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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

It’s About Time Baseball Forgets Clockwatchers

Bernie Lincicome Chicago Tribun

I am trying to explain to a gardener why baseball wants shorter games.

Baseball does what it can, I say. It wants you to know that. It sees a problem, it fixes it.

And that’s the problem it sees? Games are too long?

Exactly.

Isn’t this the sport that had no games at all just a few months ago? That was not good, no games. No games are too short.

Let’s apply logic to that thought, I say. If those games were too short and these games are too long, then the solution is somewhere in between. What would you say is the ideal length of a game?

Nine innings.

No. I mean in time, I say. What is an ideal time?

For me, October.

Baseball knows that, I say. It has made a whole new season for October. Playoffs. Wild cards. October is going to be intense. No game is too long in October. It is trying to fix what is wrong before October. It wants to put baseball on the clock.

But baseball is not about clocks, is it? Baseball is not about time. That is the beauty of baseball. The game dictates the clock, not the other way around. You put a clock on baseball and you are messing with the primal force.

No, I say, people want shorter games. All the research says so.

What’s the NBA do their games in, 2, 2 1/2 hours?

I guess. Why?

People like the NBA. People go to NBA games. People talk to each other about the NBA.

And your point is?

People don’t talk about baseball. People talk about spoiled players. About greedy owners. About the way it used to be. People don’t talk about baseball.

So, I say, you don’t think it matters if games are short or long?

Not a bit. This is like putting new upholstery in a bus when everyone is leaving on a jet plane.

But baseball is the national pastime.

O.J. Simpson is the national pastime. Nobody cares about baseball. Nobody is going to games. Nobody is voting for the All-Star team. People care more about a 63-year-old alcoholic and his new liver than one of today’s greatest stars breaking his hand trying to catch a ball against the wall.

How can you compare Mickey Mantle to Ken Griffey Jr.? I ask.

Ridiculous, isn’t it? That’s because Mantle comes from a time when baseball heroes were larger than life. Now they are just richer than life.

Today’s players understand they have an image problem, I say. That’s why they are all for this speeding up the game. They are cooperating with the owners on this. Finally, both sides are agreeing on something.

That’s the common ground? That innings can start 35 seconds sooner? We lost half a season and a World Series and the first thing they agree on is to stop stepping out of the batter’s box?

It’s a beginning, I say.

And this will cut a half-hour off games? This, and they want to raise the mound, too. Call the high strike. Let pitchers go to the mouth.

Raise the mound how much?

Oh, 3 inches or so.

This would make the Big Unit, Randy Johnson, what, a 7-footer? See, they are trying to be like the NBA.

No, I say. It will make the games faster because the advantage will be back with the pitcher. There will be more 3-2 games and fewer 10-8 games. Scoring all those runs takes time.

So, let’s see if I have this straight. The batter will strike out faster so that even less happens in a game where almost nothing happens anyhow?

Well, I guess.

Oh, sure. That’ll bring the fans back.

There’s no talking to some people.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Bernie Lincicome Chicago Tribune