Granting time to walk the ball to the pitcher

[dash_riprock]

Originally Posted by Steven Tyler

It makes me wonder why a few seconds are so precious. Makes me think you don't want to be there in the first place. Games vary, so what. I'll bet some will crap their pants if the game goes extra innings.

I have never had a problem with excessive timeouts. When they start playing with a clock and giving each team a certain amount of timeouts, then I will worry more about it.

I believe you're all alone on this one. Pace of play is frequently a point of emphasis for all levels high school and above. NCAA and FED have repeatedly maintained that delays in game action are distractions from what is an enjoyable and exciting game to watch. Professional baseball is no different.

We are constantly directed to improve pace of play by enforcing rules already in the books regarding time limits on delivering a pitch, not allowing a batter to repeatedly step out of the box, managing offensive and defensive conferences, reducing the time taken for pitching changes and the BS between innings.

Those "precious seconds" add up. Not only do they detract from the enjoyment of the game, they can adversely affect the outcome. How many times have you terminated a close game due to darkness before playing the full number of innings?

Improving pace of play has nothing to do with getting out of there as quickly as possible. It has everything to do with replacing BS with baseball, and I'm all for that.