Speeding the game up is mostly about the complaints of people unfamiliar with the game - in other words potential new customers. Other sports are simpler to watch, with more "action" for example soccer where someone is running somewhere pretty much all he time. Same for Hockey and basketball. Football has more obvious activity than baseball, but with lots of brief breaks.
The interesting aspects of baseball are less obvious, and it takes a pretty good commentator to point them out. Jerry Remy does a good job of it as do some others. His book about how to watch baseball is a good read as well.
I think of it more as an effort to make the game match the modern lifestyle where everyone wants quick results handed to them, and can't /won't pay attention to anything that isn't consistently flashy.
Oddly, while tennis has lots of action I find it nearly unwatchable. (At least since Nastase retired) Golf is also painfully slow, and there isn't much call to speed that up.
Steve B
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