America's Favorite Pastime Is Back — And Some Wish It Would Just Hurry Up!
As baseball tries to appeal to a younger audience, there's concern the long game times may drive away that demographic. So MLB is experimenting with speeding games up and eliminating downtime.
Baseball is back. Thursday is opening day for the major leagues. All 30 teams are in action. And while the cry of "play ball!" sounds throughout the majors, baseball officials hope the game embraces a companion cry of "hurry up!"
Since 2014, the average time of a nine-inning game has hovered at or above three hours, which may be driving away the younger demographic baseball is trying to appeal to.
When Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred made a recent spring training swing through Arizona, he acknowledged pace of play is one of the trends of the game that the league watches carefully.
