https://baseballfireside.com/i-love-baseball-but/
By 2020 Baseball devolved from the being the national pastime to the national naptime! The grand old game appealed to your grandpa’s generation only. Today’s younger folks use high speed internet, play video games, and view sports with constant movement (regardless if any scoring or great play is involved). Baseball games were frequently taking three and a half hours or more due to pitchers, batters, and managers playing chess on a diamond. Pitchers walked around the mound, grabbed the rosin bag, wiped their brow. They stared endlessly and waved off catcher signs for 45 seconds. Then they stepped off the mound for a conference with the catcher. Batters were worse! After every pitch batters almost always walked 20 feet out of the box to take more practice swings, spit, grab their crotch, stare, and meditate. They’d adjust the ten items on their person that were made with velcro attachments. They got back into the box and took their time getting reset. Managers were constantly disrupting the game with pitching changes after the 5th inning. Sometimes three or more hurlers were brought in during a single inning. Thankfully, MLB listened to its fans and made some very welcome changes that have gotten game times down to fewer than two and a half hours.
Pitch Clock Breaks Tradition…And Yawning.
I once watched a game on TV for only five minutes. The pitcher got the ball back, walked five slow steps up the hill to the rubber, and looked bored. He stared, went into a trance, then FINALLY threw his next pitch. Rinse and repeat. Even the announcer complained and said the fielders must be struggling to stay awake. When pitchers and batters look bored and want to think more than play, why should the fan be interested? By 2022 I couldn’t watch the game I loved anymore. If I wanted real action and excitement, then even chess captured my attention more! Thankfully the pitch clock was introduced, and pitchers had 15 seconds (18 with runners on base) to throw the damn ball! If they didn’t beat the clock the batter was issued a ball. Yet batters themselves weren’t exempted from the new clock rules. They were required to be in the box ready to hit with eight seconds left on the pitch clock or they get issued a strike. Batters also are allowed only on time out (at the umpire’s discretion) during an at-bat. However, not everyone seems happy with the changes. I do wonder how many energy drinks these guys ordered at the ballpark to stay awake before the pitch clock arrived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWFKSz8bBds
Goodbye Tony Larussa!
How can you market a sport to youngsters living in a fast paced world of instant gratification? First, you don’t allow three or more pitching changes per inning. Each change represents 2-3 minutes of transition from bullpen to the mound plus warm-up tosses. Before the new pitching change rules, managers like Tony Larussa could decided to change pitchers after one batter. Then the process got repeated, sometimes four per inning if necessary. That resulted in eight to ten minutes of changes just in one half an inning. Yes, Tony Larussa won three World Series titles. I can’t say his moves were mostly wrong; they just hampered marketing the sport, especially to recent generations where the numbers of kids on diagnosed with and on ADHD medication is constantly rising. Yet sometimes his uncontrollable itch to change pitchers backfired.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKJ4qlUiyLc
The current rule is pitchers, barring sudden injury, are required to face at least three batters or pitch until the end of the inning. Mound visits by coaches and managers are also now limited to four per game (five if there are extra innings), rather than Tony’s four per inning. Thankfully, pitch clocks and mound visits weren’t the only rule changes for baseball in the 2020’s.
The Umps Can’t End The Game With An Atrocious Call
Imagine a team with men on base in the ninth inning. The team’s best hitter could win the game with a hit. He has two strikes, then gets called out on a third strike by an ump whose strike zone came from the Twilight Zone. The batter fumes and the manager rants and raves, but the ump can’t be challenged. It’s game over. The losing team’s media and websites drone on the next morning about a game decided by blown game ending K calls. Well, now that possibility has been greatly reduced thanks to computer graphics/AI. A virtual strike zone records every pitch. Each team is allowed two challenges, which come from either the catcher or the hitter. The strike zone and the pitch are displayed on the video screen at the park, then the call of ball or strike is either confirmed or overturned. If the team challenging wins the call, they keep the challenge. If not it loses the challenge, and once the two challenges are gone, even the most ridiculous call cannot be overturned. Hence, teams are cautious in saving them for the late innings.
The Batter Isn’t The Only One Called Out
This has lead to some umpires’ poor knowledge of the strike zone being exposed. One in particular, C.B. Bucknor, has been the target of derision for years over his issues calling balls and strikes.
Naturally, umps like being overturned about as much as any U.S. Presidents like getting executive orders and policies reversed by the Supreme Court. Yet this ABS system, with a two challenge limit creates a needed balance. Games are less likely to end on an egotistical or incompetent ump’s call that leads questions whether his eyesight is even acceptable to drive his car at 30 M.P.H., let alone call strikes at 95 M.P.H. Yet in no way does it allow batters or catchers to question every single pitch and negate the whole idea of a pitch clock to speed up games.
Conclusion
It seems that the fans are more than happy with the new rule changes over the last three years.
What do you think of baseball’s new rules since 2023? Post your comments below.