Basketball has a 24-second shot clock. Football has a 40-second play clock. Unlike basketball and football, baseball does not have a time limit to keep the flow of the game moving. Major League Baseball has made a few rule changes in the Minor Leagues in an attempt to speed up the game for entertainment purposes.
After a test run in the Arizona Fall League, when the bases are unoccupied, a 20-second pitch clock will be given to pitchers when they receive the ball back from the catcher at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.
In the occurrence of a violation, the batter will be rewarded with a ball. Also, batters will be required to keep one foot in the batters’ box at all times during their plate appearance and there will be shorter breaks in between innings and pitching changes.
“I don’t think it’s going to change the game too much,” WSU head baseball coach Greg Lovelady said. “We have one in college. We don’t necessarily have a clock that you can see but the umpire keeps a stopwatch and makes sure that we are making pitches within 20 seconds. In the SEC they actually have a clock.”
MLB rule 8.04 states, “When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball.” However, this rule has been ignored as pitchers have been given as much time as they please in the past.
“When they put it in for college, it sped the game up a little bit but you never see people getting called for a ball,” Lovelady said. “It doesn’t come into play too much. I’m sure it has sped up the game but it’s nothing like, wow this game is so much faster because of the pitch clock.”
Former MLB Commissioner, Bud Selig, retired this offseason and his replacement, Rob Manfred, has been open to the idea of change in the league.
Lovelady agrees that the pace of the game needs to be quicker and brought on the idea of a shorter season.
“We need to make some changes in the big leagues,” Lovelady said. “The wild card has been hugely successful but it also devalues the regular season a little bit so why play 162 games? We have to separate ourselves from the game of 100 years ago. I’m hoping Rob figures it out and makes some changes.”
Advancements in technology have opened the door for the possibility of an electronic strike zone and replay system to assure accurate and consistent results.
