Three-Hour Baseball Game Is Really Throwing Wait Around

Give this game an alarm clock, or a tea break.

Baseball’s dead time is excruciating to sit through. Even Baltimore Orioles Manager Frank Robinson grows fidgety in the dugout waiting for the pitchers to pitch and the batters to hit.

A pitcher wiping his hand across his brow, his cap, tugging at his belt, looking for the sign, shaking off the sign, looking for another sign, getting set, looking in again, and finally ... throwing the ball.

“OK, when you’re out of the groove, you back off,” Robinson said. “But when you’re throwing strikes, let’s go.”

Don’t just blame the pitchers. Look at the batters. The player stepping away from the plate, calling time to take a stroll up the third-base line, going back to the dugout to grab the pine-tar rag, stepping back into the batter’s box, and finally -- after the pitcher goes through his routine again -- swinging at the pitch.

“No one just stands in the batter’s box anymore,” Robinson said. “Pine tar. Batting gloves. Some of them even look at the sky.”

It’s enough to make a person reach for another cup of coffee to stay up past his bedtime.

“We’re just stretching the game out,” Robinson said. “In the old days, a 2-hour, 20-minute game was long. Now, it’s short.”

Tick. Tick. Tick.

With all the ills plaguing major-league baseball -- the Pete Rose saga, labor problems, sagging national television ratings, rumblings of an alternative league -- length of games might not be a pressing concern for owners or players. And no one is about to introduce a clock into a timeless event. But time affects everyone else -- from fans to concession workers to groundskeepers.

“You remember ‘Two-Hour’ Mike Cuellar? He’d be ‘Three-Hour’ Mike now,” said Pat Santarone, head groundskeeper at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. “In the old days, if a game went 2:15, people would get furious. Now, everyone has to take in the scenery.”

In 1979, the average nine-inning American League game took 2:32 to complete. This season, an average nine-inning American League game lasts 2:49. In the National League -- which produces fewer runs because it has no designated hitters -- nine-inning averages increased from 2:31 in 1979 to 2:42 in 1989.

This isn’t exactly earth-shaking material. Every few years, there is grumbling about the length of games. In the mid-1960s, the American League experimented with an unofficial, 20-second clock between pitches. Oakland Athletics owner Charles O. Finley even suggested shortening games by making three balls a walk and two strikes a strikeout.

But the games dragged on.

At the current rate of time inflation, baseball will crack the three-hour-average barrier before the next century. Who knows? By then, four-hour football games might become standard.

“We talk about the length of the games all the time,” said Bryan Burns, an official in the baseball commissioner’s office. “We’ll never turn to our players and say, ‘Hurry up.”’

But teams are adjusting to the new time standards. The Minnesota Twins pushed up the starting time of their weeknight games from 7:35 to 7:05. The Baltimore Orioles also are discussing the possibility of moving Friday night starts from 8:05 to 7:35 next season.

Teams also are attempting to entertain fans during the two-minute break between innings. Video montages on scoreboard telescreens, mascots and rock music are some of the devices used to keep the fans from dozing off or leaving early.

“While the game times have increased, baseball has become more sophisticated entertaining the fans,” said Andy MacPhail, executive vice president and general manager of the Twins. “The games may be 18 to 20 minutes longer, but the time is better filled. I don’t mean to cheapen the game with silliness, whistles and bells. I do believe people have a good time at the games. I think the ballparks are better and more exciting places to be than 20 years ago.”

Folks are spending more time in the parks.

“If you see an enjoyable game, the time doesn’t matter,” said Jim Kaat, who played 25 years in the major leagues, won 283 games and rarely started a game that took longer than 2:15. “It’s not that you want to get the game over with in a hurry. But it’s boring to see guys waste time.”

Kaat and others point to three major reasons for the lengthening of games in the last decade:

--The creation of relief specialists. Using a middle reliever, setup man and closer takes time, as the pitchers shuttle in and out of the game, take warm-up tosses and then face the batters.

--The two-minute gap between innings. Before 1985, there was no standard break between innings, according to Burns. A two-minute minimum was imposed, giving television a natural and standard commercial break.

--Playing styles. In the 1960s, batters got into the box, took their cuts and left. Pitchers pitched. Now, many players take their time before performing.

The Orioles, who have averaged 2:48 for nine-inning games this season, are loaded with young pitchers who take their time and often work to full counts. Most Orioles hitters rarely leave the batter’s box between pitches, but Steve Finley, Cal Ripken and Bill Ripken are among the more deliberate players in the American League.

Orioles pitching coach Al Jackson said he doesn’t want to create a crew of marathoners. But he will not rush his staff to save time.

“I know there are five or six clubs in this league, and we’re part of it, who are slow,” Jackson said. “I’m surprised some of the infielders and outfielders don’t sit down. But these are developing pitchers. You have to take time and let them go at their own pace. But it’s not just the pitchers. Some of these batters take vacations out there.”

Robinson would like to see quicker games. But like almost everyone else in baseball, he’s not in a hurry to impose his standards on others. “The game is much more entertaining when it’s played faster,” he said. “You would see a better quality of play. The defense would be more alert. Just try standing for three hours. Your legs get tired. Your back hurts. You get worn out.”

Thank goodness for dugouts.