The Pecan Park Eagle

The pace of baseball was working pretty well when Tal Smith (L) and Bill Virdon were moving the Houston Astros deep into the “W” column back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Yesterday I received a personal e-mail from Houston baseball administrative icon Tal Smith about Monday’s column in The Pecan Park Eagle on the subject: Suggestions for Shorter Baseball Games. With his permission, here are Tal Smith’s ideas on the real need for improvement in the way the game plays out today and some clearly fair suggestions that could stand over time as possible remedies that both enliven and protect the pace and integrity of  the way the game plays out in the 21st century.:

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Dear Bill,

Good column, And it has spurred some  good responses from your legion of readers.

In my judgment, it is imperative that baseball speeds up the pace of the game. Elapsed time is not as relevant as pace.

Time prevents me at the moment from long discourse, but I will throw out a few comments and suggestions.

1. The two most time-consuming events that don’t really contribute positively to the flow of the game are (a) hitters stepping out and (b) mound conferences.

2. The elimination of velcro (batting gloves) would sure help with all the tinkering by batters, but, regrettably, is probably not feasible.

3. Suppose baseball instituted “time outs” like other sports. Grant managers/pitching coaches two  30 second time outs per game for mound or infield conferences that do not result in a pitching change.

4. Grant catchers one mound conference per pitcher per inning. Violations will result in an automatic “ball” call on the batter.

5. Make relief pitchers face a minimum of 3 batters before another same inning pitching change can be made. Pitching changes between innings would not be bound by the three batter minimum since they can usually be made without the 3-5 minute delay that results from changes made during an inning. This rule would hopefully cut down the number of pitching changes made during a game and also reduce the number of incessant L-R match-up changes.

6. Batters will not be permitted to step out of the box unless they have made contact with the preceding pitch (a foul ball or foul tip) or, in the umpire’s judgment, they had to avoid being hit by the previous pitch. The penalty for violating this rule would be a called strike, bt the call must be made by the umpire before the next pitch.

Got to go now. Just wanted to provide some more “food for thought.”

Regards,

Tal

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Thanks, Tal!

Count The Pecan Park Eagle as a strong supporter of tweaking the pace over saving actual time as the main goal for any new rules aimed at stepping up the moving life of everyday games. Your suggestions strike me as practical ways to control the key people who most often slow down the pace and extend the time of games played.

We hope that you will all check in with a public comment or question for Tal Smith in the section that follows this second column in a row on the need for change in the way baseball plays out our grand old game in 2014.

Tags: Tal Smith: On Picking Up the Pace of Baseball.

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