The Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers played the longest games and also happened to have the top three team on-base percentages in baseball last year. So that makes sense, right?
Well, major league baseball doesn’t think so. The Official Playing Rules Committee is asking the three aforementioned teams to speed up their games.
“We have hitters that see a lot of pitches. The Red Sox have hitters that see a lot of pitches. We haven’t played the Dodgers so I don’t really know. But that’s going to be a part of it,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
What are the Yankees supposed to do — give away outs? This is ridiculous. It’s not like they’re playing excessively long games consistently.
OK, maybe when the Yankees and Red Sox play against each other they do, but there are other contributing factors for that too.
I don’t think this committee has any valid point here.