Leagues Pick Up the Pace : Baseball: New guidelines are aimed at quicker games, but old habits might mean trouble.

Major league baseball, attempting to reduce games by 20 minutes or more, sent guidelines Friday to stadium management personnel.

The guidelines encourage starting on time, the prompt announcement of lineup changes and strict adherence to a two-minute limit between the final out of an inning and the first pitch of the next inning.

Bobby Brown and Bill White, the American and National League presidents, had already sent on-field guidelines to owners, general managers, managers, umpires and player representatives.

Those guidelines encourage batters to stay in the box, pitchers to work more quickly, catchers to reduce the number of trips to the mound, managers to call for new pitchers as soon as they leave the dugout and pinch-hitters to prepare in the on-deck circle rather than first coming off the bench.

“The goal is to eliminate dead time without having to impose rule changes or gimmicks,” said Dick Wagner, the assistant to Bud Selig, chairman of the executive council.

American League games averaged 2 hours 53 minutes in 1992. National League games averaged 2:45. The averages in 1977--before TV and its commercial demands added 15 to 20 minutes to almost every game--were 2:31 and 2:25. The new guidelines do not restrict TV commercial time.

Many of the guidelines were implemented in the Arizona Fall League last year. Each of the six teams played 54 games, with an average time of 2:23.

However, Rich Garcia, a veteran American League umpire, said it is difficult to draw a comparison between the Arizona league and the major leagues because there was no TV in Arizona and the younger players there were more agreeable to calls for hustle and new instructions from the umpires.

“It’s tougher with major league players who have developed a routine over the years,” Garcia said. “You interrupt that, and you’re going to have a problem.”

Brown and White are touring spring camps, encouraging adherence to the guidelines, although there is no system of enforcement because they are mere recommendations and not rules changes.