Opinion, From Where I Sit: My thoughts about the New MLB Pitch Clock

After a long offseason for Major League Baseball (MLB), it finally makes its return for the 2023 season. Just like any other sport, the League decided to implement many new changes to its rulebook.

Now, many of these changes are minor, like the new pickoff rule or the bigger bases. However, one rule in particular is the center of attention for both the players and fans.

That rule is the pitch clock.

The official rule states, “Pitchers have 15 seconds to throw a pitch with the bases empty and 20 seconds with a runner on base. Hitters will need to be in the batter’s box with eight seconds on the pitch clock.”

If the pitcher has not initiated a motion to deliver a pitch by the time the clock hits zero, he will be charged with a ball. On the other hand, if a batter delays his entry into the box, he will be charged with a strike.

Now, why would the MLB even need this?

Well, MLB’s intent is to shorten the runtime of the game. On average, a nine-inning game of ball lasted more than three hours in 2022. This number has slowly been on the rise, ever since the longest game occurred in 2014, lasting over six hours!

Whenever I first heard about this rule change, I thought it was a bit overkill.

To compare, let’s look at the National Football League (NFL). Those games average roughly three hours per game, which is about the same runtime as an MLB game. So, why not shorten the length of NFL games? But let’s get back to the rule.

When tested during the month-long spring training, the pitch clock did reduce the time to roughly two-and-a-half hours per game. That is nearly a thirty-minute time cut, which actually creates a big difference.

During the first week, however, there were a lot of violations because of this new rule. The number of violations did slowly decrease as players acclimated themselves to the rule change, which is something to expect. It will take time to get used to a drastic change like this. It is expected that these violations will eventually disappear.

As I mentioned before, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this change. I didn’t think this would really make a difference when watching the actual game. Although, it made a huge difference.

Normally, I don’t watch baseball on television because of all the “dead” time throughout the game. Although, I did decide to watch some of the Pittsburgh Pirates games after I heard about the clock. I thought it was much more enjoyable to watch with the implementation of the pitch clock.

Just like the MLB wanted, it moved the game along and eliminated the “dead” time where nothing occurs.

In fact, in an AP News post on Twitter, Chris Garagiola, the Arizona Diamondbacks broadcaster said, “We’re saving 25-26 minutes of nothing (per game). I did the math over a whole season, which adds up to under 80 hours. I mean, just three full days of nothing.”

There are arguments for both sides because of this rule. Some say the game should be played out as is without rushing through the game. Others say it will increase the excitement of the game, which is something I personally agree with.

There is always going to be a divide about this rule, but this is the new norm for the game.

Despite all the controversy it caused, it remained in play for the Opening Day of the regular season on March 30.

Story by: Carlin Whalen (cjw6426@psu.edu)