Why 7 Innings? (Now Hypothetically, Of Course)
“We build in public, we try things”
UPDATE: Sunday’s Game Will Be Played at Regular Nine Innings
UPDATE: SUNDAY’S GAME IS BACK TO THE REGULAR NINE INNINGS.
(But for history’s sake, here was the thinking behind seven:)
On Saturday, the Ballers announced that Sunday’s game would be a family-forward experiment: We're trying something new this Sunday: a 7-inning game. Many families head home after the 7th inning anyway, so for Sunday’s game only we're testing a format that fits. You'll still get all your Sunday Family Day favorites—kids run the bases, player autographs, and more.
VP of Communications and Fan Entertainment Casey Pratt added in a comment: Over the past two seasons, we've noticed something: Many people naturally head home after the 7th inning. Not because they aren't having a great time, but because life happens. People are balancing bedtime, work the next day, dinner, and busy family schedules. Rather than ignore that reality, we decided to ask a simple question: What if Sunday Family Day ended the way many families already experience it? That's why Sunday's game is a one-day experiment. We’ll see how it goes.
The conversation on the post was lively right away, and Dispatches caught up with our co-founders on Saturday behind home plate to hear their thinking behind the plan.
“Sunday's our family day,” said Freedman, “and we've heard from families that it's tough to see the whole game and run the bases and do autographs and also get the giveaway at the beginning. You have to compromise something. So we'll give it a try. We [in the Pioneer League] are the innovation league. We’re here to innovate every once in a while. But we're open to fan feedback. Let's see what people think.”
“We are not saying baseball definitively should be seven innings,” said Carmel. “We're saying, it's a worthy experiment, and let's try it and let's gather the feedback, and we'll take that data. And you never know unless you try something. It's the last game of the first half of the season. It's a perfect time to try it. Sundays, kids run the bases, so I think there's a certain subset of our people who are coming on Sundays so that their kids can run the bases. So it's the right time.”
Both Freedman and Carmel reiterated that the team is eager for feedback.
“There's already a super interesting conversation happening right now on Instagram between a fan who is for it and a fan who's against it. We're watching all of that to make a determination,” added Freedman. “We're in a unique situation where we can try different things. As Bryan said, this is the perfect game to experiment with something. If we get good feedback, maybe we try it again. If we get bad feedback, we’ll never do it again; it’ll be a failed experiment.”
“We also have a lineage,” continued Carmel. “This is our third year, and we did do a fan-controlled game in our first year. We did an AI game in our second year. This is literally part of our DNA. Because we build in public, we try things. We think sports in general is something that should be iterative, right? They added the pitch clock to baseball and attendance started bumping up because games were shorter. This is another interesting data point in the same sort of thought experiment.”
Fans can continue to leave their comments on the Ballers’ Instagram post, join the conversation in the Ballers’ Reddit community, can reply to this article and post (or can email me, joe@dispatchesfromraimondi.com, if they prefer) with their feedback.
Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.
