Baseball is America’s pastime . . . but, until recently, games were taking up too much time! Pitchers could rest as long as they wanted between throws, and batters could take long breaks between swings. That led to slow-paced games, which averaged more than three hours!
All that downtime turned off many fans. That’s why Major League Baseball began using a pitch timer in 2023 to limit the time pitchers and batters have between throws—and shorten games. Did it work? Spot the trend in the graph below to find out!