Look, I get it.
The game needed to be sped up for all kinds of valid reasons. Like I wrote yesterday, it was just my first impression but, and this will sound strange... I actually like the slower pace and the space it provides.
Not the blather, not an excess of space, but space. Time to reset.
Time to think.
I understand that I'm not most people. In the long run and for the
"health of the game" the clock is an improvement but, commenter
Cabish47 said yesterday, “Our
engaged minds will speed up to appreciate situations.” And he or she is
right. It’s a good point.
However, I don't really want my engaged mind to speed up to appreciate
situations. I get enough of that with everything else.
One of the things that bothers me about watching basketball and
hockey is that I actually have to watch it. With baseball my mind is allowed to
roam.
Baseball is a vacation for me. A daily opportunity to
slow it down. To let the drama build gradually as opposed to being smacked in
the face with it. The expectation that rides on every
pitch, each more important than the last…
It's that level of engagement, those moments, that
drew me to the game in the first place. Its why baseball is my favorite sport.
I feel like I really know the players and the exquisite anticipation of their
success or failure IS the entertainment.
This is just a personal preference.
A quick story... When New
Yankee Stadium first opened I took my then ten year old son to New Yankee
Stadium and the game was the least interesting thing there. New Yankee Stadium is a Yankee themed shopping
mall. A Vegas hotel.
Every moment was filled with “entertainment”. There was no space, no silence for me to talk
baseball with my son. It was like being in the middle of video game. He was engaged by it all and I realized that
the stadium was built for him not me.
So, yeah I get it, and it had to be done but, baseball was always considered to be a “thinking
man’s game.” That kind of thinking needs time and space.
Now it’s just going to be "entertainment", like everything else.
If you want to blame anything for the pitch clock, blame the Yankee vs Red Sox 4 hour plus 9 inning games that are always pushed to national television. I HATE 4 hour games. But I LOVE 3 hour games. Especially the bang for your buck at the ballpark. NBA/NHL games are about two hours and cost a fortune. Baseball is soothing. On TV/Radio you have time to hear announcer stories, take in the sounds of the game (like the bats rattling together that I think is staged on radio...), and if at the game take a leak or get a beer and not miss much. What are they gonna need the 7th inning stretch for anymore? Anyway, I bet John and Suzyn RAVE about it. They just want to go to bed.
ReplyDeleteThe game needed to change and I get it as well, but I will miss it.
Bonus on the bigger bags, maybe less sliding past them or an arm/leg lifting off them for that hot second that takes a half hour review and a BS call because the runner clearly beat the throw and should be called safe anyway. I hope the bases help that.
Baseball was broken, but I still don't think we should - or could - fix it.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, we can complain about anything, whether it's fixed, broke or somewhere in between.
If they stopped us from complaining, that's another story.
I get it, Doug. To each their own, as my Uncle Joe used to say. (The one who was a mailman, not the Uncle Joe on the farm. We also had two Uncle Als and both were married to Aunt Janes. But I digress...) And I fully agree on the New Stadium. It's wall to wall overload. The Manfred Man is horrible, too, flat out.
ReplyDeleteMy point was--thinking back to the 60s and 70s--those games were about as short as the pitch clock games are now, and I don't remember ever feeling rushed. There seemed to still be time for commentators and announcers to inject stories and such into the broadcasts. Not to mention a full quota of Ballantine, Mr. Coffee, or Money Store commercials.
Of course, those games didn't have a clock running. The rhythm of the game was just faster.
Maybe once you put a clock on things they start to feel rushed whether they are or not.
Basically, I’m in favor of speeding up the game. But DickAllen made an excellent point in asking what happens when someone gets called out on an automatic strike in the bottom of the Ninth with the bases loaded? Should we laugh or cry?
ReplyDeleteWhy can’t players semi-police themselves and pick up the tempo without being forced to do so like recalcitrant children? At the risk of sounding like an old fart (not boring though) it is the way of the modern player, taking his time to enhance his TV time and making the game about himself instead of the team. Of all the team sports, BB always highlighted the individual the most through the very nature of the game, no need to add on to that.
The most unique characteristic of the sport itself was that it is (well, was) the only sport not played against the clock. The Lords of Baseball have decided to go all in in competing against other sports in this media saturated age, all in pursuit and worship of the one true God, Money. For me, and I suspect many others, we’d be content in our dotage to see MLB shrink into a boutique sport, garnering much less media support, revenue be damned! This of course will never happen. So for now just take what you need, and forget about the rest.
JM,
ReplyDelete"Of course, those games didn't have a clock running. The rhythm of the game was just faster."
Part of it was because the starters tried to finish the games. Not as many specialists. Part of it was commercial breaks were shorter. No one sang G-d Bless America in the 7th. Oh, and hitting for contact and putting the ball in play instead of strikeouts and walks both of which are pitch intensive.
"Maybe once you put a clock on things they start to feel rushed whether they are or not."
This x100!
Borntorun,
"what happens when someone gets called out on an automatic strike in the bottom of the Ninth with the bases loaded"
This happened yesterday (or maybe it was Saturday) Red Sox game.
"So for now just take what you need, and forget about the rest."
But they never... should have taken... the very best...
Doug, taken from “The Night They Drove Old Scranton Down” produced by our very own Brian Cashman.
ReplyDeleteThe game needed to be sped up. Pitchers and batters were taking longer and longer to be ready. They abused the leisure.
ReplyDeleteHere's an article from 538:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/pitchers-are-slowing-down-to-speed-up/