Photo: Getty Images North America
The major league baseball season is now a week and a half old- how are the new rules designed to speed up the game working out? According to legendary sportscaster Warner Wolf during his interview this morning on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning, the problem is not quantity, but quality; teams are still finding ways to throw away potential wins because they stubbornly cling to the pitch count. “If you really wanted to speed up baseball,” Wolf told Berman and Riedel, “tell the managers to forget the overrated pitch count. Instead, how’s the starter doing, what’s the score, and let them go.”
The rules seem to be having the desired effect, though it is still early in the season. Spring training games averaged three hours and one minute in 2022, but only two hours and thirty-six minutes this year. Meanwhile, the 15 Opening Day games played in the majors averaged a time of two hours and forty-five minutes, compared to three hours and three minutes in 2022.
Wolf also offered his take on the Mets members-only “Speakeasy” seating promotion. “I can see it now: a fan knocks on the Speakeasy door, the guy inside opens the window slat and says, ‘Who sent you?’ And the fan says, ‘Riedel sent me!’”
Photo Credit: Getty Images