Red Sox-Yankees Games Taking Eons to End

It's no secret that the Red Sox and Yankees play extremely long games. In 2009, the Yankees averaged three hours and eight minutes to finish a game while the Red Sox checked in second at 3:04.

This is compared to an average time of 2:52 for all 30 baseball teams, according to STATS.

Baseball's vice president of standards and on-field operations, Bob Watson, said, "We’ve created a monster" in allowing games to stretch on for so long.

They're certainly the longest when the two longtime rivals face each other, as Joe Posnanski found out. The average time for a Red Sox-Yankees game in 2009 was thee hours and 39 minutes, which is 20 minutes longer than the next-slowest game, which also involved the Yankees. New York and Toronto needed an average of 3:19 to get through their games.

In a list of the top 10 slowest games of the season, the Yankees appear four times, with their games against the Rays taking 3:09 and their games against the Orioles an even three hours. The Red Sox show up three times, with their games against the Rays placing third on the list with a time of 3:13. The Sox also show up on the list against the Orioles for a time of 3:05. The average time of a Red Sox and Blue Jays game was under three hours.

Not only do the Red Sox and Yankees take so long to play each other on average, they of course have the record for the longest nine-inning game. That occurred in the middle of the Yankees' miserable four-game sweep of the BoSox on Aug. 18, 2006, when New York defeated Boston 14-11. That game went an interminable four hours and 45 minutes.

After Monday's 11-9 loss against the Yankees, which took 3:47, the two clubs are averaging 3:32 to play a game in 2010. Below are the times for each 2010 team, home team last:

4/4/10: Yankees 7, Red Sox 9 3:46
4/6/10: Yankees 6, Red Sox 4: 3:48
4/7/10: Yankees 3, Red Sox 1 (10): 3:21
5/7/10: Yankees 10, Red Sox 3: 3:01
5/8/10: Yankees 14, Red Sox 3: 3:56
5/9/10: Yankees 3, Red Sox 9: 3:05
5/17/10: Red Sox 9, Yankees 11: 3:47

Of course, this can be a good thing. Keep the good times rolling, right? There's no denying that Red Sox-Yankees games always have heightened intensity, even if that has cooled off in recent years. The games are still events, and they're fascinating to watch.

The flip side is that it would be nice for fans of each team to hit the hay before midnight so they can arrive at work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Do Red Sox-Yankees games take too long?