The Late Show: World Series games taking almost 4 hours
Snacking on chicken at a picnic table near section 402, decked out in his curly W cap and pullover, Bob Batwinis hoped to see a lot at Game 4 of the World Series. Exciting plays. A Washington win. And maybe, just maybe, on this evening at Nationals Park, the final out sometime before midnight.
“It’s an embarrassment that baseball has turned into a marathon that kids can’t watch,” the retired school teacher said Saturday. Not just kids, either. Baseball is a sport of stats, and here’s one that nobody enjoys seeing: So far, games in this Fall Classic are averaging 3 hours, 54 minutes.
The Late, Late Show, indeed.
“When you get to the World Series, every pitch and every decision is going to be more magnified. They’re more important now, so they’re going to take a little more time,” former manager Jim Leyland said as Houston took batting practice Saturday.
“But there’s no question about it, they’re dragging on a little too long,” he said. There are reasons, sure. The break between halfinnings is now 2 minutes, 55 seconds, up from the 2:05 for most regular-season games.
Alex Bregman, Juan Soto and the hitters want more time outside the batter’s box to get steady. Josh James, Fernando Rodney and the relievers need an extra moment or two to compose themselves. Plus, those nonstop pitching changes.
Looming is the possibility of record-low television ratings as fans either tune away or nod off.
Even at Nationals Park and Minute Maid Park, there have been plenty of empty seats at the end.
It wasn’t always like this. Not even recently.
In 2017, nine-inning World Series games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros averaged 3:16. Last year, the matchups between the Boston Red Sox and LA took 3:30 (and didn’t include the 18-inning affair at Dodger Stadium that lasted 7:20).
On Friday night, the Astros beat Washington 4-1 in a pretty straightforward game. Yet it still took 4:03 and ended a few minutes past midnight.
“I know a lot of it has to do with TV, commercials and things of that nature. We’ve got a 3-minute in between,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “So it is what it is.”
“Unfortunately, I said this before, I can’t drink caffeine anymore. But a couple cups of coffee would have done wonders for me during the game yesterday,” he said.