NEW YORK -- Houston Astros manager Cecil Cooper and the Minnesota Twins' Ron Gardenhire were fined undisclosed amounts by Major League Baseball on Tuesday for failing to comply with pace of game regulations last weekend.
With games seeming to run longer each year, teams were asked last month to help enforce speed-up rules already on the books.
A nine-inning game was averaging 2 hours, 51 minutes, 42 seconds this season at the time, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. That's only 29 seconds longer than last season, but 5½ minutes longer than five years ago. In 1981, an average game took 2:33.
Cooper and Gardenhire were the first two managers sanctioned under the new push.
