Allan Huber "Bud" Selig, commissioner of "baseball" as the main stream media would call him, has done more harm to baseball than any commissioner back to and including Kenesaw Mountain Landis who started commissioning in 1920.
Selig has allowed the time between pitches to increase ... a lot. I cannot prove this, nor document the extent of the increase, but I believe it to be true. That has been the single biggest detriment to baseball of all time.
This dead time, which cannot even generate revenue, slows the pace of the game. Even if players benefited from this extra time, which I do not believe they do, it reduces the entertainment value of a baseball game.
Friday I tried watching the Yankee game in Boston on live TV. I couldn't take it. Pretty much every batter walks around between pitches. Pitchers also take plenty of time to throw the next pitch. After watching this for a while I kept asking: what is he doing? Why? Batters step out even with no runners on base. They do not even look to the third base coach for a sign. It's completely pointless, a nonsensical technique promoted by coaches as a demonstration that they are earning their coaching salaries.
I recorded the rest of the game and watched it the next day, fast forwarding between pitches, a tedious but essential task, that at least makes the game somewhat watchable, though not enjoyable.
People much younger than I will not bother. They will do other things. Pretty much any other things.
Bud Selig is presiding over the slow death of what was once the great national pastime of the United States of America.
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