The Doomsday Clock

First Impressions…

Not about the Yankees. About baseball.

Granted it has only been one game, but it was the first time I’ve seen the rule changes implemented. The main one, the one that is going to both save and destroy the game of baseball, is the clock. 

Pastoral timeless baseball is dead. The spaces between the action, where we relax into game, ponder the situations, build tension… gone.

The clock removes the beauty, the opportunity to appreciate a play, to THINK… gone.

Instead, it moves like a freight train. It was like watching using the “Condensed Game” feature on replay. It barely registered. 1-2-3 innings are over in the time it takes to eat a hot dog.

Maybe I’ll get used to it, but I did not like it. I felt rushed and baseball is supposed to be the opposite of rushed.

The Broadcasts Are Going To Be Different

I was forced to watch the Phillies broadcast yesterday and, being the first game of Spring Training, there were some bugs but, the one major takeaway was, there is no time in-between the pitches to do anything.

There was barely any time to show a replay, much less from a couple of angles. That great stab by the shortstop? Might as well have been a Jalon Brunson spinning drive to the hoop ending in a reverse layup. Great while you see it but on the next thing.

There was no time to tell a story.  Even a short anecdote could take two or three batters to complete.

All I could think of was that the YES three-man booth is going to get very weird as everybody tries to get their schtick in what is now, an absurdly tight window.

This is both good and bad. Mostly bad.

Good, in that it will cut down on the prattle. Bad, in that we won’t get the history, the perspective, the humor, the banter, and in the case of John and Suzyn the complaining and occasional show tune.  

There can never be another Vin Scully weaving the game into a greater story about life. No Rizzuto talking about calzones. No Paul O’Neil making fun of the size of Michael Kay’s head. (Actually, I’m OK with that last one). 

The personality of the booth… gone.

And, when you lose the stories, the history, the situation, the contemplation, and the relaxation, then baseball as we know and love it… gone.

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MLB Just Screwed Itself Big Time

Yes, the game now fits in under three hours making it easy to program. Yes, the faster pace does make for a game that fits the modern attention span and yes, there was a part of me that was happy to watch a whole game and then get on with my life. So there’s that.

But, the Lords of Baseball made one mistake. One Huge Mistake that will undermine their greedy little plans to monetize every aspect of the game…

There is no time to get a bet down. No time for their precious in-game, in-at-bat wagers. The game moves too fast.  Maybe that plays into their plans. Maybe without the time to contemplate whether the pitcher is getting tired or not betters will make more wrong choices but a 15 second clock between pitches just isn’t enough time to answer the phone much less place a bet on it.

Good. Screw them. Maybe they'll slow the game down again.

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Last

The bigger bases are a plus. They may look huge but apparently they only shorten the distance by 4 ½ inches. I say that’s bupkis and it’s better to give the modern ballplayer and their larger feet the extra room.