SHORTENING THE BASEBALL EXPERIENCE?

SHORTENING THE BASEBALL EXPERIENCE. My father used to say when he read complaints about baseball games being too long that it was sportswriters who made the biggest fuss about long games because they wanted to get their work over with. I think it’s still true. I haven’t heard any fans complaining about a Red Sox-Yankee game being too long. They are usually exciting and the excitement builds during the game. I use the Red Sox and Yankees as an example because a veteran major league umpire has created a controversy by calling the Yankees and Red Sox “pathetic” and “embarrassing” because their games that he had recently umpired had lasted too long. I want to suggest one mitigating circumstance for the umpire: I think the commissioner’s office may be making a misguided effort to shorten games by pressuring umpires to pressure players. Nevertheless, the comments suggest the troubling inference that the umpires—like some sportswriters—are eager to get their job over with. The players and manager quoted in this article criticize the umpire’s statements as possibly showing bias. Mariano Rivera explicitly says: “If he has places to go, let him do something else.”