Fast ball: despite new hurry-up rules, plodding remains baseball's norm—but not online

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 24, 2002 | by Eric Fisher

Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Bud Selig has tried for years to shorten games. So have fellow MLB executives Bob Watson, Frank Robinson and Sandy Alderson. All have failed. The average regular-season game still takes just shy of three hours.

But not to worry, MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), baseball's Internet arm and the folks behind MLB.com, have the issue all figured out. The division has rolled out "MLB Condensed Games" a new online feature that plays right into the hands of time-crunched Americans.

Here's how it works: MLBAM takes video from each game and splices together all the pitches that result in outs, hits or walks, and adds in other relevant action such as stolen bases. A game requiring nearly 300 pitches and three hours in real time is reduced to about 85 pitches and less than 20 minutes on the computer.

The service, the brainchild of MLB President Bob DuPuy, costs $4.95 per month. Games are available about 90 minutes after they end. Enhanced software from MLBAM partner RealNetworks Inc. attaches an updating scoreboard to follow the runs, hits and errors.

"Any fan, no matter how diehard they are, simply cannot watch every single game, not of their favorite team, not of any team," says Bob Bowman, MLBAM chief executive. "The highlight shows or your local news only will have a few seconds of footage. This gives you a lot more, but not in a time-consuming way. It's every payoff pitch. It's a way to see how the game really evolved if you missed it."

Nearly 5,000 people have subscribed so far, and Bowman aims to quadruple that number by December. The final number likely will hinge on how many extra games are added to the service. Similar to DirecTV's not-yet-universal Extra Innings package, only about 35 games per week are condensed.

But are the condensed games actually doing more harm than good? For all of baseball's struggles with time, one of its key distinguishing characteristics is independence from a clock. Each pitch brings a new sense of drama and different strategic circumstances. Bowman concedes those nuances are lost in the hyperspeed replays.

"To me, every pitch in a game is an action pitch," Bowman says. "But if you've missed a game, were out at work, with the family, whatever, we think it is a really good way to catch up."

MLB's TV partners aren't happy though, fearing that short-attention-spanned viewers will gravitate toward the quicker, albeit delayed, option. Fox Sports Chairman David Hill recently called condensed games "undermining" to his broadcasts, and recent talks with MLB officials have not mollified the network's strong objections.

Bowman, predictably, disagrees. "Most people want to watch things live--just look at NBC and the Sydney Olympics" he says. "This service is best designed to geographically displaced fans who can't see the games live, which we figure at about half our fan base, and people with scheduling conflicts."

Regardless of any outcry from baseball purists or TV-network partners, condensed games are here to stay. MLB club owners recently committed to a financing plan that will provide MLBAM up to $1 million from every team in each of the next four years. The result is a startup fund potentially reaching $120 million.

Like nearly every developing tech company, MLBAM lost money last year. But thanks in part to condensed games, those days are expected to be over soon.

"We're a business, not the marketing department of Major League Baseball. I'm not sure everyone yet realizes that," Bowman says. "That means we need to stand up, be accountable for ourselves, earn people's respect and give the fans ways to connect with the game. If we don't do that, we haven't done our job."