Commissioner, We Have a Problem

The White Sox topped the Rangers 2-0 Sunday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Whatever behind five hitless innings from starter Reynaldo Lopez.  Yea!  Now, someone tell me why the game took 2:57 to play.

I mean, Texas got its lone hit in the sixth inning.  Add four walks and two errors to come up with a total of seven baserunners for the visitors, minus one for the double play.  On the other side of the ledger, the Sox managed a mere five hits to go with four walks and one baserunner courtesy of an error, minus one baserunner for the double play.  Why, oh why, then does a game that featured all of fourteen baserunners take just under three hours to complete?

It’s reached a point where up is officially down on baseball broadcasts.  Commercials on some games run on a split screen during a short, under a minute, lull in the action.  This does nothing to speed things up; it’s simply another commercial on top of too many others.  Instead, why not run those split-screen ads between innings?  Show players trotting out to their positions and pitchers warming up.  After sixty seconds, start the action, and keep the split screen until all the silly ads have run.

That’s how you shorten the length of a game.  And, while you’re at it, Commissioner Manfred, tell the umpires to crack down on hitters stepping out of the box to play with their batting gloves.  No more imitating Mike Hargrove, the Human Rain Delay.