‘Pace of play’ changes won’t attract new Atlanta Braves fans

“If it weren’t for those darn 4-pitch intentional walks, or those mound visits, I’d start watching baseball.” ~ no one ever

Rob Manfred needs to stop with this madness. There has been a weird obsession about “pace of play” in the game of baseball over the past few years and it needs to stop. On Tuesday Ken Rosenthal wrote a mind-numbing piece in which he defended these proposed changes and points out that the average time a game increased to 4 minutes, 28 seconds last year. Okay. What’s your point, Ken?

First of all – introducing a pitch clock, reducing mound visits, putting a runner on second in extras, or doing away with the 4-pitch intentional walk are not why baseball games have been slower. If anything is actually slowing down games, its the increase of pitching changes in later innings. But even then, a measly 4 minute increase over one year is no reason to lose your minds.

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Rob Manfred seems to live in a delusional world where he believes that the game of baseball must attract everyone and be completely inclusive. This is not true. Baseball is not for everyone. And this is okay.

Baseball is a slow-paced game, with room for argument and anticipation, and it has been since the 1870’s. Just because our society is becoming dumber and dumber and allowing songs like “Watch Me Whip/Nae Nae” to reach the top of the charts doesn’t mean that we have to alter our national pastime to accommodate such zombies. Keep baseball the same and let the masses cater to it.

(Besides, changing the intentional walk rule does a little more than just speeding up the game. See Ryan Spaeder for more.)

Rob Manfred’s sole purpose in life is to keep the sport of baseball great while continually attracting new fans. But is speeding up the “pace of play” going to attract new fans? No. If Manfred wants to have a serious conversation about how to attract new fans he needs to start with asking himself why African American players make up only 8% of Major League Baseball.

MLB spends millions upon millions of dollars building camps in Latin countries so that they can develop talent. But do kids in the Dominican Republic grow up attending Cincinnati Reds games? No. Kids in Ohio and northern Kentucky grow up attending Cincinnati Reds games. Just like kids in Oakland grow up attending Oakland A’s games. So, spend some money here, in our own backyard, to attract our very own youth whom we are losing at an alarming rate to football and basketball, which are more affordable to play.

Rob Manfred is obsessed about changing the game and having Opening Day games in other countries while completely forgetting about our own back yard. How is having Opening Day in Syndey, Australia going to help ticket sales in Tampa?

Fundamental changes to the game of baseball is a futile effort in the battle to attract new fans. Furthermore, unless MLB plans on starting new teams in Latin countries, they should consider spending less dollars in said countries and more in the U.S. Especially in inner cities.

According to a study by Mark Armour and Daniel Levitt, by the Society For American Baseball Research (SABR), 1986 was the year in which we saw the most African Americans in MLB at 18.3%. Its been in steep decline ever since.

While baseball might be expanding among the youth in third-world countries, its actually constricting and becoming an elitist sport here in the states (where MLB clubs actually exist). The travel-ball baseball culture has consumed the sport across America, making it almost impossible for kids in impoverished areas to play and get adequate attention from scouts.

Next: Scouting report on Matt Withrow

Stop worrying about changing the rules. Start worrying about making baseball more accessible to the youth in our own backyard, Commissioner Manfred.