Pace of play has been a problem in baseball for a while now. The average time it took to play a Major League Baseball game rose to three hours and five minutes in 2017, the highest it has ever been. That figure has been steadily rising since the dawn of time, but has gotten much worse lately: over the past 30 years, the average game time has risen by nearly 30 minutes.
Thankfully, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is going to do something about it. Earlier this week, Manfred hinted that he might unilaterally institute a pitch clock, forcing players to speed up the pace of game.