World Series Needs Weekend Day Games, Earlier Starting Times
PLUS: SHORTER GAMES WELCOME BUT NOT BY ANY MEANS
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Walker Buehler, now a free agent, missed all of 2002 and 2023 plus part of 2024 with injuries yet picked up a save in the World Series clincher, pitching the ninth inning against the Yankees on one day’s rest after starting Game 3 for the winning Dodgers …
Freddie Freeman’s 12 RBI (four of them on the two-out, 10th-inning walkoff grand slam that ended Game 1) tied Bobby Richardson’s World Series record, set in 1960 . . .
Seven talented L.A. pitchers never threw a pitch in the post-season: Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Gavin Stone, Emmet Sheehan, Tony Gonsolin, and Shohei Ohtani . . .
Closer Evan Phillips, injured in the NLCS, was also excluded from the Dodgers’ World Series roster . . .
Freeman, who now owns both regular-season and World Series MVP awards, ended on a high note after enduring a difficult season that included his son’s bout with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a broken finger, and a severe ankle sprain . . .
With the Mets in need of left-handed power, it’s possible they could sign Anthony Rizzo, whose club option was rejected by the Yankees, if 2024 first baseman Pete Alonso tests free agency — and maybe stays in New York by switching leagues.
Leading Off
Baseball Did Fans No Favors With Late World Series Games
By Dan Schlossberg
Since two-thirds of the U.S. population lives in the Eastern Time Zone, there was absolutely no reason for World Series games to start at 8:08 — and sometimes later.
First of all, there’s no excuse for playing weekend games at night. In fact, all World Series games were daylight affairs until 1971, when Commissioner Bowie Kuhn finally agreed on something said by enigmatic Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley.
It was Finley, an innovator whose teams won five straight division crowns plus three consecutive world championships, who said World Series games should be played at night — figuring more people could see them.
But he never guessed that television and commercial interests would push the starting times back so late that most of the audience would be asleep long before the games ended.
Nor did he mean for baseball to take a back seat to football for its showcase event. The fact that World Series Game 3 attracted a bigger TV audience than Monday Night Football is a case in point.
Baseball is meant to be played on real grass under real sunshine. “The Boys of Summer” produce their best work under the best conditions, which are rarely present on cold, blustery October nights in the Bronx.
They’ll never say so but maybe the conditions had something to do with the defensive disaster that erased a 5-0 Yankees lead with two outs in Game 5. It all began when Aaron Judge, normally a competent center-fielder, dropped a fly ball. Then, on the very next play, Gold Glove shortstop Anthony Volpe bounced a throw to third base. And pitcher Gerrit Cole suddenly forgot that he’s supposed to cover first base on ground balls to he first baseman.
Five unearned runs resulted, the momentum was reversed, and the Yankees never recovered.
Part of the problem is the willingness of Major League Baseball to let FOX television call the shots — including the starting time.
The network gets higher advertising rates for anything that begins at 7 o’clock or later — even something so awful as a pre-game show overpopulated with former players pretending to be decent announcers. Where is Bob Costas when we really need him?
The entire FOX production needs an overhaul. But nothing is worse than its habit of miking players and doing interviews during the game. The players and managers won’t admit it publicly but they hate the concept, especially when significant game action is obscured (as often happens).
If Rob Manfred really cares about the legacy he will leave when he retires in 2029, he will sit down his FOX counterpart, restore weekend day games for both the World Series and All-Star Game, and get the games going earlier so that fans can see the ending as well as the beginning.
Or maybe he just wants to let them see the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history on MLB Network the next day.
It’s just not the same.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ has been covering baseball since 1969. He’s the author of 42 books plus regular columns for forbes.com. Email him at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
Shorter Games Si, Manfred Man No
By Dan Schlossberg
Shorter games are a good thing. But not so for all the artificial stimuli added to reach that objective.
The Manfred Man still looms over the sport like a contested presidential election.
If it were such a good idea to post an automatic runner on second base at the start of every half-inning when a game goes into overtime, why doesn’t Major League Baseball use the rule in the post-season?
What’s good for the Goose Gossage is good for the gander. Or maybe not.
Rob Manfred’s lame-brained idea is the worst rules change in the history of baseball.
Worse than the designated hitter, the wild-card, the second wild-card, inter-league play, allowing fans to pick All-Star lineups (vote early, vote often), and even the endless, mindless post-season tournament that rarely results in the best teams reaching the World Series.
That’s a pretty tall order.
Ask anyone — players, coaches, managers, media members, fans, even Shohei Ohtani’s ubiquitous canine companion — and they’ll tell you, though maybe not for publication.
Manfred has a gag order. Those who dissent face retribution. And where have we heard that one before?
At least most of the other rules changes actually help the game.
Consider the 2023 season.
The average game was 24 minutes shorter than in 2022 at two hours and 40 minutes — the fastest since 1985 and the first time the average was under three hours since 2015.
The advent of the pitch clock helped — forcing dawdling batters as well as pitchers to move things along or face penalties — but was hardly the only factor. There were also rules changes regarding number of pickoff attempts, limitations on batters calling timeout, and stricter enforcement of time between innings, mound visits, and videotaped replay challenges.
In recent seasons, relievers were required to face at least three batters, shift-happy infielders were required to play on both sides of second base, and the intentional walk required a wave from the dugout rather than four actual pitches.
Earlier starting times have also helped, with many teams scheduling 6:30 starts so that fans at home and in the ballpark can stay awake long enough to watch the end of the game. The Commissioner’s office should do the same for weeknight postseason games only — and stage all others during daylight hours.
Too bad Bob Costas isn’t running the show. At age 72, he’s decided to retire from play-by-play — leaving a gaping void in the broadcasting fraternity. As a traditionalist, he’d make a great Commissioner of Baseball.
Unfortunately, the much-needed retirement of Rob Manfred is still five years away.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers the game for forbes.com, Memories & Dreams, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Here’s The Pitch, and many other outlets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Spring training is a time for experimentation and 2025 will be no different. MLB plans to test a ball-strike challenge system next spring, though Commissioner Rob Manfred did not reveal a timetable for its implementation . . .
Manfred did say he expected to have some form of automated zone in place before he leaves office during the 2028-2029 off-season . . .
The strike zone has changed four times, going from the original definition of shoulders to knees to armpits-to-knees in 1950, to top of the shoulders to knees in 1963, and again armpits-to-knees in 1969 . . .
New rules helped MLB realize its goal of shorter game times, with the average time cut by nearly a half-hour thanks to the pitch clock, limits on pickoff attempts, and a seven-second reduction in transition time from one batter to the next . . .
Speaking of umpires, catcher’s interference was never called in post-season play from 1985-2008 but has been called more than a dozen times since 2009 . . .
Balking at new rules? Consider Marlins reliever Richard Bleier, who never balked in any of his first 303 career games but became the first pitcher ever to balk three times while pitching to the same hitter on Sept. 27, 2022.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
Absolutely right on start times
Example: my son is 14 He loves baseball and is a Yankee fan He didn’t watch one game Yet he knew exactly what happened He gets his updates through alerts on his phone then watches highlights and analysis on YouTube Baseball is training fans to just go to bed and worry about it in the morning