Against the Clock

This was in the Victory Field press box earlier this season. A Cincinnati sportswriter, more accustomed to the often-pokey pace of major league baseball games, had come to town to do a story on the Reds’ Luis Castillo and his rehab start for Louisville against the Indians. Lost in his writing, the man didn’t realize it was the ninth inning until he looked up from his computer and saw the final Indians’ out.

“It’s over already?” he asked.

Welcome to the world of the pitch clock.

We know why it’s here. The pace of baseball games has begun to grow positively glacial. As Indians’ president Randy Lewandoski explained, “For the good of the game and the fan and the players, there just needs to be a better flow than what we’ve gotten used to with all the starts and stops and stepping out of the batting box.

“We do know that when games get to three hours, 3:15, 3:30 people will filter out because it becomes really long. In today’s society of go-go-go, to really attract the younger audience that pace of play is what’s going to be really important. I didn’t say time, I said pace of play.”

Indeed, it’s how some games crawl that has become a concern. And we know the clock is having an impact. Out of 103 nine-inning games last season, the Indians had 37 pass three hours and 61 – well more than half – go at least 2:50. In the first 24 nine-inning contests this season, only six went 2:50, and four of those were in the first two week when the rules were just being introduced. Meanwhile, the Indians beat Columbus in a speedy 2:05 and lost at Iowa in 2:06. Barely enough time for that third hot dog.

What we don’t know yet is how much everyone will be on board, especially the men charged with playing a game that is already hard enough, without a tick . . . tick . . . tick going off in their heads. Or if this experiment being tried in the minor leagues will ever make its way up the ladder to the Yankee Stadiums and PNC Parks of the world.

First, the basics. A pitch must be thrown in 14 seconds, or 19 if there is a runner on base. If not, a ball is called. The batter must be in the box ready to hit when the clock reaches the nine-second mark. If not, it’s a strike. After an at-bat, the next hitter batter has 30 seconds to get to the box, so no taking the slow, scenic route from the on-deck circle. Also, a pitcher can’t just make repeated throws to first base, to keep a runner close, while bringing the inning’s tempo to a screeching halt. On the third try, the runner must either be picked off or he gets another base.

All these rulebook tweaks are designed to keep the game snappy. The clock is always there in centerfield and behind home plate, silently nudging the players and managers and umpires to move things along. It must constantly be started, stopped, reset, tended to. Which means the guy upstairs pushing the button has no time for day-dreaming. “That’s the hardest job in the ballpark right now,” Lewandowski said. “There’s not a break.”

So, pitch clock. Good? Bad? Both? Neither?Friend or foe, inspiration of abomination? Let’s take the matter to the Indians’ clubhouse, where – at least early on -- views touched most every point on the compass, each man considering the idea from his own spot on the baseball landscape. Here’s an oral history of the pitch clock in Victory Field. All two months of it.

HITTING COACH ERIC MUNSON: “There is give and take. If you like baseball and you want to come and watch the game and enjoy the game and not worry about the time, it might not be for you. If you’re somebody who wants the game to go quick, then you’re going to like it.

“I’ve seen both sides of it. When the game’s in a good rhythm or a good flow, the clock helps that and it keeps going. Th next thing you look up and the game’s over in 2 hours and 30 minutes.

PITCHER JERAD EICKHOFF: “I understand the reason behind it but there’s definitely some serious issues with it. I think the biggest thing for me is you get an outcome whether it’s a walk or a strikeout without a pitch being thrown. I think that’s a huge problem. The hitter didn’t earn that walk, and as a pitcher I didn’t earn that strikeout. Those are calculated and go on our stats and our stats matter, our stats are our livelihood. In those key moments there has to be a way to put the clock aside.

PITCHER AUSTIN BRICE: “It doesn’t take account of the fact that baseball’s baseball sometimes. Has it sped up play? Maybe. I consider myself an extremely fast worker on the mound, and there’s a few times you shake twice and then you’re trying to get to the pitch, and that’s (called) a ball. I actually walked a guy because of that. That part can be frustrating.”

PITCHING COACH DAN MEYER: “Early I didn’t like it because it was something we had to reteach in a way. Some guys have a mental clock. We’ve talked to guys about holding runners, or holding your times to the plate. You can’t hold it eight, nine, 10 seconds anymore. And also if you’re 2-0 and you’ve thrown a couple of bad pitches, we used to teach to take a walk and take a deep breath behind the mound. You can’t do that as much anymore. So there are some things that have been taught in baseball for so long that we have to get away from to make it fit in the pitch clock. That’s been the toughest part.”

CATCHER JASON DELAY: “I think the biggest thing is with runners on second base. As a catcher I’ve got to go through a series of signs to make sure the runner on second can’t relay what pitch is coming. Sometimes that takes time. The last thing I want is to be going through my signs, a pitcher shakes off, and then I’ve got to go through a whole other set and we have a ball (called). That side of it has been frustrating.

“But at the same time we’ve played a lot of fast games. That’s appealing to a lot of fans, and players, too. We like fast-paced games, it keeps the defense in it and all that.”

MANAGER MIGUEL PEREZ: “I think it’s a personal thing. I’ve seen guys affected, I’ve seen guys who haven’t been affected. It’s one of those things we’ll see where we’re at. The rules are dictating some of the at-bats. It’s dictating strikeouts, walks. It can change the whole at-bat. The guys are aware of that and they’re doing a good job trying to adjust.”

FIRST BASEMAN MASON MARTIN: “I definitely have been a victim of the pitch clock a few times. It’s not fun to get struck out to end the inning when you didn’t even get to swing. It’s a frustrating feeling. It feels like a lot of guys are focusing on the pitch clock rather than their plan or approach at the plate or the pitch they’re about to make on the mound. It makes it an added challenge to what we’re trying to do. What we’re already trying to do is so hard, hit a 95-mile-an-hour fastball. That’s already hard enough.”

PITCHER CAM ALLDRED: “I see what they’re trying to do with it as far as speeding the game up a little bit but for the most part when we get sped up we want to slow the game down. What gets me the most is the first pitch of the inning, because I like to get the resin and get the feeling in my hand of dryness. And then before I know it, I’m looking over and there’s four seconds left. I work from the stretch, so I have to come set and go real quick.”

MUNSON: “This is the only sport where we’re on offense but we don’t have the ball. As a hitter you’ve got to be able to have the ability sometimes to slow (pitchers) down or step out and ask for time. A pitcher gets in a flow, they can quick pitch you and it’s uncomfortable as a hitter. That’s one of those things we’ll keep watching and seeing how it translates. We haven’t had a long conversation about it. We told them to just be aware of it, just make sure you’re in the box looking at the pitcher with 10 seconds (to go). Give yourself a little extra time and make sure you’re ready to hit.”

BRICE: “There’s a couple of times that I’ve been out there and I’ve thrown a ball just to kind of throw it and maybe not had the best intent behind it because I’m trying to beat the clock.”

ALLDRED: “I can sense when I’m slowing down. I definitely peek at it, just to see where I’m at. If it’s five, then I’m good. It’s definitely sped me up a little bit.”

DELAY: “I feel like runners can take advantage of it. I’m a baserunner and I see the clock winding down to zero I’m going to start stealing with one second left because you know the pitcher has to pitch, especially if they’ve already picked off twice. Basically we can’t pick off. I just feel like with that, guys are more inclined to steal, which maybe is great for the fans but not for a catcher.”

EICKHOFF: “Holding runners is a key way to prevent stolen bases. When you’re forced to throw a pitch at a certain time it affects the randomness of pickoffs or the randomness of holding the runners close.”

MARTIN: “I’ve heard several different umpires say several different things based on what the rule actually is. For me the rules changed three weeks in a row. One week, they said I had to be in the box by 10 seconds, the next week they said I had to be in the box by nine seconds, the week after that they said I had to be alert to the pitcher by nine seconds. So although I was in the box with two strikes and two outs in a big situation in the game, because I wasn’t by the umpire’s definition alert to the pitcher, the inning ended and that situation in the game disappeared. I don’t know if that should be happening.”

EICKHOFF: “Especially in the big leagues, my experience there is, when guys get on base and hits happen – and they’re going to happen – big league pitchers slow down. Whether that’s actually slowing down between pitches to gather yourself, thinking about executing the next pitch, what have you. There’s times I think that’s an advantage as a pitcher because you have the ball and the game’s dictated by you. This kind of eliminates that.”

MARTIN: “I used to be a guy where I would step out of the box, unstrap my gloves, take a big deep breath, get back to the plan, step in the box. Now there’s no thinking, because you don’t have time. You have your plan in the dugout or on-deck and then once you start walking up to the plate, you know it’s going to go quick, bang, bang, bang. So whatever plan you have going up there, you better hope it works. Because there’s no time for adjustments. That’s what I think is great about baseball. There’s adjustments every single pitch and now you’ve kind of taken that out of the game.”

Bottom line, the clock is here to be studied and judged. And it’s future?

PEREZ: “I think it’s TBD. That’s why we’re doing it here, to see if it can be implemented at a higher level. This is a learning process for all of us. Who knows what’s next? It hasn’t changed anything (for a manager’s job) but it puts you in the situation where you have to be aware and make sure the players are aware.

“Hopefully they sit down and see things in scale and find a balance for this. We might end up looking at this as normal two years or a year from now.”

MUNSON: “I’m kind of torn. I don’t really know if I like it or not. But it doesn’t matter if I like it. The jury is still out.”

BRICE: “I feel like the structure right now isn’t going to work. It needs to be retooled. But I can see where the potential could be there to help the game in terms of time. Do I think whatever’s going on now is going to work in the major leagues? Absolutely not. When you play in the major leagues it’s a chess match. I don’t think there’s any room for speeding the game up and almost taking thinking out of the play.”

ALLDRED: “I wouldn’t make it permanent. For the most part we’re trying get outs up there, we’re not really worried about how quick or how slow we’re going. That’s just something we’re going to have to deal with.”

MEYER: “I couldn’t even gauge the temperature of the water on that subject. I’m not against it. I definitely understand it. Those (quick) games were nice. I will say, now that we’ve gotten better at it, the games do run a little bit better. I think my mind is changing on it, I’m just not sure where I land on it.”

DELAY: “I like it in some form. I don’t love all of the rules we have this year. Maybe that’s just we haven’t adjusted properly. Everyone loves quick games but I don’t know if the pitch clock is the answer.

MARTIN: “For me personally my motto is I don’t care what the rules rule, I’ll play by them. I don’t know the rules and I don’t really know the people who do make the rules. In years past I did know the rules.”

EICKHOFF: “We’re Triple-A. This is one step away from the big leagues and this isn’t happening in the big leagues. I know they have to try things but I think it’s also unfair to us to have us do this here and then go to the big league and things are completely different. If you’re going to have these trial runs, I think it needs to be at the lower levels.”

Lewandowski understands this rainbow of feelings. He began as a skeptic, too.

“As a traditionalist and a purist I was certainly against it,” he said. “The time of game matters but it’s the pace of game that matters even more. One is subjective and one is objective. The clock is an object, so we need to be careful not to get so objective.”

In other words, the clock can’t totally dictate the sport. Baseball isn’t built that way. “It’s a great game. They’ve been playing it hundreds of years. Don’t mess it up,” Lewandowski said. But all he need do is look at the stands of Victory Field to know that faster-paced games can be a positive in today’s culture, and might even be mandatory.

“If a game drags for 3 ½ hours, people are going to go, `was that a good experience, or did I miss something because I felt like had to leave early and didn’t stay for the end of the game?’ Whereas they feel like they can stay for a 2 ½ hour game,” he said, calling a game time of 2:30 to 2:40 “probably the sweet spot for everybody. That’s for the players, that’s for the staff, that’s for the business side, that’s for the fans.”

And so far in 2022, the pitch clock is providing a lot of days with sweet spots. The muscles are not so tight for the seventh inning stretch. But don’t put off that last trip for ice cream too long.

“I heard an interesting comment from a major league side person that it’s generational, too,” Lewandowski said. “As we educate the younger players getting into the professional ranks about the pace and the clocks it’ll become second nature. It’ll just become what they’re used to.

“It’s an acclimation period just like any other rule. I just think we all have to be patient and let it run its course and settle it. We’re all creatures of habit. You resist change, then you start to comply with that change, then you accept the change. We’re still in the early phase of the change cycle.”