[greymule]

When you're home watching the game on TV, you can find a distraction to kill time, but at the park, you really notice how it drags. After the third out of an inning, the defensive players take their sweet time getting their gloves, they walk out to their positions, they leisurely toss their warmups around. The batter is in no hurry, and neither is the pitcher. Why should they be? If they all hustled, they would simply have to wait longer for the signal from the TV booth.

In the 1950s, World Series games used to take a little over two hours. Regular season games were shorter. (In the early part of the century, Series games of well under two hours were not uncommon.)

But football drags, too. Go to a pro game and watch the ref stand with his foot on the ball, watching the booth for the signal while the players stand around. But let's face it, they used to play a World Series and TV covered it. Now TV produces the World Series and exercises complete control over the way it is delivered. But it's the money, and I guess they have a right to run it for maximum profit, even if that means operating near the limit of fans' patience. Does anyone remember a time when they would return from a commercial and the batter already had a count on him?