Tonight (and for a while) NFL > MLB

[playthrough]

There have been plenty of stories and kvetching about the length of baseball games the last couple years. Almost never see those in football, even as games -- especially Power 5 college -- have long since sailed past three hours.

 

[swingline]

Replay lets the officials off the hook because, with it, they don't have to be great at their jobs. "Let replay do it" seems to be the motto of way too many officials. I realize that the action moves crazy fast, but get in position, make the call (or not) and move on.

FFS, there's a problem when almost every kick or punt return comes with a penalty flag.

I'm not letting the players off, either. If just one time a coach immediately cut some special teams only player for a block in the back or holding on a return, I'll bet the team would cut that **** out.

 

[poindexter]

My buddy is convinced that the refs are instructed to call every block in the back penalty on kickoffs as part of an overall strategy by the league to kill the kickoff altogether.

 

[swingline]

There have been plenty of stories and kvetching about the length of baseball games the last couple years. Almost never see those in football, even as games -- especially Power 5 college -- have long since sailed past three hours.

Yet networks still block out 3-hour windows for games. Almost any college game I watch goes 3:15 to 3:30 — and longer if there's overtime.

 

[poindexter]

College football is beyond repair.

We were at a friend's house Saturday night, and the WSU-Oregon game was on in the background.

I wasn't really paying attention, but there was some sort of interference penalty near the end of the half that took the refs FOREVER to figure out.

When they finally got to halftime, the espn dude in the studio feigned sleeping, and waking up. It was pretty good.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I think that's accurate, Poindexter.
One year the kickoff is just going to go poof. Maybe punt returns, too.
Or kicks just won't be live like they aren't in spring games.
And that's fine if that's what they want, but they ought to be honest about it.

I used to think basketball played badly was easily the worst sport to watch. I think football played half-assed is far worse.

 

[poindexter]

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I like it.

Replay has killed the bang bang play at first. Half the time the bang bang play went for you, half the time it went against you.

But you got a result, and we could move to the next batter.

Now, there is a bang bang play, and there is a call. And a delay. And the manager on the short end is waiting to hear if he should challenge it. Sometime it sputters there. Sometimes, it goes to replay.

And none of us are the better for it.

 

[DanOregon]

I disagree with the thread title. Tonight no baseball is better than Miami-Pittsburgh. (And how weird it is being played just days after Pitt and the U hooked up).

 

[Justin_Rice]

One year the kickoff is just going to go poof. Maybe punt returns, too.
Or kicks just won't be live like they aren't in spring games.
And that's fine if that's what they want, but they ought to be honest about it.

As a youth football coach, I despise kickoffs and kickoff returns.

1. I have to use practice time to teach a completely different portion of the game - "Alright. I know we do X for 90 percent of the game, but on this few plays, we have to do Y."

2. We onside kick every time. Because it's not like we can kick it to the end zone. That means it's a 10 second game of smear the bad person, where I'm sending my best players down to kill some non-athletic kid in hopes that we can get the ball. We emphasize a safe style of tackling, and the hits I see on these plays make me cringe.

3. At the level I coach, I absolutely love it when teams "kick it deep" and put the ball in the hands of one of my two best runners in open space. Good luck! ... and it feels cheap when we exploit a nice game.


We play on an 80-yard field. If after every score we just gave it to the other team on the 30, the game would lose absolutely nothing.

 

[playthrough]

Yet networks still block out 3-hour windows for games. Almost any college game I watch goes 3:15 to 3:30 — and longer if there's overtime.

Yeah, not sure why the three-hour block is still a thing. 3:30 is the new normal for college. And four hours for the CFP.

 

[qtlaw]

I loved baseball all my life and romanticize about Vin and Kubek? While watching Yankees Dodgers. But those games were 2:30 not 4 hrs. I just hate that a large part of game is dudes constantly readjusting before every pitch and it’s now walk/k/hr what 40% of time? That’s what I’m disappointed about.

 

[maumann]

My favorite coach said, "Baseball should be played like ragtime music, not fast but with a snap. It's not supposed to be a funeral march."

 

[I Should Coco]

Because I almost never watch baseball on TV (don't have cable, WILL NEVER pay for MLB TV/radio), I was briefly surprised in last night's game when the "intentional walk" took about 3 seconds.

I guess as something that speeds the game along, I should applaud it, but it still seemed weird. And there always was that .001 percent chance of a wild pitch, or a "intentional" ball being close enough to the plate for the batter to swing.

This concludes my comments on baseball's 2019 season. I'll check back in with you all during the 2020 World Series ...

 

[DanOregon]

Have the number of pitches per game changed much over the years? Does this basically come down to time between pitches?

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

Time between pitches and the sudden explosion of 'bullpen games' that required five thousand trips to the mound.

I don't remember how long Game 6 of the ALCS took but the minute I heard both teams were going bullpen it was easy to sketch in a four-hour block. I watched seven pitches after I got off work and on the seventh the game ended. That alone means it took over four hours, which is absolutely ridiculous for a nine-inning game. In comparison the 1986 NLCS Game 6, the best game of course, took 4:42 and it went 16 innings.

The NHL has done a good job of taking off 15-20 minutes off their game times. Quicker face-offs, less in-period breaks, automatic icing. Little things made a difference that even an overtime or shootout game is going to run about 2:30-2:40.

 

[outofplace]

I disagree with the thread title. Tonight no baseball is better than Miami-Pittsburgh. (And how weird it is being played just days after Pitt and the U hooked up).

ESPN really got stuck with a stinker of a matchup. There is no way in hell I would have turned it on for even a second if I wasn't a Steelers fan.

 

[BTExpress]

Have the number of pitches per game changed much over the years? Does this basically come down to time between pitches?

There were 26,313 more pitches thrown in 2018 (724,447) than in 1998 (698,134). About 11 more pitches per game.

Percentage of strikes that are foul balls is the highest since the data was recorded starting in 1988. Batters sit on two strikes forever.

And batters are striking out twice as often as they were in 1981.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I like it.

Replay has killed the bang bang play at first. Half the time the bang bang play went for you, half the time it went against you.

But you got a result, and we could move to the next batter.

Now, there is a bang bang play, and there is a call. And a delay. And the manager on the short end is waiting to hear if he should challenge it. Sometime it sputters there. Sometimes, it goes to replay.

And none of us are the better for it.

True, but it has also eliminated the manager running out of the dugout, yelling and kicking dirt at the ump for about five minutes, and then getting tossed. It was great theatre but also held up the game. Close play now? Manager hears if the ump got it right or wrong. If he got it right, which is probably 85 percent of the time, the game continues along. If he got it wrong, replay generally takes less than a minute. All the replays don't slow the game down as much as one old-fashioned, base-throwing, spittle-filled rant.

 

[poindexter]

True, but it has also eliminated the manager running out of the dugout, yelling and kicking dirt at the ump for about five minutes, and then getting tossed.

Good counterpoint.

It was great theatre but also held up the game.

No, it wasn't. It was terrible.


About the only positive for replay is that it has eliminated the asshat manager histrionics.

 

[sgreenwell]

There were 26,313 more pitches thrown in 2018 (724,447) than in 1998 (698,134). About 11 more pitches per game.

Percentage of strikes that are foul balls is the highest since the data was recorded starting in 1988. Batters sit on two strikes forever.

And batters are striking out twice as often as they were in 1981.

Eleven more pitches per game doesn't seem like a great effect. Essentially, two to four more batters? I tried poking around the other day and couldn't find a satisfactory answer, but what's the "run time" of today's baseball games, minus commercials, vs. years past? I kind of assume it's not that far off. (I think that was a point Gee made much earlier in this thread.)