World Series Thread

[D-train]

Playing 18 innings is a stupid idea. Can you imagine staying up until 2:15 in the morning just to see your team lose after enduring 8.5 additional scoreless innings? That would turn me off baseball for life.

2:50am EDT is when Freeman finally ended it.

[Michael K.]

Sadly, a game like this will probably make MLB decide to use the ghost runner in the playoffs, which is a stupid idea

I've never understood how this makes the game end sooner? It's not like only one team gets a chance to score the runner from second. The only way this is an advantage is if the visiting team doesn't score. Then you can easily bunt the runner over and try to win it with a fly ball. But how does giving both teams a runner at second base ensure that the game will end sooner?

Because it dramatically increases the chances of scoring at least one run every inning.

Before the "ghost runner" rule, extra-inning MLB games averaged about 11.3 innings, while after the rule was implemented (in 2020), the average length decreased to around 10.3 innings. The ghost runner rule, which places a runner on second base to start each extra inning, was designed to increase scoring and shorten games, and data shows it has been successful in reducing the average number of innings played.
Before the ghost runner rule (pre-2020)
Average innings: Approximately 11.3 innings.
Average game time: While a precise average isn't consistently available across studies, games went longer, with some studies indicating an average of 11.3 innings, which is one inning longer than after the rule was implemented.
Longer games: A significant percentage of extra-inning games (around 19% in 2019) lasted 13 or more innings, a number that dropped dramatically after the rule was introduced.

Again, the only advantage is if the visiting team doesn't score. BOTH teams get a runner at second. I don't see how this makes it more likely the games will get over sooner because one team scores more than the other. But I guess if five years of data says the games are an inning shorter now? I must be wrong. The logic just doesn't add up to me though.

[D-train]

It is about probabilities. It is like flipping a coin instead of rolling dice. If me and you take turns flipping a coin and one of us wins only if heads comes up and the other guy flips tails the game will end in a lot fewer rounds on average than if we are rolling a die and one guy wins only if he rolls a six and the other guy doesn't match it.

Even though both guys have the same probability to win, they both have a higher probability to win sooner.

[Hy Feiber]

To me, playing an additional 9 inning game was stupid and unnecessary. It doesn't make it a great game just a long and tortuous one. That's how i felt about the extra inning game against Houston 3 years ago.

Sadly, a game like this will probably make MLB decide to use the ghost runner in the playoffs, which is a stupid idea

I’m not sure what’s more retarded, the fake runner or the opener, who pitches one inning?

I can just see Bob Gibson as an opener!

[mostonmike]

FWIW - Baseball is a tv show like any sport. And the tv companies don't want a 6 hour game in the World Series. It will have destroyed their ratings and therefore future advertising revenue.

Next CBA they will sneak the ghost runner in through the back door in the play-offs.

They will pick an arbitrary number, say 12th inning when it will come in and then sneak it down to the 9th in subsequent years.

Tiebreak in tennis is a classic example of chipping away so that all Grand Slams now finish with a 10-point tiebreak at 6-6 in the 5th. NFL games now end in ties which I thought was "Un-American"

Sorry, did I talk about TV companies? I meant to say "player welfare"

2:50am EDT is when Freeman finally ended it.

Wow 6:50am* GMT - who would ever watch baseball at that kind of time?

*we put our clocks back last week meaning we are now 4 hours behind EDT, then you put yours back on Sunday so we go 5 hours behind again. Stupid Daylight Saving Bollocks. (a chance to promote my thread in the politics forum The Bizarre thing about Daylight Saving)

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Could someone try to explain to me what is so great about a 6 hour long game with no scoring over the final 9 innings until one of the Dodgers got lucky and connected with wild swing # 107 of the extra innings? How about playing one extra inning where the team that scores in the fewest plate appearances wins?

[DanielVogelbach]

I've never understood how this makes the game end sooner? It's not like only one team gets a chance to score the runner from second. The only way this is an advantage is if the visiting team doesn't score. Then you can easily bunt the runner over and try to win it with a fly ball. But how does giving both teams a runner at second base ensure that the game will end sooner?

Consider this one...

Top of inning, leadoff double, then 3 strikeouts
Bottom of inning, 3 strikeouts

With old rules the game continues.

With new rules you don't have to actually produce a run from scratch, so it DRAMATICALLY reduces the chance of the game going more than a few extra innings. You might not have understood the math on why it makes the game end sooner, but obviously you can see that it does indeed make the games end sooner; you never really see games go much past the 10th or 11th during the regular season like you did before the rule change.

[DanielVogelbach]

Could someone try to explain to me what is so great about a 6 hour long game with no scoring over the final 9 innings until one of the Dodgers got lucky and connected with wild swing # 107 of the extra innings? How about playing one extra inning where the team that scores in the fewest plate appearances wins?

Eventually it's going to tilt towards the batters.

NHL is similar. In the regular season they just end the games. But, in the playoffs, they can go 5 overtimes.

I think what's "so great" is that they are epic battles and all it takes is one swing of the bat and that's every pitch in every single bottom half after you get the zero in the top half. Each frame builds on the last. They are not typical, most games still end in 9. They are instant classics!

[Big_Maple]

Could someone try to explain to me what is so great about a 6 hour long game with no scoring over the final 9 innings until one of the Dodgers got lucky and connected with wild swing # 107 of the extra innings? How about playing one extra inning where the team that scores in the fewest plate appearances wins?

So we get more chances to see Ohtani.

Oh wait. They kept walking him cause, you know, he keeps hitting dingers. *yawn*

Maybe we should do away with extra innings and have a round robin, home run derby. I haven't thought this all the way through - but it seems like it would be a bit more exciting than 9 innings of no scoring baseball.

[D-train]

FWIW - Baseball is a tv show like any sport. And the tv companies don't want a 6 hour game in the World Series. It will have destroyed their ratings and therefore future advertising revenue.

Next CBA they will sneak the ghost runner in through the back door in the play-offs.

They will pick an arbitrary number, say 12th inning when it will come in and then sneak it down to the 9th in subsequent years.

Tiebreak in tennis is a classic example of chipping away so that all Grand Slams now finish with a 10-point tiebreak at 6-6 in the 5th. NFL games now end in ties which I thought was "Un-American"

Sorry, did I talk about TV companies? I meant to say "player welfare"

2:50am EDT is when Freeman finally ended it.

Wow 6:50am* GMT - who would ever watch baseball at that kind of time?

*we put our clocks back last week meaning we are now 4 hours behind EDT, then you put yours back on Sunday so we go 5 hours behind again. Stupid Daylight Saving Bollocks. (a chance to promote my thread in the politics forum The Bizarre thing about Daylight Saving)

Why would they not want a six hour game. They literally get double the ad revenue and the clients get double the exposure.