Time between pitches.

The youtube video of Mickey Mantle hitting his 500th home run demonstrates that it's possible for a batter to succeed without walking around after each pitch.  The Mick homers on a 3-2 pitch and after stepping out only once.

On The Clock.  Sunday, March 24, 2013

I can understand that greed trumps all and that allowing more than one minute between half innings permits more commercials and that means more revenue, especially for bigger games on national TV.  The bigger the game the longer the commercial interruption.  I get that.
But what about the delay between pitches?  That’s what really sucks the life out of the game.
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There are about 300 pitches in a game.  If batters waste 20 seconds per pitch aimlessly wandering around that's (300 * 20) / 60 = 100 minutes of completely wasted time, which you can never get back.

How long does it take to record an out on a batted ball?  Let's say five seconds.  Let's say there are ten strike outs per team.  That leaves 34 other outs.  (5 * 34) / 60 = 2.8 minutes.

Let's say there are ten hits per team.  How long does a hit take?  Let's say seven seconds.  That's four minutes.

The ten strike outs per team: (5 * 20) / 60 = 1.7 minutes.

Are you getting the picture?  Plus, there are all those non-consequential pitches that do not conclude a plate appearance.

Summary:
- wasted time between pitches: 100 minutes
- batted ball outs: 2.8 minutes
- hits: 4 minutes
- strike out pitches: 1.7 minutes

Look at the ratios.  This is why watching Major Baseball League (MBL) games is torture.  You can still discern that there is an entertaining game buried in there but you're stuck waiting for it to emerge from 300 stoppages.

Yeah, the TV commercials also extend the time to complete a game.  Let's say five minutes each half inning: 18 * 5 = 90 minutes.  And of course, there are plenty of other stupid stoppages like meetings, arguments, pitcher changes, throws to first, etc.

But here's the thing that most baseball fans are too dense to grasp: during the commercials, no one expects action.  When play resumes we expect action but do not get it.  Get it?  The game has no pace.  None.  And barely a pulse.

So what the heck are we watching that does not remind us of death?