As he went through his routine — laying down his bat in the dirt to measure his stance, tapping the plate once, then pointing the bat forward — a clock in left field was flashing bright red numbers, counting the 20 seconds to when the pitch would have to be thrown. And O’Brien kept thinking, “I have to hurry, I have to hurry.”
He was not alone. In Arizona this month, in games involving some of the sport’s top young prospects, baseball is experimenting with new rules aimed at quickening the time that it takes to play nine innings. In addition to the use of the clocks that count down the time between pitches — similar to the shot clock used in basketball — there is a rule stipulating that players keep one foot in the batter’s box during an at-bat, with some exceptions.
There is also a maximum time between innings (2 minutes 5 seconds) and a maximum time for pitching changes (2:30). Conferences on the mound are restricted. Perhaps most radically, an intentional walk will not require the customary lobs to the catcher. Instead, the umpire will simply instruct the batter to go to first.
Ethelbert Miller - In my second memoir, The Fifth Inning, I wrote the following:
"Everything comes down to balls and strikes. You don't need religion or God to understand this. One can keep a scorecard just like God. Now and then you try to slow things down by stepping out of the box. I like how good hitters step back, adjust their uniforms, stroke their bats, survey the field, spit, grab themselves between the legs, step back into the box, touch their caps, stare at the pitcher, swing the bat a few times, and maybe if you're Ricky Henderson, step back out of the box and do it all over again."Now read the crazy article in today's newspaper. Here is another example of the destruction of tradition and our failure to teach a younger generation the beauty of the game.
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