Pace of the Game

Baseball has never been fast game but is becoming slower. You can blame commercial breaks and instant replay, or you can blame Derek Jeter and Jonathan Pabelbon and the umpires who monitor them.

Jeter is a wonderful player, but his at-bat antics (more precisely his out-of-the-batters-box antics) are a drag on the game. And umpires let him get away with it.

MLB Rule 6.02 gives umpire the power to prevent players from jumping out of the box at will to take practice swings, tighten their batting gloves, adjust their their helmet, and any of the other habits you see. But they rarely enforce it by calling a strike—let alone issuing a warning.

I am picking on Derek Jeter because I live in the NYC metro area, and I see him on the screen. But he is not alone in this ritualistic practice of stepping out of the box after nearly every pitch.

It’s not just hitters who slow the game. Pitchers play a role, too. Think about the Jonathan Papelbon stare-down. Again, umpires have a tool at their disposal, at least when the bases are empty. But when was the last time you saw an umpire call a ball because a pitcher failed to begin his windup within 12 seconds of receiving the game?

Joe Girardi was on WFAN talking about damaging the integrity of the game if rule makers take draconian steps such as shortening the count to 3 balls for a walk and 2 strikes for a trip back to the dugout. Baseball does not need radical re-invention, just stricter enforcement.