Is baseball too slow? The battle lines are drawn -- and MLB is taking a sidePHILADELPHIA -- Art Nelson knows that up the New Jersey Turnpike on Park Avenue, Major League Baseball's deepest thinkers are hard at work trying to solve maybe the hottest topic on commissioner Rob Manfred's to-do list: pace of game.
But here in Ashburn Alley, with a cheesesteak in his hand and a Mets-Phillies game about to unfold before his eyes, Nelson would like the commish to know something just as important:
He's in no hurry to go home.
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[...] new polling data, compiled for ESPN this month by digital insights company Toluna, confirm the sentiments of folks in Ashburn Alley. It's all those people who aren't at the park, the ones sitting at home with a clicker or smartphone -- or not watching at all -- who say games are moving way too slowly.
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"They're trying to appeal to the non-passionate fan," Sutton said. "They're looking to attract people who could become fans if you make it appealing enough. That's their biggest problem -- bringing in that audience that they're not getting because the game is too slow."
But the current fans have a question, and it's an excellent one: How does baseball know it can ever attract those fans?
"I don't like all these changes to baseball to please [people] who will never like it," tweeted Bob Romano (@chisox927). "I don't expect soccer to change so I'll like it more."
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Meanwhile, as our polling shows, the incredible divide between the TV/mobile fan base and the in-the-park crowd might remain as impossible to bridge as ever -- because there seems to be only one thing everyone can agree upon.
"Baseball still feels timeless," Bill Sutton said, "if you're at the game."
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19192828/is-baseball-too-slow-battle-lines-drawn-mlb-taking-side