If you think debates about tinkering with election rules are vicious, then you need to turn your attention to the endless battles between baseball's traditionalists and reformers. The former treat America's pastime as something almost sacred—a bastion of timeless and slow-moving beauty in an ever-changing world. Unlike professional football, which is forever tinkering with its rules, baseball should, in their view, cling to the past.
"I have observed a creep towards instant gratification in a game whose best quality was that it challenged us to be patient," wrote traditionalist Noah Gittell. But after seeing the results of Major League Baseball's recent changes that are designed to speed up the game (e.g., adding a pitch clock), he decided that the tweaks are OK. This isn't the first time the league has changed rules, he noted.
