by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Attention baseball fans! Coming to your city! Better get used to them! There will be six(6)new rules this 2015 season in order to “speed up” the game.

1.Hitters must keep at least one foot inside the batter’s box at all times, barring exceptions like foul balls, wild pitches, or if the umpire grants him time out.

2.Pitchers must throw a pitch within 20 seconds of receiving the ball. Clocks posted in each dugout will count down the 20 seconds.

3.There will be a maximum break between innings of 2:05, with a clock keeping track. Hitters must be in the batter’s box by 1:45. If the hitter’s not ready, the umpire can call a strike. If the pitcher doesn’t throw a pitch by 2:05, the umpire can call a ball.

4.Teams will have a maximum of 2:30 to change pitchers, with the clock starting as soon as the reliever enters the playing field.

5.Teams are limited to a maximum of three mound visits per game, not including pitching changes. This applies to trips to the mound by managers, coaches, and catchers.

6.Pitchers no longer have to deliver four balls for an intentional walk. The manager can simply signal to the umpire.

The average MLB game lasted three hours and eight minutes in 2014

I agree with the first five, but I have a disagreement on number six. I think the pitchers should still deliver four balls when the manager calls for the intentional walk. With men on base there is always the opportunity that the pitcher might throw a wild pitch, while delivering the four intentional balls; I believe that takes away from the game.

As a traditionalist, I do not believe in many changes to the game of baseball, which it is after all, a unique game, unlike any other, unlike basketball and football and soccer and hockey where the arenas are all the same dimensions in each city, baseball is the most colorful and different, each park has its peculiarities, Fenway Park in Boston and Coors Field in Denver are as different as day and night, and that is what makes the game of baseball(among other nuances)a great game.

This was bound to happen, in a world of fast communications, little patience and quick answers baseball doesn’t conform to these modern models in the sports world. When I was a kid growing up, I learned how to score a game, most kids going to baseball games today have absolutely no idea on how to score, or how to follow game, but they can Twitter around the world, and text the person sitting in the next seat.

Baseball faces those challenges. There was a time where baseball was the national pastime, today Football has passed baseball, thanks to television(NFL is made perfectly for television)and other sports are not far behind. The new Commissioner indicated he is open to ideas of a shorter season. Less than 162 games, and that I think it will eventually happen, and very soon.

It will be interesting this season, the first with these new rules. Everybody is going to have to adapt to it, veteran players might have a harder time, than younger players, meanwhile it is also a learning process for all the managers.

One of the things that always separated baseball from the rest, is the lack of clocks. Obviously that is changing. However, extra innings will continue, for those than missed double headers and want more baseball, so we can always find the glass half full…or half empty.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com