COVID-19 has made a mockery of human life on planet Earth. A microscopic virus has shown us how fragile, unstable and ultimately tragic our attempts at stability are. Sports, especially professional sports, seems an odd place to focus our pandemic woes, but if the pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that humans need distractions. Boredom may be one of the most significant existential crisis that exists for the species. In normal times, there’s so much sport in the daily life of modern people that we take it for granted. When they suddenly disappear, it’s a shock to the system. In fact, I first realized the seriousness of the global pandemic when I read that the NBA had canceled the remainder of their season.
When MLB did not start at the end of March or early April as they do year in and year out, I hardly noticed as by then, it was all pandemic all the time. I distracted myself with nightly TV viewing and only occasionally checked the MLB news as they struggled to figure out a way to have a 2020 season. Obviously the season has been salvaged, we’re just coming off the fascinating trade deadline and the stretch run for the post-season is right in front of us.
There were some quirky things done to make this season a possibility, and I’m going to focus on just one: the 7-inning game. It was created for occasions when a double-header would be needed to allow the teams to get as many games in as they could in the shortened season, without wrecking pitching staffs and creating arduously long days of baseball that would impact subsequent games. What MLB may have unintentionally created is a better version of the grand old game.
I am not a traditionalist by nature. I hold holidays in disdain, I’m politically progressive enough that I probably should be living in the Netherlands and I love to tinker. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it is a fine adage, and it applies often enough. But sometimes it is broken, and tradition prevents us from trying to fix it. The knock on baseball has long been that the games are too long and that it moves too slowly. I have defended the game against all naysayers over the decades, but in all honesty, it can drag a bit in the middle innings and when games are 3+ hours in length, it’s hard to argue that a shorter game might not be an improvement. Humans are easily bored, as I mentioned at the outset.
I’ve long lamented that a 7:05 start time is ridiculous as if you have to go to work or school in the morning, you’ll probably have to bail out before the game is over. It’s even worse in the post-season when games start even later, and they add in more time between innings to get more commercial breaks in. There have been many a World Series game where I end up watching the end in bed with the remote in my hand, ready to shut it off the moment the game ends so I can get some sleep. Surely there must be a way to address these things.
MLB has tried some rather silly things to speed up the game, like limiting mound visits, trying to get hitters to stay in the box between pitches, even toyed around with the idea of putting pitchers on a clock. None of these things have worked, but ending the game after 7 innings absolutely works, and it has the added benefit of improving the quality of the game compared to these other ideas which do not. How is a 7 inning game better? The urgency of the game starts earlier. The pressure begins to build just as the traditional 9-inning game starts to get into the doldrums. A starting pitcher who is pitching the game of his life doesn’t have to risk injury and exhaustion to finish the game. Parents don’t have to chase their kids off to bed on a school night while the game is still going. Adults don’t have to take the dog out one last time at 11:00 PM after watching a 3+ hour game. A night at the ballpark can compete with a night at the movies for family entertainment.
I think the 2020 season will have an impact on MLB going forward. Some of the things I haven’t mentioned, like bringing the Designated Hitter to the National League, and expanding the playoff picture may get consideration as a part of the game’s future. Even starting a runner at 2nd base in extra innings may be a thing going forward, and I applaud them all, but I doubt anyone is seriously considering the 7-inning game as the ultimate tweak which I think it is. And that’s a damn shame.
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