Editing Baseball (section)

=== No clock to kill ===
[[File:A worn-out baseball.JPG|thumb|A well-worn baseball]]
In clock-limited sports, games often end with a team that holds the lead [[stalling (gaming)|killing the clock]] rather than competing aggressively against the opposing team. In contrast, baseball has no clock, thus a team cannot win without getting the last batter out and rallies are not constrained by time. At almost any turn in any baseball game, the most advantageous strategy is some form of aggressive strategy.<ref>Mount, Nicholas James, "Team Sports", in ''Encyclopedia of Time'', ed. Samuel L. Macey (Taylor & Francis, 1994), pp. 588–590: p. 590.</ref> Whereas, in the case of multi-day [[Test cricket|Test]] and [[first-class cricket]], the possibility of a [[draw (cricket)|draw]] (which occurs because of the restrictions on time, which like in baseball, originally [[Timeless Test|did not exist]]<ref>{{Cite web|date=December 22, 2015|title=The Test match that went on and on and on. Without a winner but with meaning {{!}} Andy Bull|url=http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/22/the-spin-cricket-the-timeless-test-1939|access-date=September 6, 2020|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>) often encourages a team that is batting last and well behind, to bat defensively and run out the clock, giving up any faint chance at a win, to avoid an overall loss.<ref>Eastaway, Rob, ''What Is a Googly?: The Mysteries of Cricket Explained'' (Anova, 2005), p. 134.</ref>

While nine innings has been the standard since the beginning of professional baseball, the duration of the average major league game has increased steadily through the years. At the turn of the 20th century, games typically took an hour and a half to play. In the 1920s, they averaged just less than two hours, which eventually ballooned to 2:38 in 1960.<ref name="HB">{{cite news|author=Bodley, Hal|url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/columnist/bodley/2004-02-26-bodley_x.htm|title=Baseball Wants Just a Few More Minutes|date=February 26, 2004|access-date=February 3, 2009|work=[[USA Today]]}}</ref> By 1997, the average American League game lasted 2:57 (National League games were about 10 minutes shorter—pitchers at the plate making for quicker outs than designated hitters).<ref name="JG">{{cite news|author=Greenfield, Jeff|author-link=Jeff Greenfield|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988721,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930042801/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988721,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 30, 2007|title=Midnight Baseball|date=July 13, 1998|access-date=February 3, 2009|magazine=Time}}</ref> In 2004, Major League Baseball declared that its goal was an average game of 2:45.<ref name="HB"/> By 2014, though, the average MLB game took over three hours to complete.<ref>{{cite news|author=Berg, Ted|url=http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/09/mlb-games-length-three-hours-pace-of-play|title=Why Are Baseball Games Getting So Much Longer?|date=September 30, 2014|access-date=December 27, 2014|work=USA Today}}</ref> The lengthening of games is attributed to longer breaks between half-innings for television commercials, increased offense, more pitching changes, and a slower pace of play, with pitchers taking more time between each delivery, and batters stepping out of the box more frequently.<ref name="HB"/><ref name="JG"/> Other leagues have experienced similar issues. In 2008, [[Nippon Professional Baseball]] took steps aimed at shortening games by 12 minutes from the preceding decade's average of 3:18.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/027087.html|title=Japan's Pro Baseball Teams Start Eco-Project to Cut Energy Use by 6%|date=July 13, 2008|access-date=February 18, 2009|publisher=Japan for Sustainability}}</ref>

In 2016, the average nine-inning playoff game in Major League baseball was 3 hours and 35 minutes. This was up 10 minutes from 2015 and 21 minutes from 2014.<ref>{{cite news |last=Crasnick |first=Jerry |url=http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21057049/mlb-playoff-games-averaging-three-hours-thirty-five-minutes-season |title=Major league teams playing marathon-length games in October |publisher=[[ESPN]] |date=October 17, 2017 |access-date=October 18, 2017 }}</ref> In response to the lengthening of the game, MLB decided from the 2023 season onward to institute a [[pitch clock]] rule to penalize batters and pitchers who take too much time between pitches; this had the effect of shortening 2023 regular season games by 24 minutes on average.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pitch Timer (2023 rule change) {{!}} Glossary |url=https://www.mlb.com/glossary/rules/pitch-timer |access-date=2023-03-05 |website=MLB.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=McCullough |first=Andy |title=The pitch clock meets the postseason: MLB's new rules face October pressure |url=https://theathletic.com/4917785/2023/10/02/pitch-clock-postseason-mlb/ |access-date=2023-10-02 |website=The Athletic |language=en}}</ref>