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Welcome to a Great Day for Major League Baseball

Also in Traina Thoughts: New ‘SI Media With Jimmy Traina’ is out; hilarious handshake diss; weak move by the Angels and more.

Jimmy Traina

Welcome to a Great Day for Major League Baseball
Welcome to a Great Day for Major League Baseball /

1. Baseball has needed help for a long time. The narratives around the game always seem negative. Baseball is dying. Young people don't like baseball. Baseball is a tough sell on a national level.

These things may or may not be true, but no one can deny that the length of games had become a HUGE problem for Major League Baseball.

It took too long for baseball to address this, but better late than never. I haven’t looked forward to a season this much in a long, long time, and it’s strictly because of the new pitch clock.

Pitchers will now have 15 seconds to throw a pitch, 20 seconds if a runner is on base. I don’t know whether this will bring new viewers to their TV sets or tablets or computers to watch more baseball, but I do know that for those of us who already watch baseball, the game is going to be so much better to consume.

The pitch clock worked like a charm in spring training. Here’s how long spring training games, on average, took the past three years.

2021: 3 hours

2022: 3 hours, 1 minute

2023: 2 hours, 35 minutes

Beautiful. 

The average length of a game in 2000 was 2 hours and 58 minutes. During the 1970s, the average time of a game was approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The average length of a regular-season game last year was 3 hours and 6 minutes. In 2021, it was 3 hours and 11 minutes.

This addition of the pitch clock became a necessity. 

The new pace will add so much more excitement and movement and action. It will be an entirely new viewing experience and it will all be positive. And baseball is in desperate need of positive developments.

Happy Opening Day and Happy Pitch Clock!

2. The newest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features an interview with WWE superstar Cody Rhodes, who will main-event WrestleMania 39 this weekend with Roman Reigns.

Rhodes talks about whether he ever thought he’d main-event WrestleMania, his relationship with his father, the legendary Dusty Rhodes, why he feels like he’s already been carrying the company, winning over WWE fans who wanted Sami Zayn to main-event ‘Mania with Reigns, what leaving and returning to the WWE did for him, his relationship with HHH, what his wife, Brandi, is up to these days, his tour bus versus Reigns’s tour bus, Paul Heyman and much more.

Following Rhodes, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss the movie Air, some of the proposed NFL TV and rules changes, a LeBron James quote, what Jimmy is riveted about these days, baseball’s various streaming services and more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

3. Knicks guard Josh Hart wanted a high five/handshake from the Heat’s Jimmy Butler after New York’s 101–92 win against Miami last night. However, it never happened, and Hart’s reaction was great.

4. I get that Angels owner Arte Moreno is paying Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani a ton of money, yet the team can never even come close to .500 or ever sniff the postseason, but not sending your broadcast team to road games is such a weak move to save money.

5. We were treated to vintage Draymond Green on Wednesday night. He threw a shoulder-elbow check into Brandon Ingram, then the two players went face to face while jawing at each other and then Green acted shocked that he got a technical foul. 

Green also kept asking Ingram, “Are you gonna do something?” while calling him a bad word.

6. JJ Redick and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo have developed some nice chemistry on First Take. You never know what’s going to come out of Russo’s mouth, so it’s fun to watch a guy like Redick naturally react to Russo’s way with words.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Never ever forget Jim Ross losing his mind when Steve Austin turned heel and joined forces with Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 17.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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