The Dodgers and Angels played one of their Freeway Series exhibition games in two hours and eight minutes. “That was nuts,” said Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw. That was almost an hour less than the standard major league game last year, which prompted a thought by Kershaw about the hidden cost of playing so fast: “Hopefully, they sell enough beer,” he said.
The pitch timer cut 25 minutes of dead time out of minor league games, 26 minutes out of spring training games and 26 minutes out of Opening Day games. It works. But if the owners have less time to sell beer, not to mention all other concessions, will they lose money?
No, according to commissioner Rob Manfred. The owners, he said, have done the math. At a luncheon speaking engagement last week hosted by the Paley Media Council in New York, which I moderated, Manfred said MLB surveyed minor league teams after last season to see whether the shorter games impacted their concession sales, especially beer. He said the data showed no significant decline in concession sales.
