Breathing old life into baseball – Baltimore Sun

The stories are everywhere: baseball’s a dying game. American kids don’t play it anymore, and the hard-core fans like me are on Social Security. L.A.’s Mike Trout is the best player around, but he could walk down the street almost anywhere and not be recognized. And on and on.

Well, I remember folks in the early 1960s saying that baseball was a goner, and the game’s done pretty well since then.

Baseball is no longer the dominant sport in the country, of course, nor is it the national pastime (staring at electronic devices is). But when the average big leaguer is making $4 million a year and the value of major league franchises keeps going up, reports of baseball’s demise must be exaggerated. Minor league baseball is booming. Baseball’s still a great sport.

Having said that, however, I admit that one criticism is right on. As it’s now played, baseball is too slow. Yes, it’s the summer game, and nobody expects constant action when the temperature is 95 degrees in Baltimore. But the average ballgame in 1954, when the Browns became the Orioles, was two-and-a-half hours, and many games were played in about two hours. Despite efforts by Major League Baseball, games now often take three hours or more. Expand the time without increasing the action, and what should be scintillating can turn into a yawner.