By Staff
Coaching Management, 9.6, September 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0906/bblength.htm
At its annual meeting in July, the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee announced that it is looking for suggestions to shorten the playing time of college games throughout the season. The average length of contests this past season rose above the three-hour mark, largely due to a record-setting 3-hour 24-minute average during the College World Series.
In comparing games among the three NCAA divisions, the committee found that Division I tournament contests were played in 3 hours 1 minute, with an average score of 9.2 to 4.5; Division II games had similar score--9.4 to 4.3, but took an average of two hours 39 minutes. Division III tourney games had an average score of 7.3 to 3.4, taking two hours 40 minutes to play. While television contributed to the longer games at the Division I College World Series, the committee notes that most of the Division I tournament games were not on television.
"In an effort to accommodate all baseball fans and keep them involved, we have to take a serious look at the time of games," said committee Chair Lynn Thompson, Director of Athletics at Bethune-Cookman College, in The NCAA News. "There's not one change that would make a significant difference, but there are a variety of factors we should look at. We want input from coaches, umpires, and administrators. It's something we've just begun to study."
The committee may survey ABCA membership in the fall for feedback on eliminating the designated hitter, further study of the "mercy" or 10-run rule; limiting defensive conferences, and exploring other possible experimental rules.
"Some of those ideas are good, but they seem to avoid the issue of getting kids to the plate for their at-bats and getting pitchers to make their pitches in the allotted time," says Bob Bennett, Head Coach at Fresno State University. "I think we can shorten games by hustling more. A lot of times you see hitters walk up to the box, but they haven't put their batting gloves on. Adding 15 to 20 seconds to each at-bat can add 15 to 20 minutes to each game. People really like to watch baseball, but they don't like to watch players put on a batting glove.
"Another thing that prolongs games is the activities that goes on between innings," Bennett continues. "If a game is on television, there's a two-minute break between innings. We've used a 60-second clock between innings for our intrasquad games and those contests finish very quickly. Also, relaying signals from coach to catcher to pitcher takes time. I don't know how many coaches call all their pitches, but it takes extra time for the catcher to turn and look for signs from the bench. Some coaches are even giving signs for every offensive and defensive play."
Bennett thinks that a combined effort is needed to help reduce the length of games. "It's everybody's job," he says. "If the game speeds up, it's going to come right from the dugout. The umpires will have to chip in and help, but they'll be glad to do that. The onus is on the coaches and players.
"Even if the games are shortened," Bennett continues, "they'll still offer enough time for all the concentration and effort we need for strategizing, with plenty of time to play the game. But you have to present a good game to the fans so they'll want to come back. Not many people want to spend four hours at the ballpark--they'd rather spend two hours, 15 minutes instead."