On August 22, 1917, the Dodgers played the Pirates for 22 innings, which is still the ninth-longest game in history. Elmer Jacobs, poor Elmer, threw 16⅔ innings of relief, allowing one run and getting the loss. It wasn't exactly a pitcher's duel, as there were 47 combined hits in the game, with nine errors, 10 walks, and three HBP, but for whatever reason, the game was scoreless from the seventh inning until the 22nd.

Time of game: 4:15.

Tommy Lasorda enjoying a game at Dodger Stadium/Photo credit: Harry How

On April 5, 2014, the Dodgers played the Giants for nine innings. There were 20 combined hits in the game, but nothing was too unusual about it. Just a typical game of baseball that most certainly did not go 22 innings.

Time of game: 3:42.

It's not a secret or surprise that games are longer, much longer than it used to be. Still, here's a 22-inning game for perspective. No commercials, no potty breaks, no mercy. Catch ball, throw ball, swing, catch ball, throw ball, catch ball, throw ball, swing. They played as if werechimps came out at dark to reclaim the field.

With replay, though, the long games of today are getting longer. Jeff Sullivan took a look and found the difference is fairly extreme, surpassing even the chemically enhanced slugfests at the turn of the century. He made an excellent graph to drive the point home, but I thought I'd make a graph that was intentionally deceptive because I've always wanted to do that.

Damn. When you put it like that … I mean, the graph goes straight up.

As Sullivan noted, there's no easy way to reduce game times. It's not like there's a ceremony between the fifth and sixth innings where players read poetry, and someone's going to have a sudden epiphany to get rid of it. There will be refinements to replay, and they'll help a little. But snip a few minutes here, and snip a few minutes there, and you still have a long game.

Which is where the question of the day comes in. You're now a baseball god. You're not drunk yet -- even though it's 9:30 a.m. somewhere, right? -- and you have unspeakable powers. You can make the games as short or as long as you want. You can speed Josh Beckett up like an old-timey video that skips every other frame.

How short do you make the games?

Average game length for select seasons, going as far back as Baseball-Reference.com has data:

1950: 2:21

1960: 2:38

1970: 2:34

1980: 2:38

1990: 2:51

2000: 3:01

2014: 3:09

A couple bonds over their love of baseball/Photo credit: Tom Lynn

When you get back to the olden days, too, you would regularly get games under two hours. Include that in your set of options.

If you're here and reading this, your default response is probably something like ...

"Get outta here. Games aren't too long. It's baseball. I love baseball. Crack of the grass, smell of the bat, summer days, National Pastime, the more the better, I could watch this all day. In fact, I hope the pitcher throws over to first 16 times before making his next pitch because I have him in my throw-over-to-first fantasy league."

Because you love baseball. The game isn't too long. It's just right. It's always just right. It's a bowl of perfectly warmed porridge, and you want to swim around in it forever.

Before you answer, think about this: If games were 1:45, like they used to be, you could watch almost twice as many. With the modern technology of DVRs, computers, and such, you could actually watch two games in a day without calling in sick. Shorter games don't have to mean less baseball. Shorter games can mean concentrated baseball, administered intravenously.

Me? Rent is too damn high, and baseball games are too damn long. I enjoy them, still, surely. They're not so long that they're actively preventing me from enjoying the games, not even close. But I could watch an entire episode of Game of Thrones in the difference between 1950 and now. I'm still on Season 3 because I watch baseball every day, and this makes me eternally terrified of spoilers. That's pretty much baseball's fault. Specifically, Josh Beckett. Maybe Dice-K, too.

Never forget what it was like to watch Dice-K pitch:

Give me 1990, though. I don't need a two-hour game. I don't need a two-and-a-half-hour game. Shaving 20 minutes or so would take the edge off, though. And you know what? That might be doable. It might actually happen. I don't know how, or considering advertising revenue, if it's even plausible. But it could happen.

If it doesn't? Baseball, all danged day. I can still live with that. But we're just jabberin' about preferences, here. And mine is just a liiiitle under three hours. Your tolerance may vary.