Former MLB pitcher Adam Wainwright discusses what he 'misses' about baseball amid new era of the sport

Former MLB pitcher Adam Wainwright is a fan of the league's new rules, but he told Fox News Digital what he misses most about the old-school game.

Major League Baseball has seen numerous changes in recent years that lots of fans, and even players, have had to get used to.

From pitch timers to larger bases, from limiting mound visits to PitchCom and potentially automated balls and strikes, the game is a different product than it was even in pre-pandemic days.

Perhaps the biggest change, though, is that the average length of a game has been shortened by more than a half hour.

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St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) delivers a pitch during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 14, 2022, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. (Rick Ulreich/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

That stat reached its peak when the average nine-inning game lasted three hours, 10 minutes. MLB implemented a pitch timer in 2023, and that number was shortened to 2:39. The year after, another three minutes were saved, but two of those have been given back this year.

Former St. Louis Cardinals' Adam Wainwright pitched in the mid-2000s and retired after the first year of the pitch clock implementation, and as his career reached its back nine, he began to notice just how long games were taking.

"It became a little bit too much, probably," Wainwright admitted in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.

Wainwright does not miss the long games, stating, "The length of the game now is perfect." But there is one thing he misses about the old days.

"I miss the days where it's the bottom of the ninth, it's the playoffs, there's so much drama, a pitcher can step off and be able to think about