SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Well, what do you know, the Super Bowl has been played, the National Basketball Association has become a trading post, the National Hockey League has plenty of Stanley Cup candidates, and college basketball has brought the upset cart.
And up comes Major League Baseball as spring training opens Monday in Arizona and Florida, and for players reporting early ahead of the upcoming World Baseball Classic, and the rest of the pitchers and catchers will start workouts two days later.
No doubt the seasons are clear, for following an offseason of record spending in which the New York Mets approached $379 million payroll, opening day on March 30 will feature three of the biggest changes since the pitcher’s mound was lowered for the 1969 season, which incidentally was the one of the amazing Mets.
(1) Two infielders will be required on either side of second base and all infielders must be within the other boundary of the infield when the pitcher is on the rubber.
(2) Base size will increase to 18-inch squares from 15 inches, causing a decreased distance of 4 1/2 inches.
(3) A pitch clock will be used, set at 15 seconds with no runners on base and 20 seconds with runners.
Said MLB commissioner Rob Manfield: “This has been an eight-year effort for us”, thinking back to when the first experiments were formulated. “I hope we get what our fans want — more action, more athleticism.”
Spring training began a month late due to the baseball lockout, and many players scrambled for deals as camps opened. This offseason has proceeded more normally and some of the focus will be on stars with new homes (Jacob deGrom to Texas, Justin Verlander to NY Mets), Trea Turner to Philadelphia, and Xander Bogaerts to San Diego).
Some teams also have new bosses in Bruce Bochy (Texas), Matt Quatraro (Kansas City), Pedro Grifol (Chicago White Sox), and Skip Schumaker (Miami). What they face is far different from the challenges thrown at John McGraw and Connie Mack, and even Earl Weaver and Billy Martin.
Baseball’s timelessness spanned a century and a half in our national pastime’s sport obsessed with its sepia-toned history of flannel-clad pioneers.
Some examples, the average time of a nine-inning game stretched from 2 hours, 30 minutes in the mid 1950s to 2:46 in 1989 and 3:30 in 2021 before dropping to 3:04 last year following the introduction of the Pitch Com electric device to signal pitchers.
It’s still three strikes and you’re out, three outs in an inning, double plays, base stealing, sacrifice flies, tagging up, and of course arguing with the umpires.
