Major League Baseball has implemented significant pace-of-play rule changes for the 2015 season in an effort to speed up the game, it was announced Friday.
This news is so incredibly troubling I am afraid that I won't be able to get everything I want to say on paper (or screen). I understand that these changes are minor and I understand their intentions, but it is just the beginning. I can't help but think that in a year or two, possibly even shorter given the rapidity of the decision to make these changes, there will be enforced pitch timers or worse.
When did we begin to believe that slow was something to avoid? That it detracted from our game? Let other sports deal within the strictures of time and clocks. The rhythm of our game will become interrupted and tainted if we continue to push towards faster finishes.
Perhaps I am afflicted by an inability and aversion to change, as Branch Rickey pointed out that many "baseball people" have. Yet, this baseball person can not help but feel that the pace and rhythm of our game is as near perfect as the ninety feet that separates first base from home plate. The waltz between pitcher and batter has beauty, intellect and conversation rolled into every pitch, swing and movement.
I will always watch the game and no amount of new rules will ever change that (hopefully). My opinion hardly matters. I am not a members of the BBWWAA. Just a fan with a fanatical appreciation for baseball - probably the last type of person on earth that Commissioner Manfred would ever listen to. But, there must be others out there that feel the same way. That are irked by the potential impacts these changes and future changes will have.
#KeepBaseballSlow