Rozner: Pace of MLB games not real issue

Jon Lester is about as old school as it gets.

He grunts at himself, groans at umpires and greets each batter as the enemy.

But for love of Nolan Ryan and all that's holy, does he ever exist to compete and play the game of baseball.

When someone tries to tear the uniform off his back, there will be a fight and there will be pain.

He loves the game that much.

So when someone like Commissioner Rob Manfred fails to understand the beauty of the game, Lester tells him what he thinks.

Upon hearing of possible pace-of-play rule changes a few days ago, Lester told reporters in Arizona, "I think it's a terrible idea. I think it's all terrible. The beautiful thing about our sport is there is no time.

"Fans know what they're getting themselves into when they go to a game. If you want to go to a timed event, go to a timed event."

Among the changes announced Monday are limits on mound visits, something that could affect how the game is played, and perhaps even cost a team a postseason game.

All to save a minute or two.

"People that aren't in the game don't understand there is so much technology now," Lester said. "There are so many cameras on the field that every stadium has a camera on the catcher's crotch.

"They know the signs before you even get there. Now we have Apple Watches and people being accused of (spying). There are reasons behind the mound visits."

Lester is a 34-year-old lefty from Tacoma, Washington, drafted out of high school at 18 years old.

Chris Archer is 29-year-old righty from Raleigh, North Carolina, drafted out of high school at 17 years old.

The two men were born nearly 3,000 miles apart and culturally further than that.

Archer is about as new school as it gets. He expresses his personality and joy openly and frequently on a field.

He is from a biracial, multifamily upbringing and was adopted by his grandparents at 2 years old.

What these two men share, however, is a love of the game that was kindled early in life. In that way, they are very much the same.

"I love the game of baseball the way it is," Archer said a few days ago. "I think a three-hour baseball game is normal.

"Baseball is about strategy. If you want checkers, go play checkers. If people don't have the attention span for (baseball), that's on them."

It's all about perception and groupthink now, and Manfred is reacting to pressure from the media to do something about the time of games and the lack of action, which is a function of how the game has changed and the way it's played today.

MLB wants a smaller strike zone and more scoring, which only means adding time to the game. Out of the other side of his mouth, Manfred says he wants a faster game.

There's little Manfred can do about getting more balls in play, so he's fiddling around the edges and enacting change for the sake of it.

It's as transparent as can be.

The real answer in getting young people interested in baseball isn't shortening an event by two minutes or 10 minutes. It's in getting them to the games, which have become increasing unaffordable for a significant portion of the audience.

It's also in getting kids to play the game, which is a problem because of the cost of organized baseball, not to mention fields available for pickup games.

Most people who love the game for what it is developed that passion early in life, playing the game, going to games with family or watching on TV.

That's where the appreciation comes from.

You love what you know. You love what you knew as a child that you shared with your mom or dad, brother or sister, grandmother or grandfather, best friend or true love.

Archer and Lester are two men who grew up watching and playing the game in much different worlds, yet appreciating the very same beauty of inexactitude while in hopeless search for perfection, a chess game that frequently can't be conquered, only played.

In this regard, Lester and Archer are exactly the same.

So you see, Mr. Commissioner, the answers you seek are in the love of the game.

Not in the time it takes to play it.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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