Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseyPirate
There were 0 17 inning games last year because of the man on 2nd rule change. The only way to grow the fanbase is to bring new fans in. That's why when games did go 17 innings and ended at 2am local time, only about 5% of the fans stayed and probably same for the TV audience. Do you have kids? Taking your 5 and 8 year old to a 7:10pm start time and knowing the game will be over by 10:00pm and possibly 9:30 is a huge draw and will bring more people out to weeknight games.
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Dude, what are you talking about? When I was a kid I LOVED extra inning games and double-headers. The idea of going ot the stadium and getting to watch more than 9 innings of baseball felt like a treat to me.
Also, being in CST the west coast games always started 2 hours late and I would literally lie in bed with an earpiece in listening to the radio broadcast as I went to sleep.
One of the unique appeals of the sport is there is no time limit. A game could last 20 innings, an inning could last 20 batters, and an at-bat could last 20 pitches. This is a selling point of the sport for fans, not something the get rid of because of TV programming.
We went to a lot of weeknight games that we had to leave early but we always listened to the rest of the game on the radio on the way home. Nobody missed anything..