[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

No NBA game has ever gone the equivalent of 15 innings. No NFL game has ever gone more than I think the record is 2 extra quarters.

What a lovely way of distorting the issue with apples and oranges. Of course basketball doesn't go as long, given that the far higher volume of scoring causes a wider distribution curve of results, both in-game and during OT. And NFL also scores in a notably-higher percentage of possessions than MLB scores in at-bats, and certainly way higher than the other sudden-death sport, hockey.

Like it or not, this is what sports fans expect

It's awfully convenient to declare that "what sports fans expect" aligns with your preferences. I'm sorry if you value your precious schedule over athletic competition, but that's your issue, not "sports fans" in general.

(and honestly one of my favorite things about basketball is that if it’s not a nationally televised game it’s all wrapped up in about 2 1/2 hours).

(Have you heard of this exciting invention called the DVR? You can spend a couple of hours watching the game, and then take time out to go have dinner/take a nap/work as an assassin for the CIA/whatever before returning to the TV if you're Just.So.Exhausted.)

Soccer, even at the highest levels of play, ends after 30 extra minutes and a penalty shootout.

Soccer's in a rough spot. It's too physically-demanding to just play straight through, but it only has one-way substitution. As we discussed in the World Cup thread, I'd be fine with liberalizing the substitution rules in extra time to avoid the silliness that is penalty kicks.

But baseball doesn't have soccer's limitations, so there's very little point in judging it by the decisions soccer has to make.

And you (conveniently) didn't mention hockey, which also plays as long as they need to, at least in the playoffs. They've had games go for 5 OTs, which is the equivalent of a 24-inning game. I love every single one of those; I still have fond memories of being up half the night in my brother's basement in DC for the Philly-Pittsburgh Keith Primeau marathon.

(I was in town for his wedding. It didn't mess up the planning and my toast was A-1, if I do say so myself. Of course the marriage ended in divorce, but so did his second marriage, so I really don't think we can blame the NHL, after all.)

You may not care but that fan who bought tickets and leaves a 7:35 start at 1am with the score still tied might not go back again.

And now you're just pulling scenarios out of you-know-where. Show me even ONE instance where somebody has said "I stayed all that time for nothing! I'm never going back again! Waaah-waah-Wahhh, I need instant satisfaction!" Even one.

I can do this too. Why don't you care about the fans who bought tickets and then left the game feeling ripped off because all of a sudden some phony "ghost runner" screws his team out of winning a game where the visitors hadn't had a man in scoring position all day and he'd just bet his rent money on his team and now his kids are going to be homeless so he snaps and goes home and blows the house up, killing his whole family? As much evidence of that happening as with your scenario…

Your neurotic need for specified ending-times may make for a lovely discussion with the mental-health professional of your choice. But there's no reason to assume you outnumber those of us who enjoy the building tension of ongoing drama, no matter how much time it takes.

Telling the fans to suck it up is just going to cause those fans to move to other sports who don’t tell them to suck it up.

Who's telling the fans to suck it up? Who claimed this was a problem? Manly Manfred was responding to complaints by MEDIA who didn't like running out of commercials to air.

Well, in the words of Buffy Summers, "let me take this opportunity to NOT care".

(I don't even think Manfred bothered to even claim there was public demand for this. Not that he's ever honest about that, of course.)

And frankly I feel like a lot of these issues, if we imported our grandparents from the 1950s and made them watch the modern game, they’d dislike it too.

Yeah, so many Negroes on the field. Even the Yankees have them now.

More seriously, Grampa might notice that the stadiums are far fuller than in his day, so if he's put off, he might have the decency to admit he's holding a minority opinion on that one. And I don't know how "static" he might find it; if you waited until he lived through the dead-ball 1960s, he'd think this was Action City.

But I think any gripes about things being "static" might have to do with the parade of relief pitchers or the (now-banned) shifts or the TV-mandated boredom of 3 minutes between innings. None of which have a blessed thing to do with whether you like extra innings or not.

Congratulations on a parade of irrelevant arguments! You probably have a future on FOX or MSNBC, depending on which Corporate Party you prefer.