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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| See How Baseball’s New Rules Changed the Game | See How Baseball’s New Rules Changed the Game |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Thursday was opening day for Major League Baseball and the first taste of rules designed, among other things, to speed up a lagging game. | Thursday was opening day for Major League Baseball and the first taste of rules designed, among other things, to speed up a lagging game. |
| And speed up it did. | And speed up it did. |
| With the debut of the pitch clock, the average length of the 15 games Thursday was around 2 hours 45 minutes, compared with 3 hours 6 minutes last year. The larger sample of spring training games, when the clock shaved nearly half an hour off the average game, suggests there’s potential for more of a drop. | With the debut of the pitch clock, the average length of the 15 games Thursday was around 2 hours 45 minutes, compared with 3 hours 6 minutes last year. The larger sample of spring training games, when the clock shaved nearly half an hour off the average game, suggests there’s potential for more of a drop. |
| Thursday’s average game time was on par with those in parts of the 1980s. It’s what the game’s leaders had hoped for with the new rules: to resurrect the days of snappier, more action-packed games. | Thursday’s average game time was on par with those in parts of the 1980s. It’s what the game’s leaders had hoped for with the new rules: to resurrect the days of snappier, more action-packed games. |
| The shortest game time was a brisk 2:14, shared by the Rays-Tigers and Mariners-Guardians. | |
| Pitchers now have 15 seconds for a delivery, 20 seconds if there’s a runner on base, and batters must be in the box ready to hit with at least eight seconds left. M.L.B. added other changes, including bigger bases and a ban on defensive shifts, to amp up the game’s offense. | Pitchers now have 15 seconds for a delivery, 20 seconds if there’s a runner on base, and batters must be in the box ready to hit with at least eight seconds left. M.L.B. added other changes, including bigger bases and a ban on defensive shifts, to amp up the game’s offense. |
| We’re only a day in, and more data this season is likely to show other ways the new rules have changed the game. Batting averages may increase, and the league is hoping for more stolen bases. Managers and players have been forced to adapt to perhaps the biggest combined single-season changes in the modern history of the sport, and it’s impossible to pinpoint from one day of games exactly how that will play out. | We’re only a day in, and more data this season is likely to show other ways the new rules have changed the game. Batting averages may increase, and the league is hoping for more stolen bases. Managers and players have been forced to adapt to perhaps the biggest combined single-season changes in the modern history of the sport, and it’s impossible to pinpoint from one day of games exactly how that will play out. |
| But here’s one more metric from opening day: The number of hits per hour jumped up, after decades of mostly declining. | But here’s one more metric from opening day: The number of hits per hour jumped up, after decades of mostly declining. |
| There were about 6.1 hits per hour during opening day, compared with around 5.3 last year. | There were about 6.1 hits per hour during opening day, compared with around 5.3 last year. |