How Has the Pitch Clock and Other Newly Adopted Rules Impacted Baseball?
A look at attendance and in-game stats. Is baseball more “exciting” now?
Baseball is boring — or at least that’s the main complaint from sports fans who’d rather watch football or basketball.
Over the decades, baseball has been relegated from being the most important sport in American culture to being the third best option and a perceived yawn-fest by younger generations who’d rather look at their smartphones.
It’s time to change that.
At the start of the 2023 season, Major League Baseball implemented several new rules in an attempt to make the ballpark experience more palatable for fans.
Changes included adding a pitch clock, wider bases, banning infield shifts, and limiting pickoff attempts — all of which are designed to speed up the game and generate more fan excitement.
Now that we’re half-way through the MLB season, let’s take a look at how the new rules have impacted baseball so far.
The pitch clock has definitely shortened the game
Since the 1990s, the length of baseball games has ballooned to over 3 hours per game. Basketball games, on the other hand…
