Pace of play is pretty much back to its totally unacceptable and colossally boring state as established during the Selig regime. Commissioner Rob Manfred, the A-Rod Slayer, has completely failed to implement effective improvement. This will continue the decline of baseball into irrelevance.
But Manfred is not the only culprit. The media moaned and groaned about this before the season, then dropped it after a couple of weeks. We fans are also to blame. We continue to buy tickets, merchandise and to watch on TV. That would lead some to conclude that baseball is healthy and that change, certainly radical change, is not needed. However, I think our interest is based on habit and our level of real involvement is tenuous at best.
The return to bad habits is even including the hated batter turning his back on the plate as he walks away. I saw a complete nobody on the Royals do that. Then he paused to adjust his batting gloves. And this guy had been a soccer player. Except for the goalie, they don't even use their hands, so why was he fiddling with his gloves?
The players are back to driving me nuts. After just about every pitch I can become exasperated and ask rhetorically: what are you doing, why are you stepping out? BORING!
Without distractions it's impossible to watch a baseball game. You need something else going on: another TV, computer, phone conversation, food, reading. Try it. Try just watching baseball. Just baseball. Watch the batters step out after every pitch. Then watch the pitcher jerk around. Relax while some fat old guy in his baseball costume waddles out to the mound. Watch all manner of delay. But don't multitask. Just watch the baseball game on TV. I dare you.
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