April 20, 2023 at 8:38 a.m.
Shoutouts & Callouts
Faster game feels 'normal' for MLB
Friday, April 7 was that opportunity. With my 11-year-old daughter in tow, we went to American Family Field to watch the Milwaukee Brewers take on the St. Louis Cardinals. Admittedly, I had some ulterior motives for attending - as the Rhinelander High School boys' swim team was honored pregame by the Brewers for their 2023 WIAA Division 2 state championship - but I was keenly interested in seeing how the game "felt" from the bleachers with the new rules.
At least from my personal observations, unless you were paying attention, you likely wouldn't notice the changes until you looked at your phone after the final out. That game was done in a brisk 2 hours, 45 minutes. That's closer to the target time MLB is looking for, opposed to the 3 1/2-plus-hour slogs that had become the norm before instituting a pitch clock, banning the shift and limiting mound visits and pick off attempts.
To be fair, I don't watch a ton of pro games on television, usually I'm on the local sports beat somewhere while the Brewers are playing, but the pace of the game felt very normal.
Perhaps that's because I'm more accustomed to watching the high school game, which tends to naturally click along at a decent pace. Or maybe its because, with something always happening on the field or in the stands, the lulls in the action seem less noticeable than they do on TV.
From our perch down the right field line there were only a couple of tell-tale signs that things were different. There was only one ball called due to a pitch clock violation. The only real giveaway something was different was the fact that the music played during lulls in an at-bat was shorter. There was barely time to get to the "Brew" in "Let's go Brewers" because of how quickly the ball got back to the pitcher on the rubber and everyone was ready for play again.
To be fair, there were other obvious signs that things were moving more quickly, though I didn't partake with a long night of travel still ahead. "Take Me out to the Ballgame" and "Roll Out the Barrel" no longer doubled as last call for alcohol sales, with American Family Field extending the purchase of libations beyond the seventh-inning stretch.
Overall, the pace of play improvements feel like a good move for baseball - especially if the end goal is recapturing the shortening attention spans of the casual fan and a younger audience.
There's more that could be done, as my 11-year-old test subject could attest. She was tuckered out by the sixth inning and, with the game appearing to be comfortably in the Brewers' control, we made a break for the exits in the middle of the eighth to beat the traffic.
Perhaps one could chalk that up to the 7:10 p.m. first pitch, or the busy day of activities we had beforehand. We had fun but, by 9:30, with a nearly four-hour car ride ahead, it was time to hit the road.
While I wouldn't call baseball's changes a home run, they amount to a sharply-hit single and a step in the right direction in a sports entertainment world that is striving for more action in less time.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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