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Feel the Bern: Have rule changes made baseball better?

FILE - The pitch clock is visible as Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Dean Kremer winds up to deliver during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, April 24, 2023, in Baltimore, Md. Limits on infield shifts, a pitch clock and larger bases were implemented this year in an attempt to counter the impact of the Analytics Era suffocation of offense. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) (Julio Cortez, Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

DETROIT – We are one month into the new revised sport of baseball, and thus far, it’s getting rave reviews.

The biggest winner so far, and the only rule that just might have saved the sport, is the pitch clock. At this point last year, baseball games were taking three hours and five minutes to complete. And, you have to admit, it sometimes felt like three hours and five minutes until the batter got back into the box.

Now, it’s two hours and thirty-seven minutes. That’s a savings of twenty-eight minutes per game.

As for no more infield shifts and larger bases, well, they are doing what the sport needed. The big-league batting average through this point is .248. Lefties are hitting .242, and that’s up from .229 last year.

Righties are hitting .250 right now. That’s an increase of sixteen points from .234. Mission accomplished when it comes to hitting the ball. And runs have increased from 9.2 to 8.1. More offense helps the product, which is what they wanted to do.

Stolen bases may be the place they’ll want to tweak a bit. Stolen bases are now 1.4 per game. That’s a seventy-nine percent increase from last season. Plus, the success rate on the thieves is seventy-five percent. The average is the highest since 1999.

That happens when you make the bases larger. But all in all, the changes have been terrific. And you’re not spending mindless hours waiting for a batter to get back in the box or a pitcher to get back on the mound.

We once said the only people not happy with the changes will be the babysitters. That probably still stands!


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