Second thoughts

Marlins boss won’t tolerate lollygagging

Miami Marlins President David Samson wants his team to play faster.

“Pace of game is about our fans,” Samson told The Associated Press. “It’s very much a TV issue and an in-game experience issue.

No one is complaining about pace of game where it goes 12 innings and it’s three hours and 20 minutes and it’s a 5-4 game.

That’s not the issue. If it’s a 3-1 nine-inning game that goes three hours and 12 minutes, that’s not enjoyable.”

Games at Marlins Park last season took an average of 2:56, which tied with Kansas City for second-fastest in the majors, behind Toronto’s 2:55, according to STATS. Houston was slowest at 3:15.

Instant replay may further bog things down, but Samson said he believes the Marlins can play more quickly. He’d like to get under 2:40.

“My hope is that we lower our average game time from last year to this year, and that we have the highest-percentage decrease of any team,” he said.

The Marlins ranked last in the NL in attendance in 2013. They lost 100 games with the worst offense in the major leagues last season and finished last in the NL East for the third consecutive season.

Samson said he expects Miami to be better this season, but said the team will be easier to market if the games go more quickly.

“If we want to engage fans 18 to 49, we have to play faster,” he said.

“We’re not going to put up with 3½-hour games. Our fans don’t want it.”

Closer Steve Cishek laughed when asked about making pitching changes snappier.

“I don’t know. I run in pretty fast,” Cishek said. “I don’t know if I have any more gears in me.”

Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said he’s not watching the clock when he’s behind the plate. He spent last season with the Boston Red Sox, who played the second slowest home games in the majors.

They also won the World Series.

“Pace of the game is big, but there are two ways of going about it,” Saltalamacchia said. “When the game starts to speed up, especially for younger guys, you need to learn how to slow the game down.

If it takes four hours to get the game over with and we end with a win, I’m assuming we’re going to be a lot happier than with a one hour, 30-minute loss.”

Manager Mike Redmond said that while nobody wants four-hour marathons, he agrees with Saltalamacchia that slowing things down can be a useful tactic when a pitcher is struggling.

“Hopefully we win 5-1 and play the fastest games in the league,” he said. “Believe me, I’d love to wrap up a win in two hours.”Tough talk

Miami forward Chris Bosh said he thinks there’s a communication problem with the two-time defending world champion Heat.

The Heat (47-21, 3 games behind Indiana in the race for Eastern Conference top seed) have lost 7 of 11 games since winning their first six games after the All-Star break.

So Bosh, who said he’s “sick” of the silence around his team, spoke to ESPN.com’s Michael Wallace over the weekend.

“I haven’t heard nothing, just nothing,” Bosh said. “We just show up and do whatever. [After] a loss, nobody’s upset. [After] a win, nobody’s happy. There’s no passion. There’s nothing. If you’re frustrated, say you’re frustrated.

Give reasons for that. We just need some dialogue around here. We’ve been keeping things in for a whole season now. And we’re running out of time. We need to let it out and have some urgency.

“We’re going to have to draw a line in the sand somewhere.

We don’t talk about it. We’re not expressing ourselves in the locker room or on the court. So I figure I’ll be the first one to say it. We suck. And if we don’t play better, we’ll be watching the championship at home.”Quote of the day “I’m sure some people are pretty surprised at three SEC teams, because all I heard all year was that the SEC was in a down year and it was a weak SEC.” Florida guard Scottie Wilbekin

Sports, Pages 18 on 03/25/2014

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