Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred envisions more experiments with speed-up rules, such as limiting pitching changes and trips to the mound, or requiring each pitcher to face multiple batters.
Speaking at the Sports Diversity & Inclusion Symposium on Wednesday, the new baseball commissioner said he doesn't see any need to expand the designated hitter to the National League. Manfred also expects teams and the players' association to discuss possible changes to September call-ups during collective bargaining for a contract that starts before the 2017 season.
Concerned the average time of nine-inning games climbed to 3 hours, 2 minutes in 2014, owners and players agreed to install clocks to time between-innings breaks and pitching changes, and to require hitters to keep at least one foot in the batter's box in many instances. The average has dropped to 2:56 this season.
More radical rules, such as a 20-second pitch clock, were used in the high minor leagues.
"You will see a continuing evolution of our rules in order to speed the game," Manfred said to the audience at Citi Field. "Things like visits to the mound, both catcher and manager visits. It's always been astounding to me exactly what wisdom is imparted in those visits, with all due respect to the great managers."
jurisprudence
Court agrees with NCAA
A federal appeals court struck down a plan to pay college football and basketball players in a ruling that NCAA leaders believe supports their contention that the athletes are students and not professionals.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that the NCAA's use of college athletes' names, images and likenesses in video games and TV broadcasts violated antitrust laws, but vacated a judge's decision that would have allowed schools to make deferred cash payments to athletes of up to $5,000 per year.
"The difference between offering student-athletes education-related compensation and offering them cash sums untethered to educational expenses is not minor; it is a quantum leap," Judge Jay Bybee wrote. "Once that line is crossed, we see no basis for returning to a rule of amateurism and no defined stopping point."
