(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
MLB has accomplished one of its main goals for the 2023 season: make games quicker and with a faster pace.
They have done it by introducing the pitch clock, which restricts time between pitches to 15 seconds with no runners on the bases and 20 seconds with men on base.
During spring training and the early days of the season, there were lots of pitch-clock violations that resulted in balls awarded to the batter.
Hitters also have to be alert to the pitch by the eight-second mark or they risk having a strike added to the count.
Most games don’t even reach three hours in 2023 thanks to the clock, and there were several marathons last year.
With no time restrictions, pitchers used to take their time to catch their breath and fully focus, while batters performed some of the old checking the batting gloves or stepping out of the box antics.
Here is an example.
some games from last year are now unwatchable pic.twitter.com/QeDfkthf3D
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) May 19, 2023
Yes, it’s true that the time between pitches in this specific example wasn’t much different than what we see today, but the pitcher did take more time and the batter, Christian Vazquez, almost pulled a Nomar Garciaparra with his between-pitch quirks and rituals.
Those were the things that, in the eyes of the league, drew people away from watching games.
Indeed, things seem to be more interesting and exciting now that there is not much “dead time” between pitches.
To the contrary of what happened before 2023, there is more action and the pace of the game is quicker and more entertaining.
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