The benchwarmer: Keep baseball the way it is

There are a few traditions that my family diligently observes: cinnamon rolls at Christmas, family breakfast on Sundays, and baseball season. Just like Christmas, baseball season comes around once a year. Crops are planted, backyard barbecues are ignited, and all eyes are trained on opening day. I love baseball season.

This year, like every year, my family had an all-day barbecue on the first day of the season—we ate, talked about our teams’ trades and chances, drank beer, and watched the game. Lazy and content, no hurry; it was a perfect day for baseball.

Days like these are especially nice because I get to slow down, spend time with my family, and watch America’s game. It’s a nice change from the chaotic barrage of teaching and coaching. But I guess not everyone’s fond of slowing things down. Some people would rather speed things up.

As an avid baseball fan (Go Halos!) I’m perfectly well aware of people’s complaints about the game, the most common being that “it takes sooooo long.” People say such things with dramatic flair, as if the game is eating away the days of their lives. Just the other day, a friend complained—on Facebook—that baseball games are too long, too tedious, and because of that, baseball has lost its relevancy.

I gaped in horror at my screen: Lost its relevancy? Baseball is as much a part of America as apple pie and the iPhone. But the times, they are a changin’, and time is apparently something people want to speed up.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal, “The Plan to Speed Up Baseball” by Matthew Futterman, reported on Major League Baseball’s plans to “modernize” the game. Its 30 team owners agreed that they need to make the game more appealing to the modern audience, which has grown increasingly weary of the game’s slow pace—and fans have made their annoyances clear by decreasing television ratings and game attendance.

Historically, baseball is a lot like the education system, it doesn’t change its rules frequently or lightly. But plans for change are already implemented for the 2015 season.

Some of the changes: a clock count down of 2 minutes and 25 seconds between half innings, hitters now have to keep one foot in the box at the plate, and operations executives are closely monitoring pitching habits with warnings and fines. According to the rulebook (which has been loosely enforced with pitchers), pitchers are required to throw every 12 seconds. MLB higher-ups are even considering limiting the amount of pitcher and catcher conferences, having managers make pitching changes from the dugout, and scaling back the number of warm-up pitches between innings.

The article stated that the game needs to “change fundamentally to survive as a major sport.” The article also said that the decrease in offensive production has contributed to the game’s slower pace, even going so far as to blame the crackdown on steroids, which is an irrelevant and unfounded connection at best. There is no room for steroids in baseball, or any sport, period.

Now, let me make it clear that I am one of those former players, enthusiasts, and baseball purists who are actively resisting these changes. Therefore, my bias against them should come as no surprise.

The demand for changes to the game of baseball seem ludicrous and unnecessary to me. If you are a true fan of baseball and can appreciate the time inherently involved in this game, you will understand why I feel this way. For those of you who don’t understand, let me explain.

Baseball is far from being a purely physical sport; it is highly mental and has long celebrated a very cerebral nature. Baseball is a game of strategy; it requires thinking, planning, and careful execution of mind games. In essence, baseball is like a long-term relationship—these things take time.

For example, when I watch David Ortiz at the plate, rubbing his hands together and adjusting batting gloves, I see a hitter thinking through everything he needs to do to make contact with the ball: taking in the inning, the outs, the runners on base, and the position of players on the field before he steps in the box to do his job. When I see a pitcher taking 27 seconds between pitches like David Price, I see a player messing with the mental focus of the batter and deciding what pitch to throw next. Unlike modern baseball “fans,” I don’t see these lapses in time as unnecessary interruptions to the flow of the game; their strategic purpose is precisely what makes them necessary.

By eliminating time, you are attempting to eradicate the strategies that make this game so stimulating and entertaining, at least to people who have the proper appreciation for it. Because proper appreciation is part of what is missing in modern baseball, not a faster pace. You are not a true fan if you can’t appreciate the mind games players use with each other, if you can’t appreciate that coaches need that conference time on the mound to look in their pitcher’s eyes and see if they are gassed. Fans have to appreciate that superstition is a HUGE part of baseball, and players routinely abide by their own superstitions, which do eat up game time. BUT IT’S PART OF THE GAME!

I believe the biggest culprit with the “speed up baseball” campaign is technology and social media (scoff scoff—yes, I said it). We as a society have become so obsessed with doing things fast, making things more convenient, that we are now attempting to change the fundamental foundations of America’s oldest sport. And why? Because we can’t sit down for an extended period of time to relax and watch a game.

“It takes sooooo long.”

I mean, when you go to a game at the ballpark, what’s your big hurry? So what if it takes three hours and 30 minutes—you’re getting your money’s worth, right? When I go to the ballpark, I relish having a whole day to sit in the sun, drink beer, and watch my favorite game. Watching baseball is like traveling back in time to when things were slower and more carefree. Besides, the fans who complain that games take too long probably spend most of the game snapping selfies on their phone.

For the viewers at home, I hope you aren’t complaining because baseball is already modernized in the home. It’s called TiVo.

Football, perhaps one of the biggest professional sports in America, takes at least four hours with commercials. But I guess fast-paced and more violent sports like football and UFC fighting require less energy expenditure and brain power than baseball and therefore are more popular. They don’t involve THINKING (side note: I’m a football fan as well).

Unfortunately, baseball is a sport that’s deeply rooted in America’s rural past and not our urban present. It does not easily mesh with the chaotic and fast-paced way we choose to live today. The times we live in are allowing for less quality time and instead involve more fly-by experiences. Apparently, people have less time to sit and watch a good game because it eats into their three-hour Internet and social media binges, I suppose.

Baseball is a game that requires patience, love, and attention. Baseball has never been a fast game; before 1970, average game times were three hours.

Simply put, I think these demands are being made by “sports fans” who lack appreciation and understanding for the game of baseball. These demands are the result of an obsession with fast-paced living and superficial life experiences pushed by the ever-increasing use of technology. And these demands are being met by people more concerned with ratings and money than with keeping the sport tied to its American roots.

Baseball is not played like football or soccer for a reason, and if you don’t understand this, then don’t watch the game. Baseball requires understanding, passion, and time. If you don’t have enough time for the game the way it is, then the game doesn’t need you as a fan.

But what do I know? I’m just a Benchwarmer.

 

Contributing writer Kristina Sewell likes things the way they are. Contact her through the managing editor at [email protected].

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