Two Strikes and You're Out

Japan will shorten pro baseball games to cut emissions

Posted at 10:34 AM on 19 Mar 2008

Japan's professional baseball league is aiming to reduce carbon emissions by using only renewable energy recycling everything aiming to shorten games by 12 minutes. Under new rules, no more than 2 minutes and 15 seconds may lapse between innings, and pitchers must throw the ball within 15 seconds of receiving it if no runners are on base. Baseball commissioners estimate that by shortening games -- which, by crazy coincidence, they'd been thinking of doing anyway -- the league will eliminate 230 tons of carbon emissions throughout the 864-game season. And hey, a new study says that Japan can spew 160 million less tons of carbon in 2020 than it did in 2005, so every little bit helps!

sources:  Canadian Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters