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For Major League Baseball, shorter games and more action have drawn bigger crowds

Oct 3, 2023
MLB saw its highest attendance since 2017 this year, and on average, games were 24 minutes shorter than last year.
MLB instituted new rules this year aimed at shortening the length of a game. It seems to have paid off.
Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images

MLB's new rules are drawing more fans to ballparks nationwide

Jul 11, 2023
More than two-thirds of Major League Baseball teams are ushering more fans through turnstiles.
New rules include a pitch clock, which means pitchers now have 20 seconds at most to throw the ball.
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Major League Baseball rules aim for shorter games — and a bigger audience

Mar 30, 2023
One change: Pitchers will have 20 seconds or less to throw the ball. But is that enough time to capture the mood?
Shorter games could sustain the sport in the long run, according to Khalid Ballouli at the University of South Carolina.
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Cleveland's baseball team takes the field as "Guardians"

Apr 7, 2022
Economic pressures have played a role in the campaigns to change mascot names that many people consider racist.
The team changed its name after being pressured to drop branding that many people considered racist.
Emilee Chinn/Getty Images

How MLB's younger set factored into the dispute between owners and players

Apr 7, 2022
Salary arbitration was one of the key issues.
Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels throws in the bullpen before a preseason game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on April 5, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
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What’s at stake in the historic MLB lockout

Dec 3, 2021
"The ramifications ... are vast," says Hannah Keyser, who covers baseball for Yahoo Sports.
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Texas Rangers fans can go out to the ballgame again ... all together

Apr 1, 2021
The Rangers' 40,000-seat stadium, Globe Life Field, will be open at full capacity this season.
Soon, Globe Life Field will be ready to host fans at full capacity again. Texas has been declared 100% open.
Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Fake crowds are becoming ubiquitous and a bit more realistic

Sep 25, 2020
Faux fan sounds can cue viewers to pay attention when they're not completely focused on the game.
Cardboard cutouts of fans at a Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants game in July.
Harry How/Getty Images

What does minor league baseball's canceled season mean for teams and the towns that host them?

Jul 6, 2020
Hannah Keyser of Yahoo! Sports says more than half of minor league teams could go under.
"Most minor league revenue is butts in seats, they make their money from having people attend games," says Hannah Keyser of Yahoo! Sports.
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Major League Baseball's business is peanuts, Cracker Jack and TV sponsorship deals

Jul 17, 2018
Teams aren’t as worried about declining ticket sales because their fortunes aren’t as directly tied to the gate anymore, one analyst says.
A cameraman takes a shot of a bobble head Babe Ruth before a game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees at Fenway Park in Boston in 2015.
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