Market design in major league baseball

 The rules of professional Major League Baseball are changing in an effort to make attending the games more popular.  Among the rule changes are rules requiring pitchers to pitch more quickly, including rules that prevent them from too often taking time to defend against base stealing.  It's a good example of a game within a game: the players have, over time, adjusted their behavior to win games under the existing rules. These behaviors, collectively, have caused games to slow down, take more time, and be less easily appreciated as exciting.  That in turn makes it hard for baseball to fill stadium seats.

The NY Times has the story: 

How New Rules Turned Back the Clock on Baseball, By Ben Blatt and Francesca ParisMay 24, 2023

"Baseball’s future may look a lot like its past.

"Nearly two months into the season, a series of rule changes — including the new pitch clock, enlarged bases and a ban on the infield shift — has translated into a game that evokes the 1980s more than the 2020s."