Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, has a story about how great the pitch clock has been for MLB.

This year, pitchers have 15 seconds to throw a pitch if no one is on base, and 20 seconds with a runner on. If they don’t throw a pitch in time, umpires will call a ball. But hitters have new responsibilities too: They have to be in the box “and alert to the pitcher” by the time the clock hits eight seconds, or the umpire will call a strike. What does “alert to the pitcher” mean? Essentially, it means assuming your stance and looking at the pitcher, ready to hit.

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At a certain level, baseball will be criticized no matter what it does. Changing its rules offends purists, or at least people who consider themselves purists but really just hate change. Not doing anything at all gets the sport labeled stodgy. In a way, merely opening the door for change is a step in the right direction. Baseball isn’t the way it was when you were a kid because nothing is the way it was when you were a kid. Allowing it to break free from those constraints — to stop being a morality play or a paean to a supposedly more innocent time, to let it simply be a sport — is perhaps the best way to save it. We all grew up. Maybe it’s time to let baseball do the same.

Saving 30 minutes off of a typical game is pretty amazing. I still hate the rest of the rules (ghost runner on second, minimum batters, only two pickoff attempts, no shift, etc.), but this one seems good, so far.