Commentary : How About a 5th-Inning Stretch?

It’s time to change one of baseball’s most honored customs -- the seventh inning stretch.

When this traditional practice was begun by President Howard Taft more than 70 years ago, games were played in less than two hours. The burly Taft, America’s largest president, got up to take a stretch in the seventh inning. Everyone around him, paying respect to the nation’s leader, also got up. He wasn’t doing it to buy a box of Cracker Jack or to be seen by a local television crew -- just to stretch.

An average major-league game now takes about two hours and 45 minutes. What we need today is a fifth inning stretch. More about that later.

“We don’t have a specific figure because it changes every day but over the past two years they’ve been longer,” says Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau of major-league games. “The increased time of a TV commercial to 105 seconds, all of the runners on base, more pitching changes, all of them are contributing.”

The average length of games has increased by six minutes over the past five years. Going back a bit further reveals an even greater contrast. Where games took an average of 2 hours, 30 minutes in 1979, statistics through the All-Star break this year showed games in the American League averaging 2:49 and 2:43 in the National League.

Where Taft probably got up at the 90-minute mark -- a fair amount of time to be forced to sit at a game -- he would have had to fit his 300-pound plus frame into his seat for closer to two hours before making a seventh inning stretch these days.

If we go by the 90-minute standard, then the stretch should be taken in the bottom of the fifth. That’s the more logical rest period for most fans who have to sit through a three-hour game.

Let Harry Caray sing ‘Take Me Out To the Ballgame’ in the fifth. He might even sound better. A fifth inning stretch would also be more logical to get a hot dog or a beer. It might also be more physically sound for the kidneys.

The fifth inning stretch may sound a little strange to die-hard fan but so does the Pepto Bismol upset of the week award or the Rolaids Relief pitcher of the year honor.

The truth of the matter is, few fans can sit at a game and wait until the seventh inning before getting up to stretch.

Some teams like the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are averaging close to the three-hour mark this year. The two teams played the longest nine-inning game of the year -- a 3:50 13-9 affair at Wrigley Field on June 7.

“I don’t know but something has to be done,” says NBC analyst Tony Kubek, who played in the days when games were less than 2:30. “There are a bunch of reasons. Why do the batters get out of the batting box every time? I mean every pitch. How about all the throws to first?

“The deliberation on the mound is one thing, but a lot has to do with the batters.”

Two-hour games used to be fairly routine up to 20 years ago. The only way a game can be played in two hours now would be if Jim Kaat pitched against Bob Gibson or if rain halted the game after five innings. Two hour games have gone the way of nickel chewing gum and 25 cent hot dogs.

The injection of more baserunning into baseball over the past 10 years is also a culprit. Pitchers don’t seem to hesitate to throw over to first a half dozen times in the first inning alone. Then there is the whirl and don’t-throw maneuver when runners are on first and third.

“I know they blame us for the baserunning and the longer games,” says St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog. “But how many times do those cute moves ever work?”

Then there is the added offense this year. Some blame a lively ball, others say the pitchers aren’t as good and throw more pitches, give more walks and allow more runs.

Veteran umpire Frank Pulli says the longer games are not just a strain on the fans who wait for the seventh inning stretch to take that break. The umpires don’t get one and would rather see things speeded up.

“If I were a baseball god I’d speed the games up, anything to keep them moving along,” Pulli says. “It’s getting worse.”

But Chicago White Sox Manager Jim Fregosi blames the umpires for the slower games.

“They are the ones that control it. If they were to say to each dugout, ‘C’mon guys, get out there,’ the games would go faster,” Fregosi says.

Unfortunately, if the trend continues, even the fifth inning stretch could be outdated.

By the year 2,000, we could be looking at a third inning stretch at the Cubs’ first World Series game under lights at Wrigley Field.