February 17, 2005
The Times, They are a Changin'
Via Darren Viola, the minor leagues will be experimenting with a rule to speed up the pace of games.
The Playing Rules Committee announced the adoption of an experimental rule for use throughout the 2005 season in all of the Minor Leagues affiliated with Major League Baseball. The experimental rule, designed to encourage an improved pace of play, requires a batter to keep one foot in the batter's box throughout an at-bat, unless certain exceptions apply, in which case the batter must remain within the dirt area surrounding home plate.
An umpire will be able to award an automatic strike or strikes, without the pitcher having to deliver a pitch, if a batter intentionally leaves the batter's box and delays play. A similar rule applies in National Collegiate Athletic Association play.
There are a number of exceptions to this rule, but as Darren points out, players like Mike Hargrove and Nomar Garciaparra won't be able to go through their rituals between each pitch.
Also, it reminds me of an old rule at Wellesley College where you had to keep one foot on the floor if you had a gentleman over. I understand people became very creative getting around that rule. :-) I assume ballplayers will be equally as creative.
Posted by David Pinto at
07:33 PM
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Did you see the list of exceptions? It seems this will only apply when a pitcher is working quickly and the batter takes a pitch. How much time is this really saving? If a batter has one foot in the box and one foot out, a pitcher still cannot pitch. So, all Nomar would have to do is keep one foot in the box. In college this rule had no impact...you can get timeout at least once from an umpire after taking a pitch, and you'll likely swing at another pitch. What is the point? Saving 1 minute off of game time?
what good would it do to keep one foot on the floor?
better to hold a baseball between both knees at all times.....
If I were a pitcher, I would take advantage of this rule and work fast, dictating the tempo of the game (to steal a basketball term) in an attempt to throw the batter off his mental approach.
Why does baseball need to speed up the game? I watch a lot of games, and they're all around 3 hours nowdays. It's gotten a lot better, in fact.
But basketball and football, yikes. Those sports have completely slowed down the pace, to the point where games are typically 3.5-4 hours long.
