Letters to the Editor: Don’t you dare shorten baseball games to please impatient fans

To the editor: As someone who became a baseball fan while an adult, I freely admit that a lot of what I like about going to a game is that it’s the best excuse I’ve found for sitting outside and doing basically nothing for three, maybe four hours. I cringe when I hear suggestions for making the games shorter.

There is another solution, one that can be observed at every Dodger game: Arrive late, leave early or do both.

The true fans, who arrive early and leave late, will greet you when you show up and wish you safe passage when you depart. And everyone will get to see as much baseball as they care to see.

June Ailin Sewell, Marina del Rey

..

To the editor: It’s not the foul balls or the nine innings or the manager’s walk to the mound — those elements are part of the game we all love. What makes the average baseball game an interminable experience are the enforced holds every half-inning to allow for TV ads.

It’s bad enough having to endure them watching on TV, but sitting in the stadium while nothing is happening becomes unbearable. Those TV holds add about 35 minutes to the typical game.

Want to speed things up? Limit the time between half-innings to a minute.

Of course, that would affect the money going into the team owners’ pockets. Come to think of it, shortening those breaks might also reduce trips to concession stands and therefore alcohol consumption — an added benefit.

Ben Martin, Los Angeles