Forever baseball has operated without a clock. This made it unique from other sports like football and basketball. In baseball teams had to get 27 outs. There was no stalling or running down the clock so the other team could not score. Now this very notion of not having a clock is turning viewers away from the sport. In today’s society people seem to have less of an attention span than they did several years ago. They want to have a nice and tidy 2+ hour game and then move on with their lives. The results of this change in lifestyle is starting to show up in the viewership of the game.

If we look at the Women’s College World Series versus the Men’s College World Series last year, the WCWS average 1,912,000 viewers during its 3 game final. Compare that with the men who averaged 1,412,000 for its 3 game series finally. That’s an average of 500,000 more viewers per game for the women than the men.

Looking at the length of the games, the women’s game times were 2:05, 1:33, and 2:23. That is a sharp contrast to the men’s times of 3:31, 3:42, and 3:37. Making the problem worse is that when the game is usually at its best, most dramatic point is when the game is moving the slowest. Often times in late innings, in a close game, with runners on base is when coaches seem to slow the game down.

So what do we do to fix the problem?

The NCAA proposed a 20-second pitch clock with runners on base, but the rule was referred back to the committee and will not be introduced in 2016. A survey of 25 Division I conferences and found little support for the pitch clock.

Major League Baseball has experimented with all of the following to help speed up the pace of place:

– 20-second pitch clock 
– Batter’s box rule – The hitter must keep at least one foot in the batter’s box between pitches 
– No-pitch intentional walks 
– 2:30 inning break rule – They is max limit of 2:30 between each half inning. 
– 2:30 pitching change rule – All pitching changes must be completed in 2:30. 
– Three “time out” limit – Each team is allowed only 3 conferences per game

The results of these initiatives has been positive as game times have gone down. However, the impact seems to be minimal. In Triple-A, using the 20-second pitch clock the game times decreased by 16 minutes to an average of 2:40.

It seems like everyone agrees that there is a pace of play problem in all levels of baseball. The solution has yet to be agreed upon. If we are going to bring more people back to the game and grow the game even bigger than someone needs to find a solution.