Photo by Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
This one change turned me into a baseball fan for the first time.
I should love baseball, really I should. As someone who grew up in Australia appreciating the slow, methodical, often nap-inducing repetition of test match cricket, the idea of seeing a similarly strategic game to completion in one afternoon should tickle the pleasure center of my brain. Except it hasn’t, not really. Obviously I kept track of what was happening, and tuned in like anyone else when Twitter is exploding about a big game underway — but the enjoyment of sitting down from start to finish and actually watching baseball did nothing for me. Until now.
After three days of seeing the new, fast-paced MLB with the pitch clock in effect I’m totally, completely hooked. It feels like everything I’ve wanted to love about baseball, while stripping out the most frustrating elements of the game. I find myself fully locked in on every at-bat, gaining a real appreciation for delivery cadence, a batter working the pitch count, and the drama of a 3-2 pitch — while not finding my eyes wandering down to my phone or mind thinking about other things, only to miss the critical pitch where some action happened.
It’s weird, because there’s more to this than just “slow game go faster.” Naturally I’ve always been able to appreciate games that have drawn out ritual, but the pitch clock not only makes the game move along more briskly, but adds a whole new element of strategy to the game. I find myself seeing the pitch clock tick down, wondering what the batter is thinking, using the clock itself as a new way of tipping pitches. This weekend alone I noticed pitchers naturally threw higher in the clock if they were repeating a pitch type than moving to a new one.
Also, for the first time in over a decade, I watched a game from start to finish. The last time came when Daisuke Matsusaka made his first start for the Red Sox when I was in college, and my die-hard Sox fan from New Hampshire convinced me to watch with him. I was so bored after four innings I couldn’t handle it, but suffered through for him.
So here I am, in 2023, watching a game between the Brewers and Cubs on a Saturday afternoon, a game I have ZERO rooting interest in because I don’t have a team I support, and loving every second of it. I’m messaging my friends like “I can’t believe it’s been only been an hour and we’re in the 4th inning.” I find myself really appreciating Brandon Woodruff throwing absolute gas high in the zone over, and over again — with almost no time to think ahead of time.
I’m absolutely floored by Dansby Swanson’s reflexes and reaction time, beginning to understand why he’s regarded as one of the best defensive players in the game. Then Harry Caray comes on the screen for the seventh inning stretch and I have the realization: I get it now. I get all of it. I friggin’ LOVE baseball.
It’s astonishing how eliminating less 10-20 seconds can change everything, but that’s what the pitch clock has done. Instead of watching baseball by passively glancing up at the TV from whatever else I’m doing, baseball is now my focus and I’ll glance down at something else, but only for a moment — worrying I’ll miss something awesome.
On some level I totally appreciate those who hold reverence for the older, slower, more open system — but there is absolutely no doubt that at least for me, MLB is like a whole new sport with the pitch count in effect. My eyes have been opened to the beauty of this game in a way they never have before, and my interest extends far beyond only knowing what Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge are up to.
I’m a baseball fan now, and it’s all thanks to the pitch clock. Now I just need to pick a team to root for.
