All Ball Sports: Dodgers play speedball
by Paul Teetor
Start spreading the news: the pitch clock is a smashing success.
This past weekend the Dodgers – and the rest of Major League Baseball – finally arrived in the fast-forward, twenty-first century.
In the age of fast food, fast fashion and fast cars, the Dodgers unveiled something new Thursday night: fast baseball.
Or at least semi-fast baseball.
The results were astounding, more than anyone could have hoped for or expected: the average game’s length was reduced by more than a half hour, with further time savings on the horizon as the rhythm of the game gradually adjusts to the new rules.
For the casual fan who may not follow the nuances of baseball rule changes, the pitch clock is by far the most impactful of the three new rules MLB has instituted this season to increase scoring, and pick up the pace of the game.
The pitch-clock rule affects both pitchers and hitters, because they have both been guilty of slowing the game’s pace down to a crawl over the last several decades.
Pitchers who take as long as they want between pitches, pitchers who throw as many pick-off pitches as they want to keep baserunners nailed to their bases, and pitchers who insist on shaking off their catcher as many times as it takes before they get the pitch call they really want have all been part of creating the game’s pace problem.
And hitters who take endless practice swings even after they enter the batter’s box, hitters who suddenly call time out to wipe their nose or spit out their tobacco juice or adjust their jockstrap, and hitters who continually look to the third base coach for a signal before deciding to finally settle in for their precious swing have all been part of the problem, too.
So under the premise of better late than never, baseball finally decided to do something about it this season.
The new pitch clock rule stipulates that the pitcher has 15 seconds to throw the ball when no one is on base, and 20 seconds when there is a runner on base. It also says the hitter must “be engaged” with the pitcher with eight seconds left on the pitch clock. In other words, he must be ready to actually take a swing.
And just so there’s no dispute about violations, each stadium is required to have several huge digital pitch clocks visible around the playing field so fans as well as players are tuned into the time left between pitches. The fans can even count down to zero along with the clock.
Each time a pitcher violates the rule he will have a ball added to the ball/strike count. And hitters who violate the rule will be given a strike on the ball/strike count. Yes, even when they already have two strikes on them. In those cases, the third strike would mean the batter was out. Done. Finished with the at-bat. Which is exactly what happened to Rafael Devers of the Boston Red Sox Friday night.
Seems reasonable enough, right?
But the pitch-clock idea, which has been floating around for several years and was tried on an experimental basis in the minor leagues last season, has been under attack by so-called “traditionalists” ever since it was first proposed when it became clear that ballpark attendance among young people was dropping at an alarming rate.
You can’t make such a radical change, the argument went. Baseball is revered for its timeless nature, for its basic rule structure, which has stood inviolate for more than a century. It would be heresy, an abomination of nature and all that is sacred about sports, to alter the fundamental principle that pitchers and hitters can take as much time as they want before getting down to business. It’s part of the retro charm of the game.
But baseball has the same problem that newspapers and magazines and big tobacco have: if you don’t attract young customers to your product, they’ll never become adult customers with money to spend. And eventually your product will wither and die due to lack of demand.
Hence the determined push to speed up the game, much as the NBA did when it slowly but surely transitioned from the plodding, slug-it-out pace of the 1980s to today’s video-game pace where anybody can score 50 points in a game and combined scores can soar past 300 points.
In basketball’s case, the three-point shot was the most important change that accelerated the transition to a new era. In baseball’s case, they are hoping that the pitch clock will have the same effect.
Like many casual fans who enjoy the baseball playoffs but just didn’t have the time – often four hours or more — to devote to watching a regular season game, All Ball has been reluctant to sit down and actually watch a Dodgers game on TV.
But in the interests of watching the new rule in action and judging its impact on the game’s pace, we sat down Friday night to watch the Dodgers play the Arizona Diamondbacks, whom they had just beaten 8-2 in the opening game of the season Thursday night.
Here’s how it went with the Diamondbacks at bat in the first half of the first inning: a ground out that took two minutes, a fly out that took one minute and another flyout that took two minutes.
Amazing: the first half inning was over in five minutes.
Under the old rules the first batter would still have been in the batter’s box taking practice swings when those five minutes expired.
By all accounts, the fans in attendance loved the new rule just as much as All Ball did sitting at home. What’s not to love: they get more action per minute spent at the ballpark, have less time to spend their money on $17 draft beers, and get home a half hour or more sooner than they would have in the past.
And it’s not just the fans who love it. Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts was enthusiastic about the new rule after just one game, admittedly a small sample size but still significant in that if there were a serious downside it would have been quickly revealed.
“It’s great,” Roberts said after the Dodgers spanked the Diamondbacks 8-2 Thursday night. “That was front of my mind, actually, looking at the game. Man, we played it in 2:35 tonight, and last year we played it in 3:35. It’s just not that much of a grind.”
In addition to adding the pitch clock, the size of the bases has been increased from 15 to 18 inches in an effort to reduce injuries around the bases and to encourage more base stealing attempts. The jury is still out on that change.
The other significant new rule bans the infield shift to take away a batter’s power alley. This has been particularly effective against left-handed hitters. Under the new rule, all infielders must now be touching the infield grass or dirt, and two of them must be on the right side of second base. Early returns on that new rule are looking good too.
After the four game home series with the Diamondbacks was over, the Dodgers had a 2-2 record. Which tells you exactly nothing about how they will do this season except what we all knew already: there is no way the Dodgers are going to run away and hide from the rest of the West as they did last year and so many years before. They’ve lost too many core players – Justin Turner, Trea Turner, Cody Bellinger – and have nothing but untested kids from the farm system to plug into their lineup holes.
Indeed, the free-spending San Diego Padres have got to be the favorites to win the National League West, while the Dodgers sit back in the pack of contenders.
As for opening night itself, there were two items of note: first, it was a cold, wet night, which just demonstrated once again how opening day should always be just that: Opening day, with a beautiful sunny sky illuminating the game that was originally intended to be played only during the day.
And second, the most notable play was a case of the right field, but the wrong sport.
The dominant image circulated in local news outlets and on social media Friday morning was that of an overzealous Dodgers security guard who took down a well-intentioned lover-boy fan with a brutal tackle as he tried to propose to his girlfriend in the outfield.
Ricardo Juarez was just the latest to follow the trend of public proposals at sporting events, a trend that usually results in cheers from the crowd and a quick acceptance by the future bride.
Not this time.
This time Ramona Saavedra didn’t get a chance to say yes before the hyper-motivated security guard came flying out of nowhere and leveled Juarez just as he held up an engagement ring and smiled broadly while the fans cheered him on.
He was promptly arrested and released several hours later. Ironically, it was just the kind of quick, decisive action that was missing all winter from the Dodgers front office and President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman.
The Dodgers didn’t sign a single big-name free agent and sat by passively as many of the core players of the last five years left for other teams that were offering more money than the Dodgers were willing to offer — despite being one of the richest teams in all of Major League Baseball.
We said it last season, and we’ll say it again this season: there’s only one reason for the ultra-rich Dodgers to refrain from spending serious money on free agents this offseason.
His name is Shohei Othani, and the best pitcher/slugger in history is free to sign with any team he wants after this season. Even if it takes a $600 million contract to sign him – and it just might – the Dodgers have to convince him that they are the annually contending team he wants to play and win with.
If he doesn’t sign with the Dodgers, then they will have wasted this season and short-changed their fans.
There ought to be a rule against that, too.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER
Natalie Omahen (left), Kaya Aguirre (center), and Mimi Smith (right) all had solid at bats. But the Sea Hawks couldn’t put the pieces together to bring in the runs during last Friday’s 2 to 0 loss to Torrance. Photos by Ray Vidal