No shortage of opinions so far on the pitch timer

It started out with a tweet I published following Sunday’s Orioles game, which took just two hours and 16 minutes to play, posing a question. What did fans think of the use of the pitch timer thus far?

Twitter didn’t disappoint in that I received a large amount of responses and I did not count up how many were positive or negative but there were plenty of both. It should come as no surprise that there were responses in the extremes – some that thought it was great and others that felt it was just terrible and ruining the game.

I would guess it’s way too soon to pass any real judgment, but I do thus far like the faster pace of play, quicker pace and shorter time of games.

Through Sunday and their first 10 spring training games, the Orioles had played six games lasting 2:40 or more and four that lasted 2:21 or less.

Through the 10 games, the average time of an O’s spring contest is two hours, 36 minutes. The average time of a game last year in the majors was 3:03 and it was 3:10 in 2021. The last year that a game time averaged under three hours was in 2015 at 2:56. So going with last year’s time and this year’s spring thus far, the O’s games are shorter from last year in MLB by 27 minutes.

With O’s games at 2:36 now, if the MLB average finished there at the end of this year, this would be the lowest for the sport since 2:35 in 1984.

Now yesterday added to the average time of the Orioles and Twins combined for 13 runs, 21 hits and 17 walks in a game that took three hours and 10 minutes. That increased the average time of an O's game up a couple of ticks to 2:39.

A well-pitched low scoring game took less time (said Captain Obvious) and the O’s had a run of four shorter games over a five-day stretch between last Wednesday and Sunday. Their longest game so far, before Tuesday, was their spring opener, a 10-5 win over the Twins that took two hours and 54 minutes. The shortest was the 2:16 game from Sunday, a 5-2 win over the Rays at Tropicana Field.

Sure there have been some violations as pitchers, hitters, fans and media get used to the pitch timer. The umpires and players need to gain experience and get comfortable with it too. But the violations seem minimal thus far and some were expected. If this goes like it did in the minors last year, when the season starts, the number of violations will likely lessen.

The one beef, if you will, that I heard often in that unofficial Twitter polling was that “the game is too rushed.” Whether that complaint is legit or fans are still getting used to the new rules isn’t clear to me. Will fewer fans feel this way in a few more weeks? Guess we will find out.

There were fans that felt the shorter times would mean fewer concession sales. I don’t get that. Are there really fans that are going to leave the park saying they would have had those extra hot dogs and a beer if the game had just been 30 minutes longer? 

Some fans that travel long distances to see games said they didn’t want it to end in two hours and 20 minutes. They want to spend more time at the park. They could do that by going in earlier I would guess to see the end of batting practice for instance or just to have extra time to walk around and/or tour the park.

Right now the faster pace is working for some of us, but not all us.

Again, it’s too soon to pass judgment and know for sure how this is going to look over 162 games. Maybe I am not in the majority here, but I like what I’ve seen so far. I think it will be big for the game in the short term and maybe attract more younger fans in the long haul. I think MLB officials were thinking not just about today but about the next 10, 20, 30 years when they put some of these rules in place.