Rarely is off-the-field baseball news made by someone who isn't a player. Occasionally a manager will make the news for getting fired up at players. Sometimes an owner is a racist old woman, who spouts insane dogma. But more often than not, there is no real noteworthy news coming from the mouths of umpires. Until a few days ago.
This week umpire Joe West complained about the length of time it takes the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox to play a game. "They're the two clubs that don't try to pick up the pace," said West. "They're two of the best teams in baseball. Why are they playing the slowest? It's pathetic and embarrassing. They take too long to play." The backlash from these statements came quickly and with ferocity.
One of the more outspoken opponents of Joe West's comments was Boston second-baseman Dustin Pedroia. "To call the Yankees and Red Sox, two of the best teams in baseball, 'pathetic' and 'embarrassing,' that's just ridiculous," said Pedroia. "If he doesn't want to do Red Sox and Yankee games, he should tell the umpires' union. Then when we're in the World Series, he'll be out of that assignment, too." Threatening an umpire with not calling the game of teams he is publicly calling out, doesn't make much sense. But Pedroia wasn't the only one who was upset.
Yankee closer Mariano Rivera also had some words to say on the subject. "If he has places to go, let him do something else," Rivera expressed. "What does he want us [the players] to do, swing at balls? We don't want to play four-hour games, but that's what it takes. We respect and love the fans and do what we have to do, and that's play our game." Obviously the players were upset about being called out like this, but to a degree Joe West has a point. From Gordon Edes' article for ESPN.com, "The average length of Sox-Yankees games in '09 was 3:40. The average in the major leagues was 2:55. The average of the three games played this week between the teams was 3:38." Now when you are talking about a 45 minute difference between average game length, there is something wrong.
Boston skipper Terry Francona probably had the most well-reasoned response to West's comments. "Looking back at the series, I can't say I sit there in the seventh inning and go, 'Oh, god, let's play quicker.' That's just the way it is. I think there were 411 pitches thrown in one game. That's a lot of baseball." And Francona is right. If you watch a Yankees-Red Sox game, just about every batter tries to run a full-count to work the pitch count of the opposing team. This is a strategic plan, and this shouldn't be changed or regulated.
However, watch one of these games and you'll see other reasons why these games drag on. The slow pitching, the visits to the mounds, and the stepping out of the batter's box happen way too often. Those things are a fact of baseball, but watch David Ortiz step out of the box. He doesn't just take a step out, readjust for a second or two, and then come back in. He steps out halfway to the on-deck circle, takes his time to fix his gloves, do his superstitious routine and mosey on back to the box. And they all do it. Youkilis steps out and practices his girly swing two or three times each pitch. And guys on the Yankees do this too. It tedious, and it's unnecessary.
You can't help the number of pitches thrown either, but the fact that guys like A.J. Burnett like to take 30-40 seconds between pitches is ridiculous. I know these games are important, and more often than not they are good contests, but I can't tell you the last time I've watching one of these games fully. These theatrics may help the ratings and increase the fan noise when the bases are loaded and the game is tied. But when there are two outs and you are down by seven, get in the box and swing the damn bat already. Throw your pitches. They aren't going to get any prettier or more accurate with you staring at the catcher.
Francona also made a point about the length of time between innings because of commercial time. He makes a fantastic point, but MLB isn't about to take less money from advertisers to shorten games, and there is nothing the players can do about that. But Umpire Joe West's complaints are valid. True, he should not have made the comments public. It was out of line and it should have been handled behind closed doors. But maybe he's done that already and nothing has happened. The Yankees and Red Sox have two of the highest revenues, and payrolls and draw the biggest audiences. Major League Baseball probably isn't too keen on changing anything that they are doing. And if fans love it, maybe it should stay the same. To each their own. But there are a lot of things I can do with 3:40 of my day, and watching a baseball game, whoever is playing, isn't that high up on my list.
All quotations were taken from Gordeon Edes' article which can be found at http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/mlb/news/story?id=5071970.
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