MLBers Do Less Work than NFLers

Wednesday, 06 October 2010 | by Pat's Picks

Perhaps the quote should’ve been: If you build it, they will come…and stand around for a couple hours. If you were under the impression that baseball is a lot of standing around, you’re right. Last season, the Wall Street Journal analyzed what actually goes on during an NFL telecast. With the playoffs around the corner, the paper decided to give a baseball telecast the same treatment.

Their stopwatch revealed that 68.6 percent of a player’s time—about 88 minutes—was spent just standing around. That’s worst than the NFL. On average, Major Leaguers spent only 10.9 percent—about 14 minutes—of their time in action. Replays got almost as much broadcast time as live play, clocking in around 10 minutes.

Read the Journal’s analysis of NFL field time