Even though baseball is one of the oldest sports played on a yearly calendar, it still has a very young fan base. This can be credited to various factors including the fact that baseball game pace is arguably slow.
However, this is set to change rapidly as new rules aimed at increasing the games pace are already in play. These new additions are not only going to affect the game in itself but also contribute a lot to the considerations online betters use to make bets on matches.
If you are an online betting person who follows the baseball matches, you can find the top online betting facts and more here (Infographic). Reading through these MLB online betting facts will help you understand the implications of the new pace of play rules on betting and results.
What are the rules?
A lot of new rules have been suggested and while most analysts were expecting them to be eased in, three are already at pay for the 2015 season. It is left up to time to determine how these new rules will impress upon the young fan base although hopes are high that it will attract more people.
The three functional rules are as follows:
• Batters are now prohibited from leaving the batter’s box during at-bats. The only exceptions to this rule are in the case of a foul ball or during wild pitch among other select conditions.
• Managers now have no chance of interrupting the game when making the decision whether or not to challenge calls. Instead, this decision is made and passed on from the dugout as the game continues.
• The length between innings now has a timer placed in it.
While these rules are fairly new, they have already made significant difference from what went on in the previous seasons. According to a report released by ESPN, the 2014 season’s first week results yielded a total of 85 nine-inning games that averaged at 3 hours, 2 minutes and 25 seconds each. When compared to the young 2015 season’s results, the first week yielded 75 nine-inning games that average at 2 hours, 54 minutes and 39 seconds. This is already a remarkable progress and while many fans were hoping for a significantly caped time, a full 8 minutes in only the first week of games is pretty quite impressive.
This time is well set to increase tremendously over the coming weeks as players adjust to remaining in their batter’s box at all times (apart from the exceptions) without needing the frequent reminders that we have seen in the first week of games.
Conclusion.
Baseball has a promising future as more fans are recruited with every new match. However, other sports have been initiating various efforts to improve the value of the game and fan experience. This combined with the slow nature of the game’s pace has left many critics to wonder if its young fan base will be chipped away into other sports.
What’s for sure is that game organizers and official directing boards will not let that happen without setting up more rules that aim at improving baseball experience. The rules have already paid measurable dividends and this is very promising opening up a better platform to implement other suggested rules.
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