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West Coast League introducing pace-of-play rules

Umpires will use ‘20 second’ rule in between pitches
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Fans at Wilson's Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park this season will notice HarbourCats game move along a little faster this season.

Taking a hint from Major League Baseball that fans want to get home before the next morning’s newspaper arrives, new pace-of-play rules will be in effect this summer at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria and Serauxmen Stadium in Nanaimo in West Coast League games involving the HarbourCats and NightOwls.

But it won’t be visible to fans with a stadium time clock. WCL umpires will administer the new time restrictions via stopwatch.

“We’re blessed with a highly-trained group of umpires to ensure our efforts are both thoughtful and effective,” WCL commissioner Rob Neyer said in a statement.

WCL clubs simply do not have the resources to install stadium time clocks.

“The costs of putting in and operating stadium clocks are the reason for [doing it by umpire stopwatch],” said Jim Swanson, co-owner and managing partner of the company that owns both the HarbourCats and NightOwls.

The MLB time rules introduced this year have shaved about 30 minutes off the length of games to an average of two hours and 37 minutes. The new WCL rules, however, will differ from those in MLB. There won’t be a pitch-time rule like in the MLB in which a pitcher must throw within 15 seconds, or 20 seconds if there are runners on base, and that a batter must be ready by eight seconds remaining on the clock. There is now only 30 seconds allowed between batters in MLB.

The WCL rules instead will call for a general “20-second action rule” and to limiting the time between innings to two minutes. The players in the WCL are collegians, so the WCL said it made more sense to follow the NCAA rules rather than those of MLB.

“We embrace the baseball-wide movement to create a faster-paced, more entertaining game for our fans,” said Neyer.

Swanson said it’s a balancing act.

“We felt we had to do something and it’s an issue we have been working to address,” he said.

“We are cognizant that people want to take time at a ballpark to relax and enjoy but that nobody is a fan of four-hour baseball. Yet, I’m not a fan of one-hour baseball, either.”

Swanson said the average time of a WCL game in past seasons has been “just under three hours.”

The HarbourCats and NightOwls are members of the 16-team WCL, whose alumni included 60 players who played in MLB last season and more than 300 in affiliated pro ball.

The HarbourCats open at home against the Kamloops NorthPaws on June 2 at Royal Athletic Park and the NightOwls also that night against the Walla Walla Sweets at Serauxmen Stadium.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com