Observation......With the sun setting 1-2 minutes earlier each passing day, consideration should be given to starting the upper tier playoff games at 5:30pm. Last night the Twins and Cardinals played at New Scotland Field, start time 5:45pm, and although sunset was 8:15pm, by 8:00pm it was beginning to look like dusk (the umpire requested NEW baseballs so he could see the (white) ball better). Despite limited partial sun light peeking through a generous grey cloud cover, given the tall trees on the west side of the park, there was plenty of diminished light over the entire playing field to continue after sunset at 8:15pm and the game was called after 7 innings, resulting in a 2-2 tie. Just my observation and thoughts as we continue to pushed further into August. The other option would be to play the upper tier playoff games on fields with lighting, as a backup plan.
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Stefan K.
Arachnids 62 / Twins 55 / PFRS All-Stars 45
5:30 start would help, but here are a few other suggestions: make sure we all hustle on and off the field between innings, fewer warm up pitches, get the umps on board with moving the game along quickly, have courtesy runners ready to go, get the foul balls that go out of play quickly, maybe adopt some of the new MLB rules like fewer and shorter mound meetings and less time between pitches, no stepping out of the batters box. I know we are old, but I think we could handle this. We could easily gain that extra 15 minutes if we all do these things.
In the Twins-Cardinals game, there were over 70 at bats between the 2 teams . The 2 teams stranded 26 baserunners. Divide 70 at bats by 150 minutes is 2 minutes and 8 seconds per at bat then subtract the time it takes for switching of sides by each team between innings, the warmup pitches taken by the pitchers, etc and it easily ate up 2 1/2 hours. And there were 2 on field injuries during the game that accounted for at least 7 minutes to deal with . One player had to leave the game. There wasnT anyone delaying play at all in that game. By the time we hit the 7th inning you couldnt track the ball from the outfield. Stefan Koutsakis struck out the numbers 2, 3, and 5 hitters in the bottom of the 7th. Two of those were called 3rd strikes. Although Stefan pitched a very good game, It appeared to me that the Cards were having real trouble seeing the ball in the bottom of the 7th. Hell, we had trouble seeing the ball in the top of the 7th.
What we know is that light is a problem with the sun setting earlier every day. The twins had 3 games wind up as ties so far this season. Its a shame to have to end a baseball game as a tie. Playing under the lights may not be ideal, but it is a potential solution. There are guys 55 and over who dont see well in natural daylight and some who dont see well under the lights.
