Timeout System Would Improve Baseball but Policing It Would be Tricky
By Kyle Koster
Joel Sherman has a terrific column in today’s New York Post advocating that Major League Baseball institute a timeout system. Each team would be given five stoppages, not including injuries, during a game for chatting. He envisions a world where pitching changes are made from the bench and the mound stops looking like a 21st Century Algonquin Round Table.
The suggested reforms would improve the pace of play and afford the better prepared team and more judicious manager an advantage. Many of them would only impact the already extraneous parts of the game — like catchers wearing a path out to the pitcher when a runner reaches second base out of pure paranoia. Others would have a marked impact on strategy — most namely bullpen management.
Suggesting common sense ways to improve baseball without upsetting the apple cart teeming with traditionalists is a difficult task. Sherman should be commended for laying out a simple plan to make the game more appealing without interjecting a gimmick.
Although I self-identify as an old-school baseball fan (dislike instant replay) it’s not hard to admit Major League Baseball has a pace problem. A bigger issue, though, is why the game is so often stopped for insufficient reasons. Therefore, I am a firm believer that a timeout system should be implemented.
The problem lies in how to police it. Sherman’s column offers no suggestions in the way of penalties should a team “illegally” delay the game after running out of timeouts. Baseball is not football or basketball. Yardage penalties and free-throws are not options. But what is?
An extra out or free baserunner is too wacky. An automatic strike or ball is merely a slap on the wrist. The loss of a challenge may not even be an option if a team has none remaining.
Let’s assume a reasonable punishment system is adopted. That still leaves the issue of how much judgement umpires will be given in deciding what is time-wasting and what is not. A middle infielder hollering instructions to his pitcher from second base still delays the game in the same way it would if he runs to the mound. It’s reasonable to assume we’d be seeing a rash of one-minute injuries (a la soccer) in an attempt to skirt the timeout system.
Teams would adjust. Pitchers would step off the mound to get instructions from the dugout. Hell, yelling could become way more a part of the game than it is today. If there’s one constant in baseball history it’s pushing the boundaries of playing within the rules.
There will be challenges in implementation but that’s no reason not to proceed. Trivial delays are not a grand baseball tradition. There’s no need to clutch them with white knuckles and fear change. Those resistant should stop and consider what they’re really fighting so hard to preserve. Mound confabs. Slow managerial strolls. Hitters with short attention spans admitting to third-base coaches that they don’t know the signs.
The timeout system is a forward-thinking idea. With a few refinements it could be adopted. It would alter the way the game is played but in a decidedly better direction.
Better, more influential minds than mine need to keep tinkering and pushing to make this a reality.