Doubling Your Misery (Part II): The Ghost Runner and the Pitch Clock

In our prior post, we bemoaned the fact that MLB took a hatchet to the rules in order to save a mere 24 minutes of game time.  As also mentioned, we stated that anecdotally it seems that fans are less averse to the pitch clock than they are to the ghost runner.  Both those rules though exist today, because MLB has decided to shorten or speed up the games, whichever way you want to look at it. 

This all for an extra 24 minutes of game time.  If though you were one that disagrees with the ghost runner, then that difference would be even smaller.  In a very unscientific way, we determined that the average game time would obviously be even less 20 minutes if there was not a ghost runner.  We determined this by noting the following for the years 2023 and 2019, and the difference between the average 9 inning vs all games (which includes extra innings).   

We compare 2023 to 2019, because 2019 was the last year that MLB did not implement a ghost runner.  Therefore, comparing the difference of 9 inning to all other games for both years shows us that the ghost runner on average saves an additional 4 minutes.  Therefore, in a world with a pitch clock, but no ghost runner, games would have been on average 20 minutes longer.

These numbers really highlight why fans despise the ghost runner, since simply placing a runner on base flies in the face of the rules where a runner previously had to earn their way on to a base.  Even more so is that this abomination of a rule only saves on average 4 minutes.  We at BP ask though, if one hates the ghost runner rule, which only saves 4 minutes, is it such a stretch to also oppose the pitch clock?  The pitch clock, which puts an artificial timer on the game of baseball, which was uniquely constructed (compared to all the other major sports) around not time but outs.  Essentially trashing the rules of this sacred game all for shaving off a mere 20 minutes.  The time savings to us here at BP seem inconsequential and to put it in the nicest way possible, not even close to worthy for changing the rules.