If you view games from the 80’s and earlier you are stunned by the absence of glove tugging and restrapping, strolls up the baseline, and re-entrance to the batters box as if stepping into a tub of hot water. The batters stay in the box for pitches at a time and the game is played in 2 1/2 hours or less.

Assuming 250 pitches per game and reducing the time between pitches by 10 seconds each clips 2500 seconds or around 40 minutes off the game time.

Is there any chance that major league baseball might enforce a rule that limits the time that a batter can delay between pitches?
For example, add a strike to the count if the batter takes too long to get back in the box. Of course, if the delay is caused by the pitcher the penalty would not apply to the batter;
maybe the pitcher could be charged with an automatic ball.

I know the union would fight this tooth and nail but the dead time between pitches turns off the new, young fan more so than the long time fan and drives them away from the game.

Here’s my suggestion: Limit in-inning pitching changes to one per inning. It takes 3 or 4 minutes for a new pitcher to enter a game and warm up; sometimes this happens 2 or 3 times during an inning, and kills the buzz.

This is not really a new idea, just an expansion of existing ones that already mildly restrict substitution. There is already a rule preventing a second pitching change during a single at-bat, another limiting the number of times a pitcher can switch to some other position and then return to pitching during an inning (once, and when he does that, there is no warm up) and a rule that prevents more than two pinch-hitters during a single at-bat (excepting an injury to the 2nd one). There is even a rule on preventing a switch pitcher from changing hands during an at-bat (unless there is a mid-ad-bat pinch hitter).

So subbing is not completely unrestricted as it stands, and limiting the number of pitching changes per inning is a modest expansion that will not impact purity. Maybe the existing switch out and back rule could be eased up a bit, inviting teams to have two pitchers in the game simultaneously to have both expedience and still have pitching changes. Doing that would also reduce the number of pitchers teams need on their roster, and will allow them to increase the number of position players and hitters, and thus improve offense.