Time Of Games NL v AL

[Yogi#8Fan]

Originally posted by gyb13
He meant the length of the game, not the time of day.
Still a shoddy reason tho Perhaps I'm missing something I shouldn't have missed. Are AL games longer than NL games? Is that because of the DH rule or something else? I haven't quite had my stopwatch running on games so didn't quite wonder what the cheap point was.

[gyb13]

I still don't get it either. Anyone know where one can find data on the length of games?

[sweaver]

It's in the Baseball Weekly boxscores, but of course you have to add those up yourself. I am not sure who collects it. Red Book and Green Book? (are those still printed?)

[gyb13]

I'm sure someone must have done a study on the topic, esp with all the talk of how long games are these days.

[Xanadu Dragon]

I think the conventional thinking is, or at least was at one time, that AL games were longer - albeit just by minutes - because the DH offered longer PAs and the potential longer innings (by reaching safety) than a pitcher who quickly made out (usually via a weak PA or a SAC).

[SmedIndy]

I remember seeing that the AL had longer games because of the DH, resulting in more pitches being thrown and higher scoring games.

But since LaRussa's in the NL, with his maddening, non-sensical pitching changes that may be swinging the other way.

[KCBOOMER]

I have always heard and read that AL games were 8 to 10 minutes longer.

I thought La Russa was a genius. Least that's what Dave Duncan says. :)

[gyb13]

Well, 8-10 minutes is not a big enough difference for a player to say "I don't want to play in the AL because games there are longer".

[Yogi#8Fan]

Steve, thanks for creating this new thread. I hadn't even realized I'd "started" it until reading my name affixed.Originally posted by gyb13
Well, 8-10 minutes is not a big enough difference for a player to say "I don't want to play in the AL because games there are longer". I'd have preferred he'd said he didn't want to play in the AL due to the DH rule. If there's something about the philosophy of playing in the AL, such as NL ball being the way baseball was originally and he's a traditionalist, I wouldn't mind, since I've heard that from NL fans here in this forum.

Saying you'd give up a contract when it's slim pickings due to a few minutes when a hitter only gets up 3-4x per game anyway is plum loco. Perhaps he thinks saying he doesn't like the DH might be too spicy for some. For whatever Boston's playing, that's not a reason to turn down a contract to me.