MLB has officially jumped the shark

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by buymycards

I do enjoy watching baseball, but the game seems to have slowed down and become more tedious.

I remember sitting in my back yard listening to the Milwaukee Braves on the radio, and I watch nearly every Milwaukee Brewers game, so it isn't that I don't like baseball. I just wish there would be some rule changes to move it along a little quicker. Watching a batter take 90 seconds in between pitches to tighten up his gloves, scratch his balls, spit on the bat, etc., doesn't contribute to the quality and enjoyment of the game.

I think every player should be made to sit down and watch a couple of the old games they have on tape: like the 7th game of the 1960 World Series, or one of those old, rare 50's World Series game, to see how the game should be played!

The game was less neurotic then. All this delay now, stepping out of the batter's box, adjusting gloves, etc. But I can't stand the new rules from the pitcher having to face 3 batters, to batters just taking their base on an intentional base-on-balls. I don't think these rule changes are good for the game, and aren't the way to shorten it. I think the way to do that is to keep batters in the box, and probably shorten the number of commercials in between innings. Also very importantly, I think the strike zone should be enlarged, and pitchers should be allowed to brush back batters. Shorter at bats.

While baseball has definitely slowed down, I think another problem that feeds into the issue of trying to keep people engaged in the game is a faster paced and more impatient society, with instant information, cell phones, highlight reels, and the like. There isn't an epic moment every moment of the game. You also have so many distractions now at the ballpark from games and commercials on the scoreboard, instant replays, T-shirts being shot up into the stands, fireworks, and music for each batter as they come to the plate. It's like the ball clubs are afraid of any "dead" time so they fill it up with anything they can think of. This further weakens attention spans which then creates the dread that they better have more distractions. The game itself used to be enough.