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Preliminary Results of MLB’s New Rules for the 2023 Season
How has Major League Baseball changed since the controversial rules have been in effect?
A few years ago it was well after 11:00 when my grandkids and I arrived at my son’s home after seeing the first 7 innings. The Phillies eventually beat the Mets in the bottom of the 9th — we missed it. I heard the end of the game on the car radio as we pulled into the driveway. The kids were asleep in the back seat.
Sound familiar?
How about looking forward to a night game and finding yourself asleep in the barcalounger somewhere around the bottom of the 8th inning. Only when the extra loud Mattress Firm commercial bringing down the curtain on the postgame show do you find out the result of the game.
Baseball was losing its fan base to pro sports with more action: football, soccer, basketball, hockey all of which have overlapping seasons with baseball at some point in the year.
For years baseball, a sport steeped in well earned tradition (America’s Pastime), was the only popular team sport that’s not on a timer. A winner is only decided after at least a full 9 innings are completed (barring rain, snow or sleet) with no time limit.