Last week, Major League Baseball announced four new rule changes that it hopes will quicken the pace of games. Starting this season, managers will have to stay in the dugout during replay challenges, hitters will need to keep one foot in the batter’s box during at-bats, games will start promptly upon return from commercial breaks and pitching changes will be timed, all in an attempt to shorten games that averaged 3 hours 2 minutes in 2014, up nearly 30 minutes from 1981.
But could we eventually see a shorter season, as well? First-year MLB commissioner Rob Manfred isn’t ruling it out, even if it isn’t a pressing issue at the moment.
Proving that nothing is off the table, Manfred said Monday that he would entertain shortening the regular season if there was interest in doing so.
“I don’t think length of season is a topic that can’t ever be discussed,” Manfred told ESPN.com. “I don’t think it would be impossible to go back to 154 [games].”
Manfred said discussion of season length is not at the top of his mind, adding that insiders he talks to don’t think having a season of 162 games is something that needs to be dealt with anytime soon. Manfred said concerns over the pace of the game are taking the priority. …
“We already have some of our record books which reflect a 154-game season and obviously some of it reflects a 162-game season,” Manfred said. “So there’s some natural flexibility there. But if anyone suggests to go to something like 110 games, then there’s a real problem. That will throw all our numbers out of whack.”
The American League went from a 154-game season to a 162-game season in 1961, with the National League doing the same a year later.
Any change to the season’s length would have to be collectively bargained with the players’ union, ESPN’s Darren Rovell reports. Manfred also likely would need to get approval from a sizable number of team owners who might be worried about the loss of revenue from fewer games in a season.
According to the Wall Street Journal, less than 9 percent of position players appeared in at least 150 games last season, which Stats Inc. says is the lowest percentage in major league history.
Plus, there’s evidence that hitters become less effective at the plate as the season wears on:
A study of every major-league pitch thrown in 2012 showed that hitters’ strike-zone judgment becomes significantly worse the later it gets into the season. The study’s author, Vanderbilt University sleep researcher Scott Kutscher, theorized that fatigue was a factor.
After spending the first 17 years of his Post career writing and editing, Matt and the printed paper had an amicable divorce in 2014. He's now blogging and editing for the Early Lead and the Post's other Web-based products.
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