extra inning runner

[Centerfield]

It's frustrating because there was such a simple compromise position. Two innings of regular extras, then start with the runner in the 12th. I might even be for that rule.



But I think the cat is out of the bag now. And people will point to games (like yesterday's) where the rule shortened the game. What's done is done, I think, and like JCL says, all of us old white guys are going to have to deal with it.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

ESPN's Karl Ravitch has been clamoring to shorten all games to seven innings to speed things along. Don't like it.

[Edgy MD]

And that just makes me want to extend the games to 11 innings.



Ravech is Binghamton grad of 1990, so vtmet and MFS62's daughter probably know him and can reach out to him.



Keith is Keith, but announcers complaining about game length is a bad look.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=95007 time=1654540352 user_id=119]
ESPN's Karl Ravitch has been clamoring to shorten all games to seven innings to speed things along. Don't like it.

[metsmarathon]

i feel like the baseball equivalent to 3v3 hockey is something akin to starting every at bat with a 3-2 count. which i would be more in favor of than the stupid extra runner.

[roger_that]

=metsmarathon post_id=95031 time=1654544107 user_id=83]
the stupid extra runner.

[kcmets]

Frayed Knot wrote: Or they could just, y'know, play baseball.

Put this old white man in Camp Play Ball. The game's not broken, stop

fixing it already. The commish needs to go, someone start a petition. I'll

gladly be your first signature.



#lgm #ygb #ymdyf

[Frayed Knot]

What good is shorter baseball if the pace of the game still plods along at its current pace?!?!?!? That's not faster baseball it's LESS baseball and if you want less baseball then the solution is easy,

hit the Off button. Less baseball is what haters of baseball want; well they don't actually want less they want None but are willing to settle for less as a starting point.



The problem isn't merely that 3-1/2 hour games are becoming more common as 2-1/2 hour ones increasingly fade into distant memory, it's that these 3-1/2 hour versions have the same amount

of content as their 2-1/2 hour predecessors as the lords of the game wonder where they went wrong. And before we decide that nobody younger than the average age of this board will ever watch

another game (as if kids with short attention spans was just invented in the last decade or so) maybe, just maybe mind you, they might be more interested in watching, and able to watch, if the

games were occasionally in the day time, if the night ones were over prior to 11 PM, and if playoff games didn't each have the same running time as the GODFATHER SAGA.



And the most frustrating part is that a speeding up of the pace of play is possible without resorting to gimmicks or the excising of nearly 25% of content. Again, it's not just that these gimmicks

are new or that they're an affront to old geezers like me, it's that they're being passed off as solutions to problems which they're ill suited to fix while actual fixes are being ignored kicked down

the road.

[vtmet7]

I'll agree that the phantom runner rule is nonsense...I would much rather see the Mets/Braves play until 4 am and then have fireworks afterwards; even if I was stuck hearing John Sterling calling the game...

John Sterling, now the radio announcer for the New York Yankees, was calling Braves games at the time. He recalled that by the 18th inning, the Braves were in rough shape. It was 3:30 a.m., the Mets had scored, the Braves had two outs, and the next batter to the plate was pitcher Rick Camp, whom Sterling said was “widely known as the worst hitting pitcher in baseball.” After Camp had two strikes against him, Sterling said he recalled telling his radio colleague, “If he hits a home run to tie this game, this game will be certified as absolutely the nuttiest in the history of baseball.”

https://www.wabe.org/remembering-legendary-rick-camp-atlanta-braves-game/https://www.wabe.org/remembering-legendary-rick-camp-atlanta-braves-game/

[vtmet7]

so what are alternatives?



Have each team select a "champion" for an extra innings Home Run Derby? no balls, no strikes...each player gets 20 pitches to hit the most Home Runs?



baseball loves their home runs nowadays...would give us a chance to showcase Luis G in the HR derby, if that were who Buck selected...

[Willets Point]

I'd really like to see a statistical breakdown of extra innings in the past three seasons to see if the ghost runner has actually shortened games. Because anecdotally I've watched multiple games over the past three seasons where both teams drove in their ghost runner and thus remained tied.

[TransMonk]

I've looked for that type of breakout in the past and couldn't find any. I wonder why. Kinda.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

btw, I'm having lunch with Big Important People from MLB this week, will bring this convo up to them

[Chad ochoseis]

Willets Point wrote: I'd really like to see a statistical breakdown of extra innings in the past three seasons to see if the ghost runner has actually shortened games. Because anecdotally I've watched multiple games over the past three seasons where both teams drove in their ghost runner and thus remained tied.

The longest game since 2020 went 16 innings in August of 2021: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2021-08-26/padres-dodgers-blake-snell-wil-myers-trent-grisham-will-smith-fernando-tatis-longest-gamehttps://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2021-08-26/padres-dodgers-blake-snell-wil-myers-trent-grisham-will-smith-fernando-tatis-longest-game. Until then, the longest game since the Manfred Man was instituted had been 13 innings, which seems short. 14 inning games weren't all that uncommon prior to the Stupid Extra Inning Runner™. The Mets played 8 games that were 14 innings or longer from 2015 through 2019. So it does look like the rule change succeeded in shortening extra inning games, for what it's worth.



My wild idea to improve extra inning games would be to allow an "amnesty" after the 9th, where players who had been pulled from the game are eligible to come off the bench one more time. This way, if a situation calls for a PH or PR, you're more likely to have one available on the bench rather than having to bat your right handed .170 hitting backup catcher against a righty with runners in scoring position. Probably wouldn't work for pitchers, but it could for position players.

[Edgy MD]

Extra-inning baseball is awesome.



Unless Jerry Manuel is managing.

[Fman99]

The stupid extra inning runner is stupid. Read more about it on my blog oldwhiteguy.edu