Tom Verducci did a terrific piece at SI.com on the slow-play slog that now is baseball.

It should be noted that Verducci isn’t just a baseball writer these days. He is on Fox’s new A team for MLB and is frequently seen on MLB Network.

Usually, network executives and many announcers downplay the slow-play problem, as if we in the media are blowing it out proportion. Verducci even does that somewhat in his piece.

Complaints about games taking too long generally come from media people who’d rather be somewhere else than the ballpark.

Not true. I haven’t covered a game in years. My complaints are from the perspective of a spectator, TV viewer, and father of two teenage boys who don’t watch nearly as much baseball because the game moves too slow.

Regardless, Verducci has the numbers that show baseball is moving in slow motion. He writes:

In just 10 years you have added 29 minutes, 11 seconds of dead time per game while scoring 13.3 percent fewer runs.

Does that get your attention? It should, because you don’t need to go back to pre-cable, pre-DH days to measure the deceleration of pace of play. How the game is played has changed drastically in a short period of time. The two biggest causes have been:

1. The marked improvement in run prevention methodologies (detailed scouting information, defensive shifts, increased velocity, increased use of specialized bullpens, etc.).

2. The utter disregard players have for pace of play.

And more:

In just 10 years the time in between balls in play has increased 18 percent. What does that mean in actual dead time? You have to wait an extra 32.4 seconds today to see a ball put into play than you did only 10 years ago. Multiply that extra time by the average of 54.04 balls in play per game, and that’s how you get the added 29 minutes, 11 seconds of down time over the course of an average game.

Verducci offers some solutions to the problems that would involve changing the rules of the game. Baseball hates change, but he says the time has come.

Verducci concludes:

Of course, any time you bring up the possibility of changes to the game people get nervous. The default position in baseball tends to be “How can we keep it the same?” not “How can we move it forward?” There is an underlying motive to preserve the quaint myth that baseball has been the same game for 150 years. It’s not true.

The irony is that baseball has changed radically just in the past 10 years with no rules changes or enforcements in place. It has grown like an untended garden, with weeds diminishing its beauty. Let’s clean it up before it gets worse.

Glad to see Verducci take such a stand. He is an important voice.

Hopefully, baseball will listen.