How can baseball reduce the time of the games?

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

September 23, 2014, 9:09pm

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It is a big problem facing baseball - the games take too long. OK, not always and there can be plenty of drama and good play to make even a 3 1/2-hour game enjoyable, but the amount of games that take three-plus hours to play now seems endless. It is time for MLB to take some measures to improve this. This week, the sport did just that. Here is a press release from the commissioner's office. * Major League Baseball announced that Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig has conducted a conference call with a new committee that will study the issue of pace of game. The goals of the committee will focus on decreasing time of game and improving the overall pace of play in the 2015 regular season and beyond. The committee will be chaired by Atlanta Braves President John Schuerholz. Other members include (alphabetically) New York Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson; MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark; Boston Red Sox partner Michael Gordon; MLB Chief Operating Officer Rob Manfred; MLB Executive Vice President, Baseball Operations Joe Torre; and Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner. Commissioner Selig said: "We have the greatest game in the world, but we are always looking for ways to improve it. The game is at its highest levels of popularity and we will continue to strive to identify ways that can build on its stature well into the future. With the cooperation of all appropriate parties, we can make progress on improving the pace of play, and we will have recommendations in the very near future for the 2015 season. I believe that this group has the experience and the perspective to be mindful of our game's traditions while being creative about our approach in the future." While many of us can agree that the games are taking too long on average, not many can agree on workable solutions to change that. MLB probably needs to do something to speed up the time it takes to get a bullpen pitcher into a game. With all the pitching changes we see nightly, making this a quicker process would be a good start. So what suggestions do you have? Without making radical changes to the sport, what moves can be made to improve the pace of the games?