As statistics, a major league baseball game often lasts three hours with nine innings. It usually takes an average of more than four hours with seven-baseball-inning for high school baseball games. And youth baseball games often last for an hour and a half an inning.
Baseball officials do not want the game to be played at a leisurely pace. When batters step out of the batter’s box and pitchers take longer to get ready to throw, the pace of the game slows. If a game takes a long time because there is more action, most fans don’t mind a game that lasts more than three hours.
The average was 3 hours, 10 minutes, 7 seconds for the 2021 regular season, the commissioner’s office said after the regular season ended Sunday. That was up from 3:07:46 for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and 3:05:35 in 2019.
In MLB games, a total of nine innings are played.
However, if a game is tied after these nine innings, the game will go to extra innings. Additionally, if the home team has the lead after the top of the ninth has ended, the game will end without the bottom of the ninth being played.
Sensing that an official ruling was necessary as more and more baseball teams were formed, the Knickerbockers decided to form a committee in 1856 to tackle the issue. The desire for more competitive defense won out, and nine innings – and nine men – became the standard for good.
Since most professional baseball games are nine innings long, the fifth inning is used as the threshold for an official game. If the visiting team is leading, or the game is tied, the end of the fifth inning marks this point.
If a regulation game is terminated early due to weather, the results are considered final if the home team is leading. If the home team is trailing, the results are considered final if the game is not in the midst of an inning when the visiting team has taken the lead.
Get to the ballpark early. Most parks open at least 90 minutes before first pitch. “You can always get in 90 minutes early, and I would recommend being there even before that and lining up so you can hurry inside,” Hample said. “Sometimes you’ll find a baseball in the seats.
How much live action occurs in each sport? Ball in Play studies summarized
Sport | Clock Duration | Est # of 30-second commercials |
---|---|---|
Football | 3hrs 10mins | 150 |
Soccer | 1hr 55mins | 38 |
Basketball | 2hrs 18mins | 90 |
Hockey | 2hrs 20mins | 60 |
According to the all-knowing Google, the 1910 matchup between the Atlanta Crackers and Mobile Sea Gulls is the first choice that pops up when you search fastest baseball game ever. It was 32 minutes long.
Longest Events By Sport- Tennis (11 hours, 5 minutes) Suzanne Plunkett-Pool/Getty Images.
NFL (2 overtimes) Herb Scharfman/SI.
NBA (6 overtimes) NBAE/Getty Images.
Baseball (8 hours, 6 minutes) Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images.
NHL (6 overtimes) AP.
Golf (72 holes)
College Basketball (6 overtimes)
College Football (7 overtimes)
Time Limit: 1 hour 15 minutes or 6 innings, whichever comes first. Run Rule: A 15 run rule is in effect after 3 complete innings. A 10 run rule is in effect after 4 complete innings. No more than 5 runs per inning per team may be scored.
Television broadcasts benefit from odd start times like 7:08. This is likely the main reason why baseball starts games at weird times. A start time of 7:08 allows for a television broadcast to begin at 7:00 and do a quick game introduction, then get in a full commercial break before first pitch.
However, based on the average duration of MLB games, we can conclude innings last a bit over 20 minutes on average. In the 2021 regular season, the average length of an MLB game was 3 hours, 10 minutes, and 7 seconds. Dividing this by 9, we get the duration of about 21.1 minutes for each inning.
In 2018 the average NCAA college baseball game lasted 2 hours and 59 minutes. Most college baseball games are 9 innings long, but some games are 7 innings. The amount of innings will obviously affect the overall length of the game, so be sure to check how many innings are in the game you will attend.
May 8-9, 1984: White Sox, Brewers play for 25 innings, longest game in major-league history – Society for American Baseball Research.
In terms of innings, only one game—a 26-inning 1920 contest between the Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves lasting a crisp three hours and 50 minutes—went longer than this 25-inning soiree between the Cardinals and Mets. A 25-inning contest today would be lucky to end in under nine hours.
Baseball estimates between eight and 10 dozen baseballs are used in every major-league game.
The term inning in baseball comes from the Old English innung — the gerund form of innian “to get within, put or bring in” — and was originally used in the sense of “a team’s turn in a game” in 1738.
No, there is no official halftime set out in baseball. Instead of a halftime, both the players and the baseball fans get to enjoy a break in the game during the seventh-inning stretch.
Only 12 starters have gotten outs past the 9th since 1995
That’s a true rarity these days, indeed. The Major Leagues used to see starters record outs past the ninth inning upwards of 150 times per season in the 1910s, and it still happened between 40 and 50 times in several years during the 1980s.