“Free Baseball coming to an end?”

By: Kaila Morales 

We’ve come to know that “free baseball” refers to extra innings. 

Extra innings is any playing time that goes after the standard nine innings, which determines the score in a tying-run situation. 

Games go however many extra innings needed, until one team scores. 

With a few games recorded as the longest game in MLB history at a total of 25 innings.

This season so far has had a total of 49 games going to extra innings.

 As much as we love to see free baseball, it may come to an end.

Talk about doing away with extra innings came about days after the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs battled it out in a six hour, 18 inning game on Sunday night.

 The game ended well into Monday morning at 1:14 AM Central time.

 Both teams used 42 players combined, with 583 pitches thrown for a total of 128 at bats. 

This set the MLB record for strikeouts at 48. 

While this makes for an exciting game for the fans, the excitement may not exactly add up for players and managers. 

The biggest concern is about the players and their ability to keep playing after having completed a full game.

 MLB players already have a demanding schedule as they play daily, with very few off days in between. 

Adding extra playing time to their routines, brings about more wear and tear on their bodies, and certainly more chance for injuries. 

You also have to throw in the factor that going extras causes more fatigue, as players have to get up and do it all over again the next day.

 In most cases, the players will have to jump on a plane on little to no sleep to get to the next destination for the start of a new series. 

Alternatives consist of only going an extra three innings making for a 12 inning game. 

With all of this into consideration the extra innings existence still stands as for right now, however “free baseball may soon be a thing in the past.