I’ve been meaning to respond to Dominic’s post objecting to the coming rules changes in the MLB. Unsurprisingly, as a longstanding pitch-clock and baseball-reform fanatic, I find his objections unpersuasive.

First, just because a game is getting artificially stretched out by mindless and unnecessary fiddling and delays doesn’t mean you are getting “more baseball.” You are getting exactly the same amount of baseball padded out to take more time.

If the commissioner of any sport sees his game actually producing less action but taking more time to play, he should be freaked out.

It’s not hard to find examples illustrating the point. A friend sent me a link to an old Yankees game in 1990. The inaptly named Bombers that year somehow won a game against the Orioles 15-3. It took two and a half hours for both teams to score 18 runs. The other night, the Yankees lost to the Brewers 7-6, and it took more than four hours (!) for both teams to score 13 runs.

Now, Dominic is right that there’s more than the time between pitches that adds to the time it takes to play a game (strike-outs, pitching changes, etc.), but it certainly contributes. I didn’t watch much of the Yankees’ game against the Brewers, but early in the game, the Yankees’ radio announcers were begging for mercy because it was taking so long for anyone to throw a pitch.

There is an easy solution to this: the pitch clock that has been successfully tested at the minor-league level. Believe me: If you go to see a minor-league game, you will not miss all the stepping off the rubber, batter time outs, etc. Since that’s all extraneous nonsense that no one thought necessary in the first 120 years of the game, after about an inning you, forget you ever had to watch a baseball game while being subjected to it.

Dominic says one of the glories of baseball is chatting with friends at a game. True. But chatting for two and a half hours should be plenty. If you want to routinely chat for longer, you can show up for batting practice, or go to a neighboring watering hole before or afterwards.

As for the shift, I’m old enough to have seen a hitter pull a ground ball for a single through the infield. It wasn’t my favorite play, but it was pretty cool to see every now and then. I know the answer to the shift is supposed to be everyone hitting to all fields. I love that kind of hitters, but it’s not going to happen.

And I also find stolen bases enjoyable — they add an element of interest and excitement.

So what we are looking at is that baseball games next year will have a little more action (I wouldn’t want to exaggerate it) packed into faster-paced games. In the other words, more baseball, less dilatory tactics that would have struck players, fans, and everyone else as bizarre and wrong through much of the history of the game and within very recent memory.

Now, bring on the laser strike zone.