Game Changer

   It was recently revealed that Major League Baseball has voted to implement a few tools that is going to speed up the game. Many fans have voiced their concerns about the fact that the games take too long, and are therefore losing viewers due to slow pace.

   Therefore, Major League Baseball has some new policies:

1. Hitters must keep one foot inside the batter's box unless an exception applies: One of the things that seems to be slowing down the game is when a hitter steps out of the box between pitches to take a breath, recollect, throw off the pitchers timing, or whatever the case may be. Now, to fix this, hitters will be required to stay in the box unless exceptions apply. While the exceptions have not been specified yet, we can assume that one of them will be official timeouts. This change alone will undoubtedly give a few minutes per game back to the viewers.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez
talks with umpire during challenge

2. Mangers must stay inside the dugout during a challenged play: When instant replay was introduced into baseball last season, many fans disliked it because they worried that it would slow down an already slow game. According to new Commissioner Rob Manfred, they were right. The new rule will force managers to stay inside the dugout during reviews. Managers will signal a challenge from the dugout and remain there until the play has been reviewed. This will prevent the delay that stems from the manager walking out to the umpire and standing there talking to him until he gets the signal to challenge or not. More time saved.

MLB considering use of pitch clock,
similar to shot clock used
in NBA

3. Possible pitch clock: While this was not one of the rules stated recently, a pitch clock has been a idea that has been kicked around a lot. Much like a shot clock in basketball, a pitch clock would clock a pitcher from the time he throws one pitch to the time he throws the next, trying to keep pitchers from taking an extended period of time between pitches. Pitchers whose routines between pitches takes a long time are known as "human rain delays", and this is one of the biggest time wasters in the game today.

    There is no timetable for when these rules will be implemented in Major League Baseball, but the league will probably test these rules in the minor leagues before bringing the them to the MLB, like they do with most proposed rule changes.

    I am a huge baseball fan, and unlike most, I don't believe that the game needs to be sped up. I think the game is perfectly unique and if these rules were to enter the game-especially the pitch clock-it would just cause confusion. Upon hearing the news of the proposed changes, many MLB players were quoted as saying that they didn't think the game was too long, and therefore, didn't think the rule changes were necessary. If we complicate a beautiful game with a bunch of new rules, soon enough, the game we love will become an unrecognizable shell of what it used to be. Tread carefully Manfred.