Adrian Gonzalez both gets and misses the point on speeding up the game:
“It’s a TV-driven game, at least the financials of it,” Gonzalez said. “TV wants the game to end in three hours. Everything that’s going on with increased payrolls is because of TV. We have to be OK with that. That’s the way the game is going. If they ask for us to keep the game under three hours, we have to try to keep the game under three hours.”
I will say it again, if TV wants the games to finish in three hours, cut the between inning commercial breaks by 30 seconds. That saves eight or nine minutes, which is much more time than foot in the batter box rules will save. The TV stations have the upper hand with advertisers right now, so they can easily make up the revenue by charging more for the smaller amount of advertising real estate. If the length of games is so important to TV, they have the power to make the games significantly shorter.
I find I don’t even watch the start of games anymore. I wait ’til about the 3rd or 4th inning to tune in. Rarely do I tune in earlier anymore, and usually when I do, it’s because I know I’ll be unable to watch the last half of the game.
It’s totally different when I go to a game though. I’m there for the whole thing and lovin’ it all. That’s all Gonzalez sees though – fans in the stands. He doesn’t know what it’s like to sit home and watch a game for 3-4 hours, interspered with commercial breaks.
Charging more for advertising space won’t work IMO, as it may price smaller advertisers out of the market, giving the larger advertisers more clout in negotiations.
The local stations are pushing for nothing. Maybe Fox is pushing this for the afternoon games, preferring more certainty in game length as they broadcast multiple games. ESPN could care less for their night games.
I honestly don’t understand the fuss. Maybe the longer games highlight how boring baseball with its low offense has become. Why baseball has allowed offense to drop with the expanded strike zone is curious as well.
Said it before, will say it again, they need to reduce the time for pitching changes. They also might need to scrap reviews except for HR except in the playoffs. That’s costing 10-15 minutes some games, and they still don’t get them all right. Or maybe minimize them and only allow on plays where a run scores or could have scored