Hank Aaron shared some laughs on "The Late Show with David Letterman" Wednesday night as he and the host lamented how long baseball games take.
After Aaron said the length of the games troubles him, Letterman replied, "You could leave in the third inning, go out and look for an apartment, come back and the game is still going on!"
Aaron chimed in that when Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson pitched, the games seemed to last "an hour."
"I tell a lot of people that it's a funny thing about those two pitchers and maybe a few more, is that when they get in the seventh, eighth or ninth inning, you can call your wife or girlfriend and say, ‘Put supper on because I'll be home in a couple of minutes," said Aaron, a Braves senior vice president who retired as the all-time home run king with 755 homers.
"You can't do that now."
Letterman asked just how tough it was facing Gibson. The Cardinals' fireballer, Aaron said, "would even knock you down in the on-deck circle."
Commissioner Bud Selig formed a committee last year to study on-field matters, including how to speed up the game. The average MLB game, which lasted two hours and 30 minutes in the 1970s, increased to an average of 2:57 last decade.
On the Braves, Aaron said: "If we can just not get hurt, I think the ballclub is going to do well."
