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It's all about timing: The evolution of the clock in sports
The Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants experimented with a pitch clock during a spring training game. USA TODAY Sports

It's all about timing: The evolution of the clock in sports

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has been considering a number of rules changes to baseball, including adding a "pitch clock" in an effort to speed up the game. A 20-second pitch clock has been tried out in the minor leagues, and Manfred likes what he's seen. If implemented, it would be one of the most drastic changes in the history of Major League Baseball.

While drastic, it could be quite necessary to the advancement of the game, similar to instant replay or the type of equipment worn by players. At the same time, it could take away one of the most time-honored traditions in baseball: no clock.

However, it wouldn't be the first and certainly would not be the last time a clock has been introduced to sports. We have seen a number of clock and timing changes before with differing results.

Here's a look at some of the most influential ones, with time at the forefront of MLB's mind.

SHOT CLOCK

One of the most successful clock changes was when the NBA adopted the 24-second shot clock way back in 1954. Up to that point, stalling was a legit strategy that helped teams hold on to a lead by just not shooting the ball. The NBA had attendance issues, and having extremely low-scoring games was unattractive and made games boring.

The shot clock, which was determined by simply doing the math of how many shots were typically taken in a 48-minute game, has been wildly successful and relatively untouched for more than 60 years.

An addendum was added in 1998, where if there are 13 seconds or less on the shot clock and a violation occurs in the frontcourt on the defending team, the shot clock resets to 14, not the full 24. This has helped keep up the pace of the game.

College basketball did not adapt to a shot clock for quite some time, as schools, most notably North Carolina's "Four Corners" offense, were continuing to stall games in order to win. In 1985, the NCAA finally adopted a 45-second shot clock following Villanova's historic upset of Georgetown in the National Championship Game in which the Wildcats played keep-away from the Hoyas.

In an effort to further speed up the game, the shot clock was reduced to 35 seconds in 1993, then 30 seconds last season. Similarly to the NBA, college basketball also implemented a reduced shot clock reset on a kick ball with 14 seconds or less on the shot clock, resetting to 15 seconds. This rule took effect in 2005.

One of the complaints against a shot clock was that it would hurt the underdog, but we have seen that the Cinderellas have fared quite well during the shot clock era.

PLAY CLOCK

In 1976, the NFL introduced a 30-second play clock to speed up the game (since extended to a 40-second clock). Like basketball and what baseball in proposing, it was added to create a better flow to games and has been wildly successful. College football has a 25-second play clock.

TWO-MINUTE WARNING

One timing issue that seems to have lived on despite outliving its original purpose is the NFL's two-minute warning. The game stops when the game clock gets to two minutes in the second and fourth quarters. It was originally used because referees kept the official clock and the two-minute warning made players aware how much time was left in the game.

In the 1960s, the stadium clock became the official timekeeper, making a two-minute warning unnecessary, at least in regard to its original intent. However, the two-minute warning became a part of the game and television, which was becoming a huge partner with the league, liked having that built-in, drama-building commercial break.

As NFL fans, we take that moment to get that last beer, use the bathroom, or as that breather as our team attempts a last-ditch effort to tie or win a game.

The NFL has since used it as a strategic factor in games. Teams consider it an extra, late timeout that stops the clock for a potential comeback. It is also a marker to end coaches' replay challenges, as all replays are considered by "the booth." Well, why is that? Why can't the booth just do that all during the game? Again, it is aesthetically pleasing to the audience of not continuously stopping the game except when there is a tension-filled, end-of-game moment.

College football doesn't have the two-minute warning and also has replays reviewed by "the booth" all game long.

PERIODS

Believe it or not, prior to the 1910-11 NHL season, hockey games were made up of two 30-minute halves. Who knew? Then in the 1910-11 season, the NHL moved to three 20-periods, the format that is still used to this day, some 115-plus years later.

RUNNING CLOCKS

Throughout sports, game clock stoppages vary. Some, especially in youth sports and soccer, use a running clock where the clock stops for nothing by timeouts. It is effective as a way to keep games on a schedule (especially youth games, where there are multiple games played on site during the day) and action moving. Soccer also uses the running clock and adds "stoppage time" at the end of each half if there were injuries or substitutions that ate up some of the running clock and play was halted.

The NFL hasn't gone full running clock but did change the rules to the clock restarting on plays where a player goes out of bounds and the ball is set at the line of scrimmage (the clock still stops on out of bounds plays in the final five minutes of each half). That significantly reduced total game length.

College football does things similarly, though it does have added clock stoppages on first downs, waiting to start the game clock until the chains are reset.

TENTH OF A SECOND

The NBA not only has a ton of clock rules, but it has the smallest measure of timekeeping in American sports. The NBA uses the tenth of a second on its game clocks in the final minute of play in each quarter and in the final five seconds of the shot clock.

This change in the calculation of time has been huge and eased the confusion on timekeeping. See, one of the misconceptions about the clock in sports is that zero seconds on the clock is truly zero seconds — the clock breaks down into further increments.

The NBA added those tenths to not only further break down the timing, but to add concrete rules to when actions can occur during those times. For example, before the tenths were added, a player didn't know if he had enough time to catch and shoot before time expired. How much of that one second was truly remaining? With the tenths of the second added to the clock, there are defined rules that state how much time a catch and shoot can be made in or if the ball had to be merely tipped for a shot. College basketball has also adopted this timekeeping change.

It is a wonder why the NFL hasn't. While not really necessary for the game clock, it would be a welcome change for the play clock. There are many times the play clock gets to or near the double zeros as the ball is being snapped, and as of now, there's kind of an accepted buffer when the clock runs out to when the officials call a delay of game penalty. It's kind of an internal clock before throwing the flag. Obviously the timekeeping is there, so why not use it in a NFL stadium for play clocks?

Timekeeping is an ever-evolving technological industry to get things right and to start and stop the clock at the exact moment. Not just our professional team sports, but events like track and field and swimming can be determined by the quality of the timekeeper, which can separate champions from their contenders and define world records.

FACE-OFFS

The NHL has a rule that once line changes have been made after a stoppage of play, the centers for each team have five seconds to get in the face-off circle. If they take longer, the official is to drop the puck for the face-off whether the players are ready or not.

This rule is not often enforced, but it was implemented in the 2000s to help speed up the time between face-offs, and teams generally adhere by this rule, making it virtually moot.

PITCH CLOCK

Typically, these clock changes have made the games better, quicker and increase the action during the games. However, all the games above already use clocks. Can baseball adopt a timing mechanism when there really is no time kept at all in games? Yes.

The pitch clock has been used in the minor leagues and colleges, and it's been pretty successful in speeding up games. Games with the pitch clock have been an average of 12 minutes shorter than games without one. Now, 12 minutes may not seem like an overwhelming savings of time that would necessitate a drastic rule change that goes against the fabric of America's Pastime, but it isn't just how much time you save, but how the time played is used. The up-tempo style allows for less lulls in games and a better rhythm.

Still, it would be a shock to the system if it does get placed into the Major League Baseball game. However, as we've seen across sports, timing is everything, and the more time a game can shave off, the more people will push for clock changes.

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