first pitch over the plate. They don't do that any more. They're afraid to. One pitch can beat them. ... [T]hey nibble around the corners. They never throw a fat strike. Eventually they're down to 3-2. I imagine at least 50 percent of the counts in a game are 2-2 or 3-2. ...
"Frankly, I don't know how pitching can be speeded up, unless you can change the entire attitude of the pitchers and get them in a more daring mood," replied Hubbard. "But I do know one thing I'd like to see adopted ... That's the elimination of the four pitches in giving an intentional pass. I'd just have the manager order the batter put on base and get on with the ball game. You know, I suggested that change once and Clark Griffith objected to it. He opposed it because he said it would deprive the fans of four chances to boo."
A.L. President Calls Lagging Play 'Serious'
All Managers and Umpires to Meet in Florida to Map Plans for Cutting Delays
The Sporting News, January 18, 1956
5 comments:
Just so I'm clear, were the average length of baseball games in 1955 33 minutes longer than they were in 1943, in reference to what you had in the article? Regardless, it's interesting that this considered a "problem" in 1956 when the games may have averaged closer to two hours (my guess).
I have a 1920 article (in a box somewhere!) that reports the AL is worried about games being too long!
Quote from the TSN article (AL games only):
The average times of 2:23 in 1953, 2:25 in 1954 and 2:31 in 1955, which had been announced at the time the American League passed the rule prohibiting more than one mound visit to the pitcher's mound, weren't nearly as shocking as those revealed by Harridge.
In 1943, the average time of games in the American League was under two hours - 1:58 to be exact. ...
"[T]he very fact that we were conscious then [1944] of the increasing length of games, when they were averaging 1:58, makes it all the more shocking now. After all, that means that in 13 seasons games are averaging 33 minutes longer per game."
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It is possible that their math is off, but (if so) probably not by much.
Could this increase be an early result of TV broadcasting? ... Info from Wiki:
By 1947, television sets (most with five and seven-inch screens) were selling almost as fast as they could be produced in cities which had television stations. Because of this, Major League teams began televising games ...
1947 saw the first televised World Series. ... The broadcast was sponsored by Gillette and Ford. Even though there were only about 100,000 television sets in the entire country at that time, the 1947 World Series brought in an estimated 3.9 million viewers ...
On April 16, 1948, Chicago's WGN-TV broadcast its first big-league game ... WGN televised each Cubs and White Sox home game live.
On July 11, 1950, the All-Star Game out of Chicago's Comiskey Park was televised for the first time.
On August 11, 1951, WCBS-TV in New York City televised the first baseball game in color. On October 1 of that year, NBC aired the first coast-to-coast baseball telecast as the Brooklyn Dodgers were beaten by the New York Giants in the first game of a playoff series ...
The 1955 World Series was the first televised in color.
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I take it the color footage of the '55 WS is lost? I've never seen that in color. I see highlights of 1958 in color, maybe that's the earliest existing WS TV footage.
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Somewhere in Morris' "Game of Inches' he describes how early amateur club baseball fascinated British observers because of its brisk play, in comparison to cricket. Apparently, there was never a lull, never a moment when something was not happening on the field.
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