Well, let me tell you, I been watching baseball for longer than some of you young’uns been alive. And one thing folks always wanna know is how long are innings in baseball. It ain’t as simple as you might think, but I’ll try to explain it like I’m talking to my neighbor over the fence.
Now, in the big leagues, what they call the MLB, a regular game is supposed to go for nine innings. Nine innings, that’s the standard. Each team gets a turn to bat, and that’s an inning. So one team bats, then the other team bats, and that’s one inning. We call the first team batting in an inning the “top” of the inning, and the second team batting the “bottom”.
But how long is an inning? Shoot, that depends. Sometimes they go real quick, like when the pitcher is just throwing fire and nobody can hit a lick. Three outs and done. Might only take a few minutes. Other times, it seems like they’re up there all day, hitting the ball, walking, changing pitchers, you name it. Could take twenty minutes, maybe longer. Twenty minutes is a rough idea for each inning, more or less.
- Nine innings is the normal way to play in MLB.
- An inning has a top and a bottom.
- Each team gets three outs in their half of the inning.
Now, in the regular game, they play till the team that’s behind has had a chance to make 27 outs. That’s nine innings, three outs each, get it? But if the home team, the team playing on their own field, if they’re winning after the other team bats in the top of the ninth, well, then it’s over. Home team wins, no need to bat anymore.
So, how long does a whole game take? Well, if each inning takes about twenty minutes, and there’s nine of ’em, you can do the math. Usually, a game takes around three hours, give or take. It’s been shorter recently, they changed some rules, but used to be even longer, over three hours, I remember. They say it’s about 2 hours and 38 minutes now, the shortest it’s been in a long while.
But let me tell you, it ain’t always nine innings. Sometimes, if they’re playing two games in one day, a doubleheader they call it, they might only play seven innings each game. And the young folks, playing in their little leagues, they might play less than nine innings too. So it depends on who’s playing and what kind of game it is.
There’s a lot of things that can make a game longer or shorter. Like when they change pitchers. The new pitcher has to warm up, and that takes time. Or if the manager goes out to the mound to talk to the pitcher, that takes time too. And sometimes, they just hit the ball like crazy, and that makes the game longer.
Baseball, it’s a funny game. It’s supposed to be nine innings, but those innings can be long or short. And sometimes it ain’t even nine innings at all. But that’s part of what makes it interesting, I reckon. You never quite know what you’re gonna get.
One more thing, that pitcher, the one throwing the ball, he can’t just keep going forever. It takes a lot out of a fella to throw that ball that hard. So the number of innings, and how long they are, that affects how long a pitcher can stay in the game. They get tired, you know.
So, to wrap it up, nine innings is the usual, but it ain’t set in stone. How long is an inning in baseball? Could be a few minutes, could be a lot longer. And how long does a baseball game last? Usually around three hours, sometimes more, sometimes less. It all depends. Just like the weather, you never can be too sure. But that’s baseball for ya! I hope this helps you figure it out a little better. You keep watching, and you’ll learn all the ins and outs soon enough.
And if you see me at the game, you come on over and say hello. We can talk baseball all day long, I tell ya!
