Since the beginning of the decade, Major League Baseball (MLB) has implemented a myriad of changes to the game to, as MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “make sure we put the very best form of baseball on the field.” While some of these changes have benefited the sport, others have had quite the opposite effect. In its efforts to create “the very best form of baseball,” MLB made aspects of its product better while catering it to the television audience at the expense of the in-person ballgame experience.
Increasing the size of the bases has been met with success. The league wanted to encourage base stealing to add more action to the game. The league increased the size of the three square bases from 15 inches in length to 18 inches at the start of the 2023 season. The increase shortened the distances between bases by four and a half inches, making stealing bases easier. The league leader in stolen bases in 2022 was Jon Berti of the Miami Marlins, with 41 stolen bases. In 2023, Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. finished his National League (NL) Most Valuable Player season as the league leader in stolen bases with 73, becoming the first player to eclipse 70 since Jacoby Ellsbury in 2009. It’s undeniable that there has been a renaissance on the basepaths — the explicit goal that MLB set out to achieve. More stolen bases and stolen base attempts mean a livelier game, an unequivocal positive for any spectator.
A common criticism of the postseason expansion is that the postseason should be more exclusive and should not reward “mediocre” teams, but the teams taking these wild card spots are far from mediocre.
Another impactful change made by MLB is the additional “wild card” spot in the postseason. The winners of the six divisions — the east, central and west in both the NL and American League (AL) — automatically qualify for the postseason. The “wild card” spots are for the teams with the best records in the NL and AL that did not win their division. Since 2022, 12 teams each year have qualified for the postseason, with six from the NL and six from the AL — an increase from the 10 in years past. Having the additional wild card team gives one more team from the NL and one from the AL a chance to compete for the World Series.
A common criticism of the postseason expansion is that the postseason should be more exclusive and should not reward “mediocre” teams, but the teams taking these wild card spots are far from mediocre. The additional wild card teams in the NL during the past two seasons, the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022 and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023, ended up winning the NL pennant and competing in the World Series. The league is adding real World Series contenders to give them a shot in the playoffs.
The additional wild card spot also keeps fanbases of more teams invested in the sport towards the season’s end. For example, I’m a New York Mets fan, and the Mets finished the 2024 regular season in that final wild card spot after winning their second to last regular season game. I lived and died by every pitch in late September. Had my team not had that final spot to push for, I’m not sure I would have as much of a vested interest in late September baseball. I certainly would not be as interested in this year’s postseason as I am now, with my favorite team playing for a chance at the World Series.
The pitch timer that MLB implemented prior to the 2023 season is a contentious change. Pitchers now have 15 seconds to throw a pitch when the bases are empty and 18 seconds when runners are on base. If the pitcher does not pitch the ball in time, he gets penalized with an automatic ball in the count. Similarly, if the batter is not ready to bat by the time there are eight seconds left on the timer, he gets penalized with an automatic strike. These rules were designed to shorten the length of MLB games, and it definitely succeeded. The average length of a game in the 2023 season was two hours and 40 minutes, a significant decrease from the 2022 average of three hours and four minutes. This was considered a necessary change to many fans, as pace of play was an issue for them. But the pitch timer has done more damage than good, especially to the in-stadium experience.
It’s clear the pitch timer massively appeals to the TV audience. I understand that more people watch the games on television rather than attending them. Still, the in-person experience of going to a baseball game has changed for the worse. When I go to Citi Field with my friends or family, it’s a social event. We plan the day around going to the ballpark and spending time at the game. It’s much easier to keep the experience more conversational and less intense on a Wednesday night in June when the game is being played at a slightly slower pace.
The prices for tickets and concessions at games have increased while the duration of games has decreased. Here in New York, the overall price for a Yankees game rose roughly 11% from 2021 to 2023 and roughly four percent in that same time frame for Mets games. This means that fans are paying more money to watch less baseball. With how much we fans spend going to the ballpark, is an extra 25 minutes of baseball really going to hurt that much?
The faster pace does not allow any leeway to be late to a game, which is incredibly unfair to the countless fans who travel far to games or come straight from school or work. For instance, I went to the Mets game on Sept. 6 with my brother. It was a Friday night, so there was a lot of traffic with the U.S. Open still running and both New York airports nearby. While we arrived at the stadium gates only around 45 minutes late after parking, it was already the fourth inning. That’s more than a third of the game we missed because of mitigating circumstances, and we were far from the only fans that arrived late. The official game time that night was two hours and 35 minutes; even with the game going to extra innings, we spent more time going to and from the stadium than at the stadium. Prior to the era of the pitch timer, we would have been able to spend much more time together at the ballpark as the pace of the game would have been reasonably slower.
So after looking at these changes, is it clear that the game has changed for the better? Some changes such as bigger bases and the expanded postseason are definitely positive changes. The pitch timer impacts the fan experience of going to a baseball game for the worse. The only certainty about the totality of the changes in MLB is that the sport is evolving before our eyes whether we like it or not.
