A term from the early years
In researching the early days of baseball in St. Pete, two “must haves” were made clear; a downtown ballpark and fast baseball. I saw the term “fast baseball” from 1902 and into the 20’s, so I Googled. All of those searches included AI-generated ones talked about a hard pitch and referenced velocity. Finally, I found it! I also found that the downtown ballpark and fast baseball were joined at the hip in the minds of St. Pete boosters.
A rule had been on the American League books since 1901, and the National League soon followed that said pitches must be thrown within 20 seconds. No timing device was employed and hence no enforcement, but early players did tend to adhere to the rule and there was a nature- made clock: sundown. Joe Magrane said of his years with the Cardinals there was another timer that occurred each day around 4 o’clock: the stadium field became property of the sea gulls.
Hank Greenburg, then a general manager pushed hard for timers to be installed in 1957. While that idea didn’t impress many in baseball management circles, it was attempted in St. Pete. On March 13, 1957, in an exhibition game between the Cardinals and the Kansas City A’s, the umpires were instructed to enforce the rule when no runners were on base. Cards hurler Herm Wehmeier was called on it in the 3rd inning. After that game, the 20 second rule was once again put on the back burner until the powers that be finally decided baseball was anything but fast.
So, what was this “fast baseball” referenced in the early years of the game? It was the concept that you could leave your house or work by 2:45 for a 3 pm game and be home by 5. Ballparks out of the population center required travel time and travel time cut into the amount of time a spectator could expect to spend at the ballpark. This naturally had a negative impact on attendance. This concept played a large role on St. Pete’s early history and likely affects the Rays currently.
My sister (and editor) remembers that our father served on a Chamber of Commerce (think modern day Board of Trade) subcommittee focused on making the case of bringing major league baseball to St. Pete. One of his tasks was to drive from certain areas to the Trop location during rush hour in order to assess the travel time to the ballpark during peak traffic from various locations. Total time spent on the activity is what people calculate in their go/no go decisions, but game time is the most controllable variable.