By Kathy Harlan
 It is Olympics season, and speed rules. All over the world, viewers
are tuning in to see the fastest people in the world trying to set world
records while competing for the gold. A new world record in the 100
meter dash was set in April this year, a mind-numbing 9.72 seconds. If
you blinked your eyes it was over.
Meanwhile, here at home, we are transfixed watching the spectacle
of the most leisurely of sports. It is the dog days of summer when the
game of baseball is separating the champions from the also-rans. The
longest game this season lasted over eight hours when the San Diego
Padres and Chicago Cubs battled for 22 innings. That is six hours
longer than it takes the winner of the Olympic marathon to run 26.2
miles for the marathon distance. The fans who stuck it out had three
seventh-inning stretches.
In 1905 The New York Times received a letter from a sports fan
complaining about a two-hour and 20 minute game he had witnessed
at the Polo Grounds. Many fans left early, he said, and he felt that he
had been “buncoed.” The average game has gotten even longer in the
past 100 years. You can watch Gone With the Wind, roast a turkey, or
have a root canal while a baseball game is underway.
Much of the increased length of a baseball game is due to the changing
nature of pitching. In the old days, pitchers often toiled for the whole
nine innings. Now, six or seven innings is the norm for a starter. Long
relievers, short relievers, and finishers are pitching specialties. Each
reliever gets to take warm-up pitches. Pitchers make as many pick-off
attempts as they want. If the manager feels the best strategy is to pitch
around a fearsome hitter, they intentionally walk him, but the pitcher
still has to throw the required four balls.
Television, of course, is one of the culprits, with its requirement of
commercial breaks. The jazzy scoreboards, the quizzes, the “fun facts”
about teams and players, the rock music, the “kiss cam,” the wave, the
prompted clapping, all have their part. Radio announcers are saved
by statistics. Every known category (most triples by a first baseman;
most batters in one inning; most rain delays in one game, for example) is available to
announcers for time filler when needed.
Granted, speed within the confines of a baseball game is a plus. A centerfielder who
can gracefully cover the entire outfield while the baseball is in the air is a joy to behold;
the pitcher who blows a 90 mph fastball past a batter is in great demand; and the runner
who can stretch a double into a triple can win many games. It is the grand old game itself
that is leisurely.
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