Ghost runner in extra innings now permanent as MLB evolves

Starting extra innings with a runner on second base during the regular season was made a permanent rules change by Major League Baseball on Monday after three seasons of use during the coronavirus pandemic.

Known by some as the “Ghost Runner” and by others as the “Manfred Man” after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, the rule was unanimously adopted by the sport’s 11-person competition committee.

Spring training opened Monday in Florida and Arizona for players reporting early ahead of the World Baseball Classic, and the rest of pitchers and catchers will start workouts two days later.

Following an offseason of record spending in which the New York Mets approached a $370 million payroll, Opening Day on March 30 will feature three of the biggest changes since the pitcher’s mound was lowered for the 1969 season:

Two infielders will be required on either side of second base and all infielders must be within the outer boundary of the infield when the pitcher is on the rubber.

Base size will increase to 18-inch squares from 15 inches, causing a decreased distance of 4 inches.

A pitch clock will be used, set at 15 seconds with no runners on base and 20 with runners on.

“This has been an eightyear effort for us,” Manfred said last week, thinking back to when the first experiments were formulated. “I hope we get what our fans want — faster, more action, more athleticism.”

Spring training started a month late last year because of the owners’ lockout, and many players scrambled for deals as camps opened.

This offseason has proceeded more normally and some of the focus will be on stars with new homes: Jacob deGrom

(Texas), Justin Verlander

(Mets), Trea Turner

(Philadelphia) and Xander Bogaerts (San Diego).

Some teams also have new bosses in Bruce Bochy (Texas), Matt Quatraro (Kansas City), Pedro Grifol (Chicago

White Sox) and Skip Schumaker (Marlins). What they face is far different from the challenges thrown at managers of the previous century.

“In baseball, there’s no clock,” Richard Greenberg wrote in his Tony Award-winning play

“Take Me Out.”

“What could be more generous than to give everyone all these opportunities and the time to seize them in, as well?”

Turns out, all those dead minutes became an annoyance in an age of decreased attention spans and increased entertainment competition.

The average time of a nine-inning game stretched from 2 hours, 30 minutes in the mid-1950s to 2:46 in 1989 and 3:10 in 2021 before dropping to 3:04 last year following the introduction of the PitchCom electronic device to signal pitches.

“Pitch clock, I’m thrilled about,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “Speed the game up. They get too long.

“If we’re playing the

Red Sox or playing the Yankees, they turn into four-hour ballgames.”

NATIONALS OWNER LERNER DIES

Ted Lerner, the billionaire real estate developer whose family bought the Washington Nationals in 2006, has died. He was 97.

Lerner’s group purchased the Nationals from MLB in 2006. Under his leadership, the Nationals went from one of baseball’s worst teams to World Series champs in 2019.