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Baseball exec: Reduce games to seven innings

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Apr 8, 2014.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    He tells Buster Olney that it will reduce pitching injuries and shorten games for young fans and their short attention spans.

    http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/post/_/id/5683

    Personally, I don't think a 2 1/2-hour game, played as the game is currently, would be any less interminable than a nine-inning game. The issue is too many pitches where nothing happens.
     
  2. ThomsonONE

    ThomsonONE Member

    Beyond ridiculous.
     
  3. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    The only thing I might be OK with is a run-rule after seven. Games get cut short all the time by rain, etc.
     
  4. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I suppose they could also cut the commercial time down between innings?

    Nah.
     
  5. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Keep batters in the batter's box...

    Make pitchers stay on the rubber...

    Limit mound visits...

    Limit a team to three pitching changes a game (wow, would that change the way the game is played)...
     
  6. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I was watching Game 7 of the 1971 World Series the other day. On one of the first pitches of the game, Steve Blass buries a curve ball in the dirt. The catcher catches it on one hop, and tosses it right back to Blass for the next pitch.

    What an anachronism.
     
  7. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Start with a 1-1 count, too.
     
  8. Sea Bass

    Sea Bass Well-Known Member

    Just shorten the Yankee games to seven innings.
     
  9. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Unless the rosters were scaled down in proportion to the reduction in innings -- so to about 20 -- then it would lead to even more specialization. Forget a seventh-inning guy, an eighth-inning guy, a closer and a lefty specialist. You'd have your fifth-inning lefty, sixth-inning lefty, your switch hitter batting right guy, etc., etc. More pitching changes, more mound visits, same problems. Game gets even more tedious than it can now.

    And I can't imagine a commensurate reduction in ticket prices ...

    I'd entertain the notion of seven-inning doubleheaders, but given the paucity of true doubleheaders any more, I hardly think you're gonna get anyone paying full price to watch one seven-inning game. Start scheduling weekend seven-inning doubleheaders and I might listen a bit longer.

    Of course, if you want to cut the average game time by a couple minutes a year, just move the Red Sox or Yankees to the NL and ban them from playing each other.
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I think the better idea would be the ones mentioned, limiting the number of times the catcher can go to the mound, the number of times a manager goes out, time between pitches...

    I think limiting the number of pitching changes would be difficult.
     
  11. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    You used to see batters ask the umpire to examine the ball, and potentially throw it out of play.

    Now, you almost never see that anymore, as they just swap out the ball at nearly every opportunity. It is a little ridiculous.
     
  12. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

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    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
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