Is nothing sacred?: Japanese Baseball Changes Game

For baseball purists, changing how the game is played makes it harder to make comparisons over time. This might not seem like a big change, but it is probably only the start. As someone who has actually watch Japanese baseball live, I think that the more serious problem is noise pollution (there is a real serious threat of hearing loss).

TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese professional baseball players have vowed to shorten playing time per game as part of the national pastime's contribution to the fight against global warming.
They will aim to cut playing time by six percent, or 12 minutes, from the average of three hours and 18 minutes per game, the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) commissioners' office said.
"When a professional baseball game is staged, a huge amount of carbon dioxides, a cause of global warming, is discharged because it requires use of energy to move players and spectators, supply electricity for lighting and other purposes and dispose of food and drink waste," NPB said in a statement.
The pledge to cut playing time was set in accordance with Japan's promise to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by six percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Japan, despite being the home of the landmark treaty, is far behind in meeting its Kyoto obligations as it insists only on voluntary measures so as not to put at risk a steady economic recovery. . . .