Should Baseball Have a Clock?
Football is a timed game, people know what time the game is starting and about the exact time it is going to end. Football is successful this way because there is a clock. Football has a strict time limit and the clock keeps the game moving. If baseball has a clock more people might be interested in watching the game. An article from the New York Times says "In 1950 the average major league baseball game was about two and a half hours. In 2014, games ran a little more than 3 hours on average." The games have gotten longer and longer throughout the years. A lot of this has to do with advertising. There needs to be enough amount of commercials shown and the broadcasters and the jumbo trons needs to advertise. But are people really losing interest in the game? If baseball wants to gain more viewers they should have a clock. The clock will speed up the game and more people will have the attention span to watch the game. The New York Times article also states that "On Sunday night, a regular season N.F.L. game outstripped the World Series Game 5, with some 7 million more viewers." The Major League Baseball Network will drastically increase that number of viewers if they make the game shorter by adding a clock. The clock will speed the game up and make people more interested.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/should-we-put-baseball-on-speed/?_r=0
This would be a good commitment for baseball, because without a clock, fans are worried about waiting and waiting for the game to be over, but that's really not what it's all about. It's about enjoying the game. I think that if baseball had a clock, then more people would watch it and even attend the games because they have an idea for what time the game ends.
ReplyDeleteAdding a clock to the game of baseball would be bad for the sport. It would be bad for the sport because it would change the way the game is played. Managers and players would change the game by managing the time to have it work in your favor. Baseball is a game that involves even and fair chances for both teams. Adding a,clock would change the game to drastically. It is not fair to the players to have the game change. Instead of adding a clock they should cut the amount of commercials and breaks in the game instead of changing the game as a whole.
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