--- title: New Rules May Finally Speed Up Baseball description: New rules may finally speed up America's pastime canonical: https://time.com/3750535/play-ball/ author: Sean Gregory article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-19T10:44:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:16:41.791Z article:section: Sports og:title: New Rules May Finally Speed Up Baseball og:description: New rules may finally speed up America's pastime og:url: https://time.com/3750535/play-ball/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Rules May Finally Speed Up Baseball twitter:description: New rules may finally speed up America's pastime twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Play Ball—Faster > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Sean Gregory](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent Mar 19, 2015 10:44 AM UTC  by [Sean Gregory](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent Mar 19, 2015 10:44 AM UTC Will this be the year baseball finally hurries up its act? The average time of a nine-inning Major League Baseball game was 3 hr. 2 min. in 2014, up from 2:54 in 1999 and 2:33 in 1981\. The increase is the result of additional pitching changes–due to the rise of specialist relievers–and hitters spending more time square dancing in and out of the batter’s box. That languorous pace hasn’t helped America’s pastime attract younger fans–one reason that new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has made faster play a priority. When the 2015 season begins on April 5, hitters will be generally required to keep one foot in the batter’s box. And a stadium clock will count down the time between innings: a 2-min. 25-sec. break for locally televised games, 2:45 for national-TV games. At least one star player is griping about the new rules. “I call that bullsh-t,” Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said about the batter’s-box policy. No, Big Papi, that’s progress. Baseball can’t afford to bleed any more fans. 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