http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/mlb-exec-suggests-games-should-be-shortened-to-7-innings-040714 Does baseball need to change to win some new fans? That's the theory of an unnamed high-ranking Major League Baseball executive. In a subscriber-only blog post, ESPN's Buster Olney quotes an anonymous baseball exec as saying that the sport's audience has changed and MLB games should be shortened to 7 innings to accomodate it. According to Olney's post: The games are often played too slowly, he noted. The audience of Major League Baseball is aging, with polls indicating that the youngest generation expects faster and fastest in what it consumes. At the same time, the exec said, teams are struggling to find enough good pitching -- and, at the same time, the number of injuries is skyrocketing. If oblique strains were the prevalent injury two years ago, ulnar collateral ligament strains are the ailment du jour. Top prospect Jameson Taillon of the Pirates is the latest pitcher to be headed for Tommy John surgery; maybe he'll bump into Bobby Parnell along the way. So this exec's solution is to shorten the games. A seven inning game would run about 2 and one half hours, instead of the three plus of the current length games. Last year, a Wall Street Journal study estimated that there are about 18 minutes of action over the course of three hours of a baseball game. Does the game need a drastic change to cater to the younger generation's need for instant gratification?
Meanwhile MLB The Show on the PS4 is looking fantastic. [video=youtube;DhQeb-A2jX8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhQeb-A2jX8[/video] A year ago, MLB 13: The Show was a visually arresting PS3 baseball game. It made me say, “Ooh!” Now, despite sporting essentially the same graphics as it did last season, MLB 14: The Show on PS3 instead made me say, “Oof!” And that’s no fault of the game; the PS3 hardware has been pushed as far as it can go. The difference is the PlayStation 4. The mere existence of Sony’s new console has recalibrated my internal meter for what looks impressive. Such is the price of progress. But now that I’ve had a chance to play a pair of nine-inning games on PS4 in 1080p, I’m pleased to report that, for the most part, MLB 14: The Show on PlayStation 4 restores the “wow” factor to the long-running hardball sim, giving it graphics that can once again match up to its excellent gameplay. The ballparks have all been given glorious makeovers. Indeed, MLB 14 on PS4 looks decidedly next-gen. The lighting stages are gorgeous, with bright sunlight, sunset, and night lighting all giving the action a very at-the-ballpark kind of feel. Meanwhile, player models look better than ever (some players’ hats look weird, though), and most of all, the ballparks are drastically improved. Above all else, it was the MLB cathedrals themselves that were showing their age on PS3 (though not in the good, Wrigley Field or Fenway Park kind of way). Here, they’ve all been given glorious makeovers, with high-def stadium details, impressive-up-close grass, and clumps of dirt and chalk that build up around the home plate area as the game progresses all lending a much-needed breath of fresh air to a series that, visually, had gotten stale on PS3. Only the presence of disappointingly jaggy foul lines made me wish for more anti-aliasing, but then again, this version was developed on an especially abbreviated schedule. What Sony San Diego has done on a compressed schedule is laudable, though of course, given that the game isn’t discounted to take its shortened timeline into account, it’s fair to have the usual expectations of a $60 title (a discussion about nine-month sports game development schedules versus consumer expectations for a yearly release is a whole separate article). And in case you’re curious, the PS4 version is functionally identical to the great PS3 game, with the microscopic change of Select button functions (like end your pitcher warm-ups) moving to a press of the touchpad button. I have a lot more to play once the final copy gets into my hands in a few weeks from now, but my initial impression is that if you’re a PS3 and PS4 owner who’s holding out for the PS4 version, you may very well be satisfied with your decision.
I haven't bought a baseball game since bases loaded and RBI Baseball. I'm not much into baseball anymore but this game I might buy!
They'll remove innings before they remove commercials. Hell, they'll fold the league before they remove commercials!
They need to put limits on the time between pitches. It's both the fault of the batters and pitchers, but that's the primary cause of the slowdown of the game.
They supposedly did this a few years ago, didn't they (at least I thought they did)? But it seems things have reverted back. I think the instant replay, while a solid idea, is slowing shit down way too much. And in a few games I've watched, a pitcher has mostly be rolling, then replay comes in, he's stopped for a few minutes, and he never regains his pace.
It's pretty stupid to shorten innings played. All they need to do is two things- enforce the strike zone and allow only 10 seconds betwseen pitches.
I'm a big fan of instant reply in sports and by no means should it be looked a cause of game slow down. Baseball was slow before instant reply and there are other ways to fix this.
A change so drastic that it makes records and history meaningless (7 innings) is no way to build on your fan base. Speed the game up. It used to take about an hour less to play nine innings. Less posturing and more playing. Use a timeclock if you have to with taildraggers. Get your butt in the box and face the pitcher. Quit stepping off the bag and pitch the ball. Hey Ump, keep everybody moving along. Use a timeclock if you have to with taildraggers.
