Baseball went for decades and decades with few changes, then when fan interest began to wane, they were forced into doing something. The fast pace of life in the U.S. wasn't reflected in the slow, plodding play of baseball. The "it's tradition!" crowd finally began to die out and some of the dumbest things in sports began to be removed, such as the throwing of 4 pitches waaayyy outside to a batter they wanted to walk. Now they just send the batter to first base. The "strategy" of bringing in a pitcher who throws one pitch and then leaves so another pitcher, who despite having spent several minutes throwing in the bullpen gets on the mound and throws still more pitches, while the fans sleep in the stands, go get another beer or check Facebook on their phones.
More could be done, I almost laugh every time I see a batter take a ball, then steps out of the batter's box and re-straps his wristbands, despite hardly moving his hands at all during the ball. Just think, years ago there were no wristbands, and I didn't see tons of wrist injuries occur.
Just noting that baseball is no longer the "National pastime", based on fan ratings. If it wants to survive, it had better change. And the exorbitant salaries for a pitcher who might get in 20% of the gams is just one example. People who work 50-60 hours a week just to make ends meet are tired of that...
