A pitcher reads his catcher's signals to know which type of pitch he should throw CHAPTER ONE A SNAIL'S PACE The pitcher steps off the mound He takes off his glove and rubs the baseball between his bare hands He returns to the mound and peers at the catcher who is flashing signs The catcher puts down one finger and wiggles it to his left That means he wants a fastball inside The pitcher shakes his head He'd rather throw a curveball outside The catcher shows three fingers calling for a slider The pitcher shakes him off again Now the hitter becomes impatient He steps out of the batter's box He adjusts his batting gloves He spits on the ground He taps both cleats with his bat to clear away any dirt they might have accumulated in the previous 30 seconds
Batters sometimes ask the umpire for a timeout if they think a pitcher is taking too long on the mound He wiggles his helmet back down on his head Then he finally steps back into the box The catcher puts down two fingers That means he wants a curveball He and the pitcher are finally on the same page
But now the pitcher throws the ball to first base to keep the runner close By the time he finally throws the ball to the plate more than a minute has passed since his last pitch This scene plays out multiple times in every Major League Baseball MLB game Many fans don't mind it They like that baseball is the only major American sport without a clock But others hate it Baseball is simply too slow for them That has led to a debate Should MLB find ways to speed up the game or should it maintain its leisurely pace The pace of play used to be no problem The average game lasted approximately 2 hours in 1944. But it has been steadily rising The average reached 2:30 in 1959. It hit 3 hours for the first time in 2014. It reached 3:05 in 2017. Yet in some respects baseball remains as popular as ever The average crowd at a major league game topped 30,000 in 2017. National TV ratings have risen So why try to speed things up One reason is that research shows baseball is turning off younger fans Those fans represent its future popularity And younger fans like sports with more action and less downtime They tend to embrace football and basketball or extreme sports and video games
