The New Baseball Rules: A Perspective

BY BOB MORGAN, JR.

My reaction to the new rules in Major League Baseball takes me back to the first game that I ever attended, at Yankee Stadium on July 28, 1961, just before my ninth birthday.

Although my father had briefly been a sportswriter, he basically had no interest in professional sports. As it happened, I went to exactly one baseball game with him, ever. However, both of my grandfathers were fans, and so I was extremely excited when, during a stay with my grandparents in New Jersey, my father's father told me that there was an extra ticket for a bus outing to the Yankee game sponsored by the Knights of Columbus (he was a member), and I was welcome to join him and my uncle Jack, my father's older brother. My grandfather originally was from Baltimore and was rooting for the Orioles (he previously was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan), but I didn't hold that against him.

When we arrived in the Bronx, I had never seen a major league stadium live and I remember the huge green expanse of grass in the outfield as we walked to our seats and the bright lights which gradually took greater effect as the twilight faded. There was a pretty large crowd that night, about 40,000 people, and I was absolutely enthralled by the sights and sounds, including the lights of the electronic scoreboard.

Even though the Yankees wound up winning the World Series in 1961 (this was the year Roger Maris hit 61 homers), it did not turn out to be their night. The Orioles scored three runs in the top of the first on a home run by their slugger, Jim Gentile, and went on to win 4-0. My memory is that there was one inning when the Yanks had first and second with no outs, but this rally fizzled. Still it was an exciting night for me, which I remember vividly.

But something I also remember was standing outside the stadium with my grandfather and uncle after the game (it started at 8) and seeing a clock that said 10:08, which made it a pretty short game, especially since the bottom of the ninth was played. Just to confirm my recollection, I looked up the box score for the game on the internet and it shows a playing time of exactly two hours.

Obviously, a good deal of my reaction that day can be attributed to childhood exuberance. But baseball was a better game back then, with a faster pace. Even in tense World Series games, the pitcher just wound up and pitched. Fewer at bats ended with strikeouts and more balls were in play. There were quite a few stolen bases. Up to last year, the average game lasted well over three hours, with slow working pitchers and hitters who constantly step out of the batter's box.

At long last, major league baseball this year put in some new rules aimed at speeding the pace of play and increasing the amount of action. There is a pitch clock and pitchers now have 15 seconds to deliver a pitch with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners on base. Hitters must be in the batter’s box with 8 seconds on the pitch clock. Pickoff throws (or stepping off the rubber) are limited to two per plate appearance. In an effort to increase the number of base hits, defensive shifts are banned.

The results of these changes actually have been pretty salutary. According to an Associated Press analysis, so far this year, overall batting averages have risen from .233 to .249, stolen bases have risen 30 percent. And most importantly, the length of the average game has declined by 31 minutes, from 3 hours and 9 minutes to a much more manageable 2:38. Obviously the hope is that the game will become as exciting to today’s new fans (and older ones, too) as it was to me in 1961.

John Ellis Kordes

What goes up must come down and not always gracefully. This photo, taken around 1910, shows the crash of a very early airplane somewhat similar to what the Wright brothers flew in that very first flight in December of 1903. It really looks like a large box kite with a motor. You had to be beyond brave to go up in one of these contraptions. Hopefully, the pilot of this one somehow survived.

Garden City in those years was truly the “cradle of aviation” as some of the earliest airfields in the country were located here. One was east of Washington Avenue and south of Old Country Road. Another was west of Nassau Boulevard and north of Stratford Avenue. In 1912, the two merged east of Clinton Road and south of Old Country Road. Later known as Roosevelt Field.