1st, theoretically if it did speed up the game enough to bring more interest you could offset the lost revenue for commercials with increasing revenue for in-game ads.

2nd, and more importantly, it would NEVER happen, because there are just too many inherent problems. Every mound is different, and most change shape and feel throughout a season or even a day, and those 8 pitches are designed to give the pitcher the feel of that particular mound. Eliminating them will only end up with less control, and more injuries.

I also like Ken’s idea to try and get people more interested in the game. When I hear someone say ‘I don’t like baseball it’s so boring’, I feel they think this because they don’t really see everything going on out there that you or I see (I feel this way with hockey, I can’t stand it). Last year the league had some Jumbotron videos displaying a certain ‘play’ and professional umpires making a call, then explaining the rules and why the call was made. Only a few stadiums picked this up for their stadium screens (I believe the Nationals were one). I really feel like something like this on a broadcast would help people understand what they may be missing in the game.

I would assume that much of the additional length added to the average game has been due to commercials. Commercials are a short term revenue fix, but over the longer term, they make the game less appealing both on TV and at the stadium. Cut commercials to 90 seconds per half inning and I think baseball might come out ahead over the long run. Ratings would slowly increase, or stop decreasing so fast, and baseball could also charge more per commercial not simply for the higher ratings, but also because each commercial would have more impact in a less cluttered environment.

Pitcher changes could be easily addressed. Either institute rules to reduce the number of changes, or the time per change (as others have suggested).

In terms of presentation, broadcasters should make more effort to teach the differences in pitches, and pitch movement, to viewers. I’ve seen some of this lately, but as someone who never pitched or hit in competitive levels beyond little league, I’d like graphics that help teach me about the difference between a slider, a cutter, a curve, a sinker and so on.

The camera should be positioned for a more direct view of the batter. Often, from the angle you see things on TV, it’s difficult to tell whether pitches are inside or outside (though high and low are usually reasonably clear).

So what’s the best thing to speed up the game? Maybe if we actually taught youngsters defensive fundamentals instead of obsessing about homeruns, and taught our pitchers control and location instead of glamorizing the strikeout.

You have to get people watching the bleeding game in the first place–on television. What baseball shares with hockey is that both sports are far better live than on television. (American football, patently, is not.)

But THAT’S NOT BECAUSE THE GAME IS TOO SLOW–if anything, it’s too fast.

I’ll give you odds that if you regress the total start-to-finish time of a baseball game against the time spent on commercials (Ron’s #3 is spot-on; when was the last time you saw more than two start-of-half-of-an-inning warmup pitches broadcast?), the National League will be close to exact. (The American has that Offensive Addition that also has been adding to game times–getting rid of that would shorten games. Good idea, though? Probably not.)

You need to make up for the inability to understand the game with more explanation, aimed at the casual fan, on what is happening and why. (John Madden’s post-play diagrams do this in football. Baseball has no equivalent: “Well, Jeter was shading to his right on that off-speed pitch to the lefty, who put it right where he would have been if he could field.”)

Give it better direction, show some more of how the game really is a team sport, and people will pay attention. Spend some time: explain, for instance, that the Infield Fly Rule is there to help the team at bat. Discuss why a team will run on Junior’s arm more than Adam Dunn’s (or vice versa). Explain why a 95 MPH fastball and a 92 MPH curve aren’t necessarily as good a combination as 95/88.

USE the time, and no one will miss it.

Of course, I doubt anyone who would TiVo a game in the first place would fast-forward through at-bats if it were, say, Fred Toney and Jim Vaughan Redux.

But if you want to catch more viewers, you need to make it more interesting, not “faster.” That way lies hockey, which is now playing on cable–and not necessarily even basic cable at that.

Here’s my suggestions:

Limit of 1 pitching change per inning, barring injury. (Yes, this would have a huge impact on strategy.)

Limit of 2 or 3 pickoff throws.

Make batters stay in the box.

Start every hitter with a 1-1 count. (OK, this will never happen, but if we were inventing the game of baseball today, I doubt we would allow 4 balls and 3 strikes.)

IMO, eliminating commercials would cause the least disruption to the rules/stategies of the game and speed it up more than most other ideas I’ve heard. Of course, it could never happen…