The World Series game last night was fun. All of it. As neither a Red Sox fan nor a Dodgers fan the outcome wouldn’t determine by enjoyment of the game. The game didn’t have a ton of offense… I mean each team averaged basically 1 run every nine innings. Which makes me think of a larger point. Is baseball too long? Do they need to shorten the game by speeding up gameplay? Putting timers on pitchers?
When you have 162 regular season games and you’re in the middle of July, and the game is 3 hours long, I can understand it. Analytics are having pitchers come in to pitch to one batter and using more pitchers every game it has increased the length of the game. I don’t enjoy all of those interruptions. I would prefer if they wouldn’t allow in inning pitchers to warm up on the mound. Send them in and make them pitch immediately. But, in post-season baseball? I am ok with all of it. When the result of the game has major impact on the baseball season I will enjoy all 440 minutes of it.
So the main point is, games aren’t either too long or too short, but what they are is entertaining or boring. Regular season games can be boring at times, but when the individual game has impactful meaning on the season, it is just more entertainment. Which is why I think that baseball should be lengthening their post season and minimizing their regular season. Because when a game matters, I don’t mind going to bed at 1:30 am, even though I have to wake up at 5am the next day for work. What an exciting game and hopefully after last night it leads to an exciting rest of the series.