Baseball is working on discouraging the continuing coma-tization of its fan base. Mindful that kids in 2003 would rather break their elbows skateboarding down stair rails than watch one pitch of a baseball game, Baseball is telling its players to get the lead out.

During spring training, players watched a video on the need for speed. It included shots of fans sleeping, a good indication that pace was lacking. Or maybe not.

"I think it's all a bunch of B.S. If you're going to speed the game up a half hour, it makes a big difference. They're trying to take six minutes off," said Sean Casey.

Baseball has asked batters to stay in the box between pitches. Casey likes to step out. The Reds first baseman likes to step out, grab a pizza, go to a movie and take out the trash between pitches. He steps out with his right leg, adjusts his right batting glove, his left batting glove, steps in with his right leg and taps the plate with his bat.

Casey says he's fast. "They give you 12 seconds to get in the box. I'm bam-bam and in there," he says. "It's not like Manny Ramirez walking around all day."

As of last weekend, game times had been shaved eight minutes compared to last year, down to 2 hours, 46 minutes. Recently, the Dodgers beat Atlanta 5-1 in 2:17. The Reds have played extra-inning games this year that were shorter than Michael and Lisa Marie's marriage.

This is progress, and it is good.

However ...

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Saturday's game

This weekend, a large tribe of kids has gathered just down the street from Great American Ball Park, ignoring baseball and embracing professional skateboarding and bike riding. Some of us missed the moment when skateboarding became a vocation. But as the kids say, whatever.

You know you're old when you can find your keys but not your car. Also, when you read the schedule for the Mobile Skatepark Series at Sawyer Point, printed in the newspaper.

11 a.m.-1 p.m.: DJ mixing qualifying.

Uh, what? There is a sport for DJs now? Do they have teams, award scholarships, get put on NCAA probation for playing the Carpenters?

Speaking of the Carpenters, the schedule also had times for two concerts and a "product toss/contest." First kid to catch a BMX bike and keep all his fingers wins a T-shirt.

This is baseball's competition. These are kids who, 20 years ago, would be playing baseball and sitting in Top Six at Riverfront Stadium. You and I might think baseball is leisurely and timeless. To kids raised on surfing halfpipes on skateboards, baseball is like watching a coma.

You can hear them now: "Dude, three hours to watch a baseball game? Whoa, where's my bike?" I know. I have a kid who once said that to me.

Baseball never will be confused with the running of the bulls. It can be a two-hour movie in a three-hour time slot. Commercial time between innings has gotten so long, they should consider entertainment. Dancing bears, maybe. Whatever baseball can do to capture kids' imaginations, it needs to do.

As Reds pitcher Danny Graves said: "I love fast games. It helps me. It keeps me into it. And I know it keeps my fielders into it."

Fast games might help keep kids into it, too. Otherwise, they'll be out of it. They'll be down the street, on their bikes and boards. Getting vertical, dude.

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E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com.

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