Are baseball games too long?

Temporarily unban Wossa!

 

It pains me to say that tonight I was part of the problem. Yes - tonight at the Grasshoppers game after the first inning - wossa was a participant in a tricycle race from 2nd to 3rd. All for the glorious prize of a Harley Davidson baseball cap. The saddest part of all is I got my butt kicked.

I'm so ashamed...

 

Answer


1.The longest MLB game by innings was on May 1, 1920 between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves and lasted 26 innings. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. If you count minor-leage baseball, the longest baseball game ever was on April 18, 1981 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox. The game started at 8pm and was finally suspended in the 32nd inning at 4:07am. The game was resumed two months later, and was over within 18 minutes. A single drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 33rd inning.

2.
http://www.worldrecordbaseballgame.com/

Thats about it.

 

..Ban Wossa!

 

We had a game last night that was waaaaay too long. Costal Plains 16-18 Babe Ruth game. Playing at a city field. A team from Rocky Mount and a team from Greenville.

Top of the first, our pitcher starts the game and is bringing it pretty well. I comment to another coach that he is really bringing it tonight, that his veolcity has really increased. After the top of the first the umpires comment that the bases looked a little close. I had noticed that the leadoff batter for the opposing team had almost beat out a high chopper to first base. I just figured our first baseman might be a little slow and that the lead off batter could just really run (he could). Long story short, the field had been set up for an intermediate size with 55' mound and 80' bases.

Luckly the facility had a portable mound and a Dad had a tape measure in his car so we moved the mound to 60'6" with with little effort. We assumed that moving the bases would be as simple as placing them in the correct slots at 90'. Surely this field had permanent recepticals at 90', right? Wrong- at 90' we found base attachements but they were for breakaway type mounts and the bases in use at 80' were of the traditional type. Now this being 7pm on a Thursday night, there were no city personel to be found.

Two solutions existed. First we could send everyone home and not play baseball or we could move the "permenant" base recepticals. After taking inventory from the crowd regarding digging equipment we found a mom with a couple of plastic spoons, a kid with a slushie that had the spoon/straw combo and a couple of pocketknives (not quite that bad but close) Well about 45 minutes later we had moved the bases to approximately the correct location and the umps again said play ball. As an aside, we had one small shovel so one guy dug a while while 5-6 men stood around and watched- we figured that is the way the city would have done it.

Well about 26runs, 35 hits, 15 walks and 8 pitchers later we concluded the game. All told it took about 3 hours and 15 minutes to play 6 innings. It being a school night and about an hour drive home dicated that we play a shortened game, the fact that I was wearing shorts and it was cold had nothing to do with it.

 

slow down

the time expended between each and every pitch (calling pitches: dugout to catcher, catcher checking wristband, catcher signaling pitcher, pitcher shaking off or accepting, etc) I think is the main slow down.

1) seems that coaches could teach catchers to call pitches more often.

2) should they allow an electronic hookup between the dugout and catcher?

 

LOL, I agree alum bats suck but some of that post is way out there. The new parks are awesome though.

Wanna speed up games? MAKE THE STIKE ZONE BIGGER.

 

as a father of a pitcher................Great post!!!!!!!!!

 

yes, 100% yes. And take it to high school also, not to shorten the game but to identify the real hitters. Win, Win situation.

 

I'd love to see aluminum die in all phases of baseball and softball. I hate watching crap hitters at all levels get a hit from a $400 bat.

put everyone on the same playing field

sadly, there is a huge industry behind it and its not going away....while you're at it stadardize golf ball clubs and balls

didn't the city of NY try this 2 years ago after a serious injury? did it stick?