The length of average baseball game firstly depends on the expertise of the players, the viewing platform, and the pitching speed. Knowing the answer to the question, “how long do baseball games last?” allows you to get used to its pace.
Fortunately, this familiarizes you more with the game so that you are in control of your time as a fan/viewer. Ultimately, it saves you much precious time by knowing which moments to focus on. Let’s go!
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How Long Do Baseball Games Last
Baseball Game Length Based on the Expertise of the Players
The level of expertise of the team or players involved highly determines the average time for baseball game. Specifically, it decides how many innings the players can secure.
Baseball playing teams come in three major levels — major, minor, and high school. Organizers from each level draft and designate players accordingly based on their skills.
Both major and minor leagues consist of high school graduates (who have not proceeded to college at the moment), junior and senior college students, and any eligible representative.
The high school level, on the other hand, organizes both junior and senior high-schoolers, and any eligible youth.
- Major Leagues – By its name alone, this organization already calls forth command. Teams like Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padre, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, etc. make up this level. Per their track record, these teams can push for 9 innings to complete the whole game.
- Minor Leagues – The Minor League nevertheless showcases skilled teams that are not as high-ranking as the previous major league members. The Clinton Lumberkings, Springfield Cardinals, Elizabethton Twins, etc. make up this organization. Teams in this level are able to pull through with 8-9 innings throughout the game.
- High School Teams – The high school teams, per their track record, are able to secure 6-7 innings per full game. Popular teams in this level include the Ole Miss Rebels Baseball, Hanshin Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, Chunichi Dragons, and many more.
Let’s do the math: each inning requires an average of 20 minutes to finish. So, an entire game of 9 innings would roughly take 3 hours to complete.
Baseball Game Length Based on the Viewing Platform
The baseball games you watch on TV do not unfold the same way as the baseball games you watch in person. Although some games are viewed live, they don’t wrap up the same way the events turn out in real time.
And, baseball managers sometimes involve a number of pitchers. Plus, the length of MLB game (usually called playoffs on TV) is influenced by either pre-game or post-game shows.
The average pre-game show runs for 30 minutes preceding the actual game; the post-game, on the other hand, consumes 5-30 minutes of viewing time.
So if we are to add the average length of a baseball game (real-time) to the playoffs, we get a total of 3 hours and 35 mins to 4 hours of baseball game time duration on TV.
Baseball Game Length Based on Pitching Speed
The control and speed of the pitcher strongly affect the duration of the games. Depending on the speed, the number of adjustments and at-bats can either increase or decrease.
The managers, through the results achieved by pitching speed, call for pitching adjustments when needed. Here, with the adjustments at hand, the decision on whether an additional inning is to be played out or not after the main games comes into view.
Accordingly, a total of 6 outs would constitute one inning — 3 for either home and visiting team. However, if none of the team’s 3 outs make it to the fielding team’s jurisdiction, the innings would indefinitely go on.
With a 3-hour average of baseball game length time, one inning consists of 3 outs per team. When a total of 9 innings close in with both the defensive and offensive teams coming to a tie, an extra/additional inning rolls out to break it.
Conclusion
The best means to determine how long do baseball games last is to look into the deciding factors that surround it.
- The expertise of the players: nine innings take 3 hours.
- The type of viewing platform (TV): baseball game on TV, with playoffs, takes 3 1/2 hours to 4 hours.
- The pitching speed: innings may be added until a team scores higher than the other.
These are estimated figures only, not fixed outputs.
Five years as a baseball player, my training approaches with this game give me the motivation to inspire and support young players more. Like all sports, we should start with the desire to have fun and maintain our resilience to strive better at any competition. But, of course, some of us want to have some fun and train for better health. It does not matter what your initial purpose is; I believe that most people ever holding on to the baseball bat will fall in love with the games as I do.
