The Josh Innes Show - Baseball Games Are Too Short

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

I attended my first MLB game of the season and was disappointed by the overall experience. In an effort to make games faster, MLB has zapped some of the joy of going to the ballpark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So I went to my first Major League Baseball game of the year. I went to the Phillies and Cardinals game on Saturday. And it's funny because I'm seeing a lot of McDougal people who are watching the game on TV or some who even went to the game who are like, man, it's kind of depressing to see the empty seats in St. Louis. I'm like, well, yeah, people don't give a shit anymore. They're apathetic. It's kind of depressing to see the empty seats in St. Louis. I'm like, well, yeah, people don't give a shit anymore. They're apathetic. It's over. The Cardinals do nothing interesting that gets the fan base going. And while I think this is a good sports town, I also think it's one that's in danger of really just dying.

I'm listening to sports radio this morning because I got a buddy that some of know, some of the guys I knew from when I worked at the radio station. So I listen and I'm a Cardinals fan. So I just listen to see what people say about the Cardinals and everything. And it's they were talking about it today and how the worst case scenario here is that the fan base has grown apathetic. And they really have. I'd say the worst case scenario, if you're a St. Louis sports fan, is that this is in danger of becoming just a complete throwaway sports market. I mean, you've got the crappy football league that people pretend to be interested in to throw a middle finger to Kroenke. Hockey, like it is in most cities, here's how hockey works.

Although I think St. Louis is a unique market for hockey in that it's a major talking point on the radio here because there's only two professional teams in town. So the Blues get a ton of talk time. And it just so happens that the one sports station in town also carries the Blues games. But it's unique. Like in Philly, there's four sports. And if you talk about hockey, the program director calls you and tells you to stop fucking talking about hockey. In Dallas, I imagine they don't talk much about the Stars. But I bet in Columbus, Ohio, they talk a shit ton about the Columbus Blue Jackets if they're good, right? Like that's a talking point there. Detroit is a city that's got four teams, yet they had so much success with hockey in the 90s that I think that hockey is a

talking point there. While not as big of a talking point as it is in St. Louis. It's a big deal. It kind of varies by market, right? And a lot of it has to do with the number of teams you still have in a market. And right now the Cardinals are terrible and people aren't going to the games. The Blues just had a 12-game winning streak that was snapped sometime last week, and they're fighting for a playoff spot. So it's wild to be in a place where people actually talk about hockey and it's not

just in passing they do like full-on fucking like like third line center breakdown shit that i have no interest in doing but this city is in danger of becoming a true sports wasteland first off when you lose the nfl it's a bad spot anyway. It's almost like you don't exist. You have fallen off the map when you don't have the NFL. But it's kind of creepy. It's just a weird vibe you get, especially if you had the NFL and lost it, or in the case of this city, had it and lost it twice. Some cities have never had the NFL, so it's like, okay, we're kind of used to it. There are major cities that don't have the NFL, but they've had other things and they're used to it. I'm trying to think of a good example of that because most of the major cities have NFL teams in them.

So it's kind of hard to think of one, actually, that doesn't have an NFL team and never had an NFL team. But point being in this is it makes you feel like you're in another world when there's no NFL football. Now there's football in the state, but again, you lost football here twice. So it really feels empty. Anyway, let me play a couple of commercials and we'll continue. All right. If you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out pick six from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition, including prize picks. It's a very simple concept. Hit all your picks and score higher minimum payouts on Pick 6, plus even more

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Jilly always asks, do you think that McDougal is going to be at the game and that McDougal is going to recognize you? And I'm like, at some point, they're not going to recognize me anymore. I was on the radio there, I guess, nine years ago was the last time I was on the radio in Philadelphia. And yes, they still talk about me in certain things. radio there I guess nine years ago was the last time I was on the radio in Philadelphia and yes

they still talk about me in certain things and yes I'm still mentioned in crossing broad stories whatever but like no one I don't think so I don't believe that at a Cardinals Phillies game in St. Louis I'm going to be recognized by a McDougal so anyway Jilly gets in line to get a hot dog and I just wander off like I tend to do. And, um, I forgot that I had her card. So I walked back to give her her card and she's standing next to this large dude wearing one of the city connect Philly jerseys. And she goes, Josh, this is such and such and um he knows you from philadelphia like and the way he knew it is he talked to jilly first and he goes you look familiar you're not actually from here and they get to talking and he he knows it's jilly so apparently this mcdougall's from

philly but got a job with walmart like in their gas division so he lives in Bentonville Arkansas for and works for Walmart you talk about a fish out of fucking water huh imagine being a Philly dude relocating to Bentonville Arkansas that's like witness protection type shit that's you know I don't even get the gravy anymore I'm a I'm a putz that eats spaghetti with ketchup, you know? Like, that's that type of shit. But he was a very nice guy, and it was cool. But I went to my first baseball game. Not my first ever. I'm not a child.

But the thing I thought when I was there, and you know that I'm in favor of more action in baseball games, but I've always said that I'm not a big believer that the game needs to move faster. There just needs to be more happening in the game. Nobody goes to a baseball game and says, shit, I hope this game's over in an hour and 50 minutes, right? Now on TV, somebody actually said this in a comment, and I agreed with them on my Twitter, was that in the stadium, it feels like the game moves way too fast because part of baseball, maybe more so than any other sport, is it's the event. It's the social part of it. It's the conversations.

You can meander around the stadium for an inning. You can go get a beer. You sit down. You kind of whatever. Because I tweeted that baseball games are now moving too fast. By the time you even settle in, it's the third inning. I got one jamoke who's like, we'll get to the game earlier. Well, great. But I was at the game early. I was there for first pitch.

But even if you're in the stadium, you wait in line for a beer. Like by the time you wait in line for a beer, like an inning can be over. One ninth of your day of your ball game is taken by going to get a beer. Even if you go get that beer in between innings, like these innings are lasting, these half innings are lasting like five minutes. And part of the appeal of baseball is going to the game, kicking back. It's kind of a leisurely type of deal,

but you can plan on spending the day at the ballpark. Same thing with like, even if you're not at the game, one of the best parts about baseball is that a baseball game on any given night or afternoon is going to be the background audio for your night, right? You don't have to pay attention to every pitch, but it's always on. And generally speaking, if you've got a 7-0, 7-0-5, 7-10 first pitch, you can count on that baseball game being on TV until like 10 something and it occupies your whole night. You can go out, you can walk the dog, you can come back,

it's the fourth inning. You go make a run to Walmart, sixth inning, whatever, but it's always on. Now you go out and walk the dog. Like let's say it's bottom of the first inning. You go walk the dog. You come back 30 minutes later. It's the fourth fucking inning. Like I think that they've overcorrected. Like the pitch clock doesn't really bother me, but the length of time that it takes to play a baseball game has never actually bothered me. It's just the lack of action. And I don't know how you create more action in a baseball game, but that's always been my biggest criticism of it.

But I'm at the ball game and I'm hoping to spend an afternoon. I'm at a one o'clock game. I'm thinking like in the old days, you'd probably be there. And I say the old days. In the old days, games probably used to move a lot faster because there weren't a ton of TV and commercials. But in my old days, five, six, seven, eight years ago, you go to a ballpark for a 110 first pitch or 115 first pitch,

you're planning on probably being there until 415, 430. Now, like by the time we left and we left in the top of the ninth actually we we didn't we stayed the whole damn game we moved around a little bit and stayed that game lasted like two hours and 20 minutes or something like that so it's not even four o'clock yet when this game ends and it's like i don't know it's taken kind of some of the joy some of what makes baseball fan experience great has been eliminated. Great for TV, I guess, because when you're sitting on your ass at home, it's good that it moves quick like that, but you almost feel like you're getting hosed, like you're being cheated. Soccer, you know

that you're going to be there for two hours. It's set. You know how a soccer game is going to go. You know how a football game more than likely is going to go. They're going to fit that NFL game into that 12 to 315-ish window, and that's what you're going to get. Baseball, you never really knew. Now you're starting to get the vibe that, like, if you get there an inning late, say you're stuck in traffic for a ball game. Let's say you're late getting off of work and you're stuck in traffic.

Game starts at 715. You get there at 740 or get there you know 7 40 or whatever used to be a probably the second inning now it might be the fucking fifth it feels kind of like you're being cheated i don't like it and i know i'm one of these people that always bitches about baseball games but man like and i get it you want the game to be more exciting you want the game to be more fun that's what i argue for that's what i complain about is that the game isn't as exciting and it isn't fun there's not a ton of action but man like you go to a ball game and by the time you sit down grab a beer and a hot dog game's already half over especially in a game where there's five fucking double plays hit by

one fucking team every damn inning it seemed like that's a record by the way I think that's a tie that tied a record in that Cardinals-Phillies game on Saturday. Five double plays. And I think there was a double play that ended each of the first three innings, I think. Stupid. So just when you get shit like that and the game ends faster like that, it's just, I don't know. I don't enjoy it as much. It kind of sucks some of the joy and zaps some of the ambiance and atmosphere and fun of going to

a baseball game. It kind of sucks some of that joy out of it is all. And when you have a bad baseball team, it just wasn't a very good baseball game either. When there's a game of five double plays, you're getting minimal action in the game. And it was a low scoring game. I think the final was like four to one. So anyway. All right. But yes, that is my lack of joy as it relates to going to baseball games. Anyway, more to come.