Column: Baseball should get serious about speeding up games (Yahoo Sports)

There are all sorts of ways to give baseball a much-needed boost of speed. ''All of it is stupid,'' Atlanta Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips said Wednesday. Over the last 35 years, the length of a regular-season game has increased by nearly a half-hour - much of that extra time consumed by batters stepping out of the box between every pitch for the always-thrilling helmet tug, enough meetings on the mound to bring about world peace, and so many pitching changes one can only assume managers are investing in companies that make bullpen door hinges.