In its continued effort to shorten games, Major League Baseball is proposing
a number of new steps to reduce the elapsed time between innings. While the new measures would
not cut out any commercial time, players would be required to be ready to go immediately after return from the break. To do this, batters would be required to be ready to start their at-bats 20 seconds before the end of each break. Similarly, pitchers would be required to be ready to make the first pitch 30 seconds before the end of between-innings commercials. It's unclear exactly how these proposed rules would be enforced, and the players' union is already grousing. But, it's estimated that these measures alone could cut 10 to 15 minutes from games. The
intent is clearly right.
