Baseball no longer the timeless game as pitch clock shaves 30 minutes off 9-inning game

Major League Baseball has hit a home run it appears. A series of rule changes have pumped much-needed life back into the game and produced a product that analysts say make the game vastly more enjoyable and watchable for both casual and diehard fans.

After years of swings and misses, baseball just might have got it right this time.

"It got to the point where it was important to intervene and make sure that we are putting the best product on the field," Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said prior to this season, which began March 30. "Our research showed that the game had evolved and changed in a way that fans didn't like, and we decided it was time to intervene."

The changes, which include a pitch clock, bigger bases and rules on where infielders can be positioned, were put in place to boost offence and reduce the length of games, which routinely dragged past the three-hour mark.

Many longtime baseball watchers say the alterations were long overdue.

"Most people under 40 years old were saying that the game was boring and didn't appeal to them. So I think these changes which are big and abrupt were a long time in coming," said Tom Zeiller, a professor at the University of Colorado who has studied and written extensively about the evolution of baseball in America.

WATCH: What new rules mean for the future of baseball:

Zeiler said even though baseball has long been referred to as America's pastime, the game had become out of sync with the expectations and desires of the North American sports fan.

"Baseball is inherently boring, and I'm a baseball fan," he said. "It doesn't have contact or violence. It really doesn't relate as much to contemporary America or contemporary Canada as other sports do."

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