Shorter games, more running, more action. Two years in, MLB's rule changes have provided a jolt
Major League Baseball is thriving two years after introducing sweeping measures to make the game more exciting
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Two years ago, it looked as if Major League Baseball was having an existential crisis. To many inside the game, it certainly felt like one as a sport built on its timelessness careened toward a future hellbent on speeding things up.
Pitch clocks. Defensive shift bans. Bigger bases. Fewer throwovers. Ghost runners. Expanded playoffs designed to keep more teams in contention. All with the expressed purpose of getting the fans in the stands to put down their phones and the ones sitting at home from flipping to a channel where something — anything really — was actually happening.
Though the changes were working, there was trepidation. And with good reason.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts could feel baseball retreating into the mainstream background, and the metrics — from attendance to TV ratings on down — backed it up.
