© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Having played 14 years in the major leagues and with over 25 years watching the San Francisco Giants from the broadcast booth, Mike Krukow has seen more than enough baseball to have an educated opinion on the sport’s recent initiative to improve its pace of play. While making an appearance on Tolbert & Lund Wednesday afternoon, Krukow shared his thoughts on what he’d change to improve the pace of baseball.
“I don’t like long innings during the playoffs, where there’s 2:45 minute breaks. I don’t like that,” Krukow said. “To me, it’s obvious, if you want to speed things up, cut the innings back down to two minutes or 1:45 and put advertisements on the uniforms. I have no problem with that. I didn’t have a problem wearing a rum advertisement when I played in Puerto Rico.”
On Monday, MLB announced several changes that will go into effect this season, including a limitation on how many times a manager or player can visit the mound during a game. Through the first nine innings, each team is allotted six non-pitching change mound visits with the possibility of additional visits being permitted should the umpire believe it’s needed. Once a game hits extra innings, each team will be allowed one mound visit per inning.
“The limited mound visits, that’s fine,” Krukow said. “Allowing the umpire to use common sense and discretion should they need a seventh or eighth. I don’t like it when a pitching coach goes out there two, three, or four times. It’s absurd and messes with the rhythm of the game.”
Ultimately, Krukow believe the ball is in the player’s court to bring about true change in baseball’s pace of play.
“I think that the hitters, pitchers, and players are the real resolve for this problem of pace,” Kurkow said. “I just think that if the players would play this game as it was intended with a better consideration for rhythm, I think that would resolve all of the problems. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a magic formula that baseball can come up with that can put it back on track, I think it’s the players who are going to have to put it back on track.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 2:48 for Krukow on baseball.