THOUGHTS ON THE NEW STRIKE ZONE, By Adam Ulrey

During the playoffs and World Series I kept hearing and reading in the media about how long the games were taking. It really started to irritate me because I personally don't sit down to watch or go to a game to see how fast it will be over. I find it kind of funny that no one brings up the fact that between every half inning there is anywhere from 90 to 120 seconds of advertisements. It was especially annoying in the post season that between innings it was commercial after commercial.

Sure there are other things baseball could do to speed up the game and some of those things need to be addressed. They could prevent the batter from stepping out on every pitch and they could stop the pitcher from taking his sweet time out on the mound. There is a rule on how long the pitcher can take between pitches, it's just never enforced. So if they want to speed up the game they can, but they-- meaning the umpires and powers that be-- choose not too.

One rule change mandated in the off-season that could help speed up the game is calling the high strike. If the umps do call them, which I'm a little skeptical of until I see it happen, you will see the game move along at a better pace. I really believe that if they call the high strike you won't see the batters taking so many pitches and waiting for the pitcher to groove one. It will cause the hitters to be thinking as they walk up to the box that they better be ready to do some hacking. Instead of batters taken 4-5 pitchers per at bat you could see that number drop by one maybe two pitches per at bat and now you have in a small way speeding up the game. Batters will have to change their mental approach and be ready to swing at more pitches.

Meanwhile, advertisements between innings are adding a minimum of 27 to 36 minutes per game. If they would cut those commercials to 60 seconds between innings you would save fifteen minutes right there before you even address anything else. Last year games averaged three hours and two minutes. I personally don't see anything wrong with that. If you go to a game and are going to worry about the time you spend there, maybe you should just stay home. For those of you that want to see the game speeded up I already gave you fifteen minutes back if they would go to just 60 second blocks of advertisement. think with the new strike zone ( if it's enforced) you could easily take off about ten more minutes. Now you have up to 25 minutes saved. Get the umpires to keep the pitchers to a strict time between each pitch and not allow the batter to step out of the box and you could save another five minutes. Now I have found thirty minutes which would put the games back to two and half hours for each game, now that should be acceptable to everyone.

Three simple but effective ways to save time for each baseball game. I still enjoy the games no matter how long they take because I love the great game of baseball, but for those that are complaining you have your answers now. All we need is for Mr. Selig to get off his butt and implement them. Until next issue, remember keep throwing them high and tight

Official Baseball Rules, Section 2.00, Definition of Terms:

"The STRIKE ZONE is that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball."