Appearing on “Good Morning America” near the beginning of the season, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred declared that the pitch clock and other rule changes would restore baseball to “when it was the most popular.” The executive didn’t specify when exactly the sport ruled all, but for context, the five most-watched World Series fell between 1978 and 1982.
Back then, an average MLB game in 1982 lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes.
In 2023, the average baseball game has lasted … 2 hours and 40 minutes.
At all the All-Star break, MLB’s implementation of a pitch clock has undoubtedly had its intended effect: Games are now shorter, falling in line with the pace of play from the sport’s previous eras. Thanks to a 15-second timer between pitches— or 20 if a runner is on base — the average game has finished 26 minutes sooner than it did last season.
The changes haven’t necessarily brought fans back in masses — the era of 40 million viewers tuning into a baseball game is over — but they may be having an impact. Halfway through the season, MLB attendance is at its highest since 2018 — with an average of 28,236 fans going to games, according to Baseball Reference. That’s nearly 2,000 fans per game compared to a year ago.
And, as of June 27, MLB has also seen an uptick in its television ratings. National broadcasts are up 26%, Sportico reported. The average game across Fox, ESPN, FS1 and TBS has averaged 923,689 viewers per game, which is up nearly 200,000 per outing.
Has a pitch clock been the main reason people are coming back to the sport? That might be a stretch, given television and attendance ratings are affected by all sorts of factors.
But at the very least, the pitch clock and MLB’s rules changes have resonated: A Seton Hall Sports Poll found in late May that 65% of respondents viewed the pitch clock favorably, while 57% and 53% were fans of the larger bases and the banning of infield shifts.
“America’s Pastime is now passing less of it – and the end result could well be more fan engagement,” Daniel Ladik, a Seton Hall University marketing professor who was the chief methodologist to the poll, said in a press release. “These numbers are compelling, and they’ve held from what was pre-season theoretical to actual
in-season practice.”
To be clear, there have been a few bumps with MLB’s rollout of the clock. Early in the season, veteran pitchers like Philadelphia’s Aaron Nola and the Mets’ Max Scherzer grumbled about the enforcement of the rules and have gotten creative in attempts to find loopholes.
But players have seemingly gotten on board with the clock. According to MLB Clock Violations, a Twitter account dedicated to tracking pitch clock penalties, there have been 746 violations this season — or half a violation per game (with 1,357 games being played so far).
“I really like it a lot,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “We’re really young. It keeps our players engaged. It keeps them focused in the game, so everything’s gone really well when it comes to the pitch clock.”
As the year has progressed, Martinez says he’s noticed batters adapting to how much time is left on the clock and when they need to be ready to hit.
Elsewhere, according to Baseball Reference, teams are combining to average a total of 9.14 runs per game — which would be the highest since 2020. Teams are also stealing bases at a higher rate, with now there being nearly 1 ½ stolen bases per game. In addition to the pitch clock, MLB increased the size of bases from 15 inches to 18 inches for this season.
“Our research showed that the game had evolved and changed in a way that fans didn’t like, and we decided it was time to intervene, to make sure we put the best form of baseball on the field,” Manfred said in March.
At the halfway mark, that appears to be happening.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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