There is a tik tok and it is not a Chinese application that spies on citizens.
This other refers to the so-called “great pastime of the Americans”, which is how baseball is known in this country.
It happens that this great pastime had too often become the greatest of boredom, with endless games of more than three hours and, even worse, without any action to maintain the tension.
You looked once, looked again after a while, and the conclusion was drawn that nothing had happened.
The big league season kicked off last Thursday with the inclusion of four deep-pitch novelties, the biggest changes in history. This represents an effort to modernize a sport that seeks to rejuvenate itself in its essence to return to the old days, to the origins, with many more offensive plays, with more players running between the bases, with more action on the field.
“This is the game we all want to see: catch the ball, shoot the ball, keep the defense on its toes,†says actor Bryan Cranston in the league (MLB) ad to promote and explain this transformation.
To anyone who is not a fan of this sport, the changes will go unnoticed, except for tik tok. The league has established a clock that limits the time pitchers have. A maximum of 15 seconds when the bases are empty, although they win five in a matter of there being an opponent on those tiles.
The experiment has begun to give its results. In the preseason matches, the duration per game has been lowered by an average of 26 minutes. In the last campaign they were above three hours. On opening day in the Bronx, the game between the Yankees and the San Francisco Giants lasted just over two and a half hours.
Two other changes are more philosophical: defensemen must always be in their position and not change it based on whether the hitter is left-handed and pitchers can only try twice to eliminate an opponent who is in the field.
In addition to cutting the duration of the matches, the first effects of these measures are showing their good direction. There is more play on the field and more bases are stolen, for which they have been given more size.
In that debut something immutable was seen. Aaron Judge, who last year broke the home run record in a season (62), opened the Yankees’ account with the first appearance.
