Say what you want about Rob Manfred, and most of it will be true. He has shown callous disregard for baseball’s fanbase, brought the sport dangerously close to missing regular season games last year and yes, at times, seems intent on changing the sport beyond recognition.
If the clock is his lasting legacy, then Manfred will be remembered as the man who saved the sport.
This is how good the pitch clock is and will be for baseball.
The early returns in spring training are almost unbelievable. According Travis Sawchik de The Score, the first 40 exhibition games averaged two hours and 37 minutes, 21 minutes less in total than the first 40 exhibition games last season. We have seen individual matches finished in less than 2:30. It’s not only stunning, it’s the kind of time commitment that can bring young fans back into the fold. Take it from me.
Baseball was my gateway to the sport as a kid and to the job I have now. I never stopped watching, and the Yankees or the Mets can still hold my attention for three hours a night. But the sport as a whole has become less compelling as it has become longer, slower and more seamless. And, for many of my peers who don’t get paid to watch sports, summer is considered the time of year when there’s nothing on TV.
The pitch clock isn’t going to solve all of these problems – baseball’s overabundance of homers and strikeouts is always a problem, and shorter games aren’t going to attract fans who just don’t like it to begin with. . But making games more enjoyable, with less downtime and more action, is a huge step forward.
No one, regardless of age, wants to see anything happen. Baseball had too much of nothing. Everyone has seen intolerable games between the Yankees and the Red Sox over the years. From now on, three hours will be considered a long game – more than 20 minutes above average. Now a baseball game can be consumed in the same amount of time as a basketball or hockey game. Now, if you sit down to watch a game, you’ll get a general idea of how long it will take before it’s over.
Think how much easier it will make the lives of families attending the games. Think of how many young children with shorter attention spans will now be captivated by baseball because they are watching something happen when they turn on YES or SNY.
Admittedly, one of the nice things about the sport was its lack of a clock, and breaking that is a sad thing to do. But for much of the sport’s history — and much of the time it was at the forefront of America’s sports landscape — it didn’t need a clock. Like Sawchik underline, the average time for a nine-inning game from 1950 to 1985 was 2:29. It is no coincidence that a disproportionate portion of baseball fans were introduced to the sport when games were shorter.
As for the strategic elements, which The Post’s Joel Sherman ably broke down a few days ago, yes, it will be odd if and when a match is decided on a pitch clock violation. It was also weird when Omir Santos’ home run won a game against the Mets in Boston in 2009. We got used to it.
Also, we should have no sympathy for players who are called up for violations once the regular season has started. They will have had a month of exhibition games, an entire camp and an offseason to get used to it. It’s up to them to adapt.
The rule also affects pitchers and hitters. There’s no unfair advantage in making pitchers work fast — neither can hitters get out of the box, play with their batting gloves, make two practice swings, etc.
Smart players and managers will adapt, as will smart players and coaches adapt to the 3-point line in basketball, the forward pass in football, and the elimination of the two-line pass in hockey. Just like the stopwatch, all of these things made their sport better.
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Are all NHL trades completed before the deadline?
After Patrick Kane to the Rangers became official on Tuesday, the NHL still has three days until the trade deadline and…pretty much every big name has already been traded. Bo Horvat went to the Islanders a month ago, Timo Meier went to the Devils this weekend, Kane to the Rangers. Garnet Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov went to Boston, Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari went to Toronto, Vladimir Tarasenko and Tyler Motte also went to Rangers.
An active commercial season is great for the league, and the region’s three blockbuster teams are ideal for local fans. We feel a little bad, though, for people who will be hitting studio shows during Friday’s deadline because, well, there’s not much left that could happen.
The Flyers could still treat some of their players, namely James van Riemsdyk, just like the Canucks, with Brock Boeser possibly in the market. Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun has been the subject of trade rumors for over a year and is the biggest name yet to be dealt with. So by Friday, some moves could still be made. But the biggest names in the market are all gone, and for the most part they play in New York or New Jersey.
Formula 1 begins its most American season yet
The 2023 Formula 1 season kicks off with this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, with reigning world champion Max Verstappen and Red Bull looking like repeat favorites, Ferrari the closest contender with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz as their two pilots.
One of the backdrops to this season, however, is that Williams’ Logan Sargeant will be the first American to race in the series since Alexander Rossi in 2015, and the first to do so over a full season since Scott Speed in 2006. Formula 1 also races three times in the United States with the addition of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is due to take place the weekend before Thanksgiving, joining dates in Miami and Austin. And Michael Andretti – perhaps part of America’s most famous racing family – is trying to put an 11th team on the grid in the coming years with a factory based in Fishers, Indiana.
A sport that has eluded American interest for so long (and seemed unwilling to build any) now has a budding American fan base and a number of distinct American lines to watch.
