It won’t be called the Nomar Rule, but if Major League Baseball follows through on a plan meant to speed up the game, Nomar Garciaparra’s life will be changed forever, and baseball fans will be forever grateful.

According to reports out of the general managers meetings in Orlando, MLB wants to speed things up by limiting the number of times a batter can step out of the box between pitches, while also restricting the number of times a player can visit the mound as well as the number of players allowed to visit the mound.

The only reasonable response is “Hallelujah.”

I know baseball is played without a clock, and I don’t blame Garciaparra for the new era of procrastinating. But as baseball’s most superstitious player, he has an annoying habit of stepping out of the box after every pitch to adjust his batting gloves.

No reason for it

There is no real reason for it, unless he has an obsessive-compulsive disorder that can’t be fixed.

Still, Garciaparra is not alone. Stepping out of the box to play head games with the pitcher or gather one’s thoughts has become an epidemic, as if every hitter suddenly has morphed into Sergio Garcia.

The recent postseason provided ample evidence of the abuse of time by hitters and pitchers. Game 2 of the World Series, a 10-5 Boston victory over Colorado, took 4 hours 19 minutes to complete, ending shortly before 1 a.m. for Red Sox fans watching at home.

Boston’s 11-inning victory over Cleveland in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series took 5 hours 14 minutes, mostly because of the constant dawdling of Indians starter Fausto Carmona, who needed a mound meeting after almost every hit he gave up.

Now turn the clock back to 1973, when Oakland beat Baltimore in a five-game ALCS in which games took 2:51, 2:42, 2:23, 2:31 and 2:11 to play.

The good old days

The New York Mets beat Cincinnati in a five-game NLCS that took 2:00, 2:19, 2:48, 3:07 and 2:40. Oh, and the 3:07 game went 12 innings.

Back then, the pitcher got the ball, got set, looked in for the sign and threw it. The batter stepped in the box, took a couple of practice swings and dug in.

That’s the way baseball is supposed to be played, without a clock, but with a fluidity that’s provided by playing at a normal pace.

Baseball is always talking about speeding up the game, but never backs up the talk. This looks like a chance to remedy the situation.

One trip out of the box per at-bat. One trip to the mound by a catcher per inning. If an infielder needs to signal a pitcher with a play, make it a hand signal instead of delaying the game with a meeting of the minds.

For the sake of all fans, we can only hope MLB finally decides to implement some new rules to start speeding up the game.

Now get in the box, Nomar, and stay there.