Lowell Cohn: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is wrong about baseball's pace

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred wants to improve baseball.

Does baseball need improving? The game seems pretty good to me.

Manfred wants improvements in a specific area. Speed. The game needs speeding up. Really? Baseball needs speeding up?

The essence of baseball is its pace. Has a leisurely pace. The game unfolds gradually and in increments. Basketball doesn’t unfold. It’s all there, a whirlwind. Baseball unfolds, reveals itself slowly, works toward a resolution. Baseball is not time bound. God love baseball for that. You measure baseball in outs and innings, not with a clock.

It is a wonderful way to experience life. Off the clock. Off the clock that intrudes on our lives. Dominates our lives. A baseball game theoretically could take forever. It defines time in a different way.

I love baseball’s interpretation of time.

But, sure, games that go past three hours, approach four hours, can be tedious. Manfred, with all the best intentions, wants to address that. Already has addressed it in a few ways, although his latest proposal borders on insane. I’ll get to that in a few paragraphs.

Among his sane proposals was this one, which became part of the rules. Batters must stay in the batter’s box between pitches with certain exceptions.

Absolutely.

I - and probably you - have been bored stiff watching batters step out of the box after every pitch, adjust their gloves including opening the strap-thing and closing the strap-thing, and taking their sweet time getting back into the box. You want to yell, “Stay in there. Hit the damn ball.”

Barry Bonds, not a favorite of this column, was an ideal hitter. Almost never tinkered with his gloves. Was there to hit. Say the pitcher threw a ball, Bonds stayed in the box as if to say, “Throw it again. I’m ready. Let’s get it on.”

Batters need to get it on. Manfred helped with that.

He wants to limit visits from the catcher to the pitcher during an inning. I’m all in with that one. What’s with all those visits, two grown men talking into baseball gloves? Silly look. Silly enterprise.

Mike Krukow is fed up with the epidemic of mound visits. The other night he said pitchers and catchers have signals. That’s how they communicate. All these little pep talks - “You’re a good pitcher and a fine person with a strong moral center,” are off the point. Slow down the game.

So far so good. Now for the Manfred insanity.

He has suggested limiting the number of relievers a manager can use in one inning.

The mind reels.

In fairness to Manfred, he hasn’t pushed hard on this wacko idea. Just put it out there. Same as when he publicly debated banning infield shifts. Like you can’t move the third baseman to the right side of the infield against a left-handed dead-pull hitter. Like the shortstop has to stand right here and can’t move from his designated area.

The mind reels.

Manfred soon backed off that madness. Seemed he initiated debate for the sake of debate. Not a bad thing.

Maybe that’s what he’s doing with this reliever idea. I choose to take him at face value. To show what a crummy idea it is.

This is what he’s said: “We’ve actually talked about more fundamental changes. Pitching changes are a huge part of the length of the game - limiting the number or requiring a pitcher to pitch to at least two batters, something like that.”

Oh my.

Santiago Casilla enters the game in the top of ninth, bases loaded, two out. Giants up by five. Let’s say they’re playing the Dodgers in AT&T Park. Casilla gives up a grand slam. Not out of the question. Dodgers down by one. Adrian Gonzalez walks confidently to the plate. Gonzalez a left-handed power hitter. A great left-handed power hitter. The tying run.

Bruce Bochy, a rational man, wants a lefty to face Gonzalez. Wants Javier Lopez with his wide sweeping pitches that move away from a lefty.

Bochy thinks his best shot to win the game is with Lopez, not with Casilla.

But wait. He’s not allowed to bring in Lopez. New rule here. Reliever must face multiple batters. Two batters. Or three batters. Something like that. So Casilla, whose confidence is shot, serves a big fat one over the plate for Gonzalez and Gonzalez sends it into the cove and the Giants and Dodgers end up in extra innings and the Dodgers win.

That makes sense? And all in the name of speed and efficiency. What about the integrity of the game? That counts for something.

And what about a manager’s imperative to win? One of Bochy’s strengths is how he uses the bullpen. Sometimes, he brings in Lopez for one batter and then moves onto Sergio Romo or someone else. This situational pitching is the beauty of baseball. Has nothing to do with speed of the game. Has to do with logic of the game. A gorgeous logic that lives in our bones.

Bochy and every manager has a mandate to use his bullpen as he sees fit, a mandate to deplete his bullpen at his own risk. A reliever faces one batter, gets removed and is gone for the game. He can shower and eat a ham sandwich and watch TV in the clubhouse.

Such a shame to mess with this basic strategy. Strategy we love as we think along with Bochy, as we quietly make the same pitching changes in our own minds.

Manfred’s idea - if it ever becomes part of the game - will backfire. Will result in more offense which will take more time which will slow down the game. You got me?

Rob, leave the game alone. What’s the hurry? Let Bochy use Casilla and Romo and Lopez and George Kontos and Hunter Strickland and anyone else he wants in the same inning. I shouldn’t have to tell you this, Mr. Commissioner, but that’s baseball.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.