Extra Innings

When you sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch, how much more ballgame do you really want?  Saturday’s 18-inning game between the Brewers and Mets and last Sunday’s 15-inning affair between the Cubs and Diamondbacks, both games lasting close to six hours, sparked a controversy between old school traditionalists and new school realists.  Should we look for ways to resolve a deadlocked game before many fans have moved on to do other things?

From an historical perspective we need to go back 100 years to the longest game ever played measured by innings.  It was a 26-inning game in May 1920 between the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers, ending in a 1-1 tie due to darkness.  Playing time was only 3 hours, 50 minutes, and just two pitchers appeared in the game.  During that era a game could indeed end in a tie.

The longest game by time was more recent, an 8 hour, 6 minutes contest played in May 1984 at Comiskey Park in Chicago between the White Sox and the then American League Milwaukee Brewers. It was a night game suspended due to curfew at 1:00 a.m. after 17 innings tied at 3-3. Play resumed the next day and ended finally in the 25th inning with the White Sox winning 7-6.

Today, with attendance down (2018 saw lower numbers at the turnstiles and the trend is continuing in 2019) and attention spans diminishing, baseball is looking for ways to create more interest from casual fans.  Should one of those ways be to address extra inning games?  Interestingly, an NBC Sports Chicago Twitter poll taken after the Cubs vs. Diamondbacks game indicated that 73% of fans like it just the way it is, play as many innings as necessary to decide a result.

Let’s take a look though at two options that received commentary over the past week.  One is to shorten the games to 12 innings at a maximum and accept a tie, just like we did 100 years ago!  The NFL’s version of that is to have a ten-minute overtime period in regular season play and if the game is not decided, a tie results.  That actually makes sense in the NFL, since a tie game might be the deciding factor to get into the playoffs as opposed to the messy tie-breaking rules.  But in baseball?  Just going back to last year, two of the National League divisions ended in a deadlock after 162 games of play.  We might have missed out on some incredibly exciting playoff games if tie games during the season were permitted in baseball.

Another option discussed would be to begin each extra inning with a runner on second base, creating more scoring opportunities. This is a popular tournament rule in women’s fast-pitch softball where pitching tends to dominate. Indeed, minor league baseball adopted this rule in 2018, much of the reason being to lessen the burden on pitching staffs. The parallel in professional sports is to the NHL’s five minute overtime period followed by a shootout. Adopting the runner on base rule in MLB would change the way the game is pIayed, and frankly it’s hokey (sorry, had to say it).

MLB though does have planned a rule to go in effect next year that will speed up the game and indirectly impact the extra innings dilemma.  Beginning in 2020, barring injury or the end of an inning, a pitcher must pitch to three batters in an inning.  The rule change is an obvious attempt to cut down on those tedious late innings of a game when managers (and bench coaches!) opt for the best matchup, RH power pitcher vs. RH batter and even more so, LH power pitcher vs. LH batter, batter after batter. 

The number of pitchers used in a game is spiraling upward (in 1998 both teams combined averaged 6.1 per game and in 2018 it was up to 8.7), too much time spent making pitching changes with no action on the field.   In one of the classic games ever played at Wrigley Field, the Phillies defeated the Cubs 23-22 in May 1979 in ten innings.  The game was played in just over four hours (4:03), and while both starters went only 1/3 of an inning, the Phillies used just five pitchers and the Cubs six!  Contrast that to a low-scoring 3-2 Giants win over the Dodgers played this past Monday in nine, long innings (3:14), when both teams each used five pitchers. 

The more indirect impact of the 2020 rule change though might be on the makeup of the pitching staff.  We might see less of a need for one of the many left-handed relief pitching specialists on a staff (the Angels are the only team in baseball without a left-handed reliever), thus opening up a spot (or two) for a long reliever, a pitcher who can eat up in innings in extra inning games.  Last Tuesday, the Reds in a 10-inning loss to the Mets, opted for their closer, Raisel Iglesias, to pitch the 10th, just one day after he had pitched two innings.   Maybe staffs with long reliever options might change the extra innings approach beginning next season.

As a baseball traditionalist, I tend to object to rule changes that “mess with the game”, but I do realize that the game needs the casual fan and must find ways to address the speed of play. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Happy Place

Yesterday afternoon I was in my “Happy Place”, attending my first baseball game of the season at the ballpark.  It was the Cubs and the Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field, but for me it could have been two teams playing at any major or minor league park in professional baseball.  It is time to relax at my home away from home and take in the intricacies of the game I love.

As a baseball fan I’ve been fortunate to have resided in cities with great second homes, Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, and now Wrigley.  There is always that special excitement in the air as you enter the ballpark.  While presenting to the gate attendant your ticket stub from your wallet has been replaced by the “ping” of acceptance of your electronic ticket from your iPhone wallet, the message is the same.  “Welcome to the Ballpark”.   Walking down the concourse I see the bustle of fans and smell hot dogs on the grill.  I am indeed home.

A first stop before settling into my seat is always to grab a hot dog. It just so happens at Wrigley that spot is the Marquee Grill, famous for its grilled hot dogs. Unbelievably delicious! And of course while I add a little mustard to the hot dog at the stand, I take a moment to appreciate the back of the historic Marquee sign that has welcomed fans to Wrigley for 85 years.

I love traditional ballpark foods, except maybe one, Cracker Jacks, that has never made it to my Happy Place checklist!  You see, at Wrigley over 40 years ago, my date was attending her first baseball game and immediately asked to “buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks”, sadly the only thing she knew about baseball.   I said I would get them, but I missed the first inning doing so.  And when she took a paperback book from her purse to read in the fourth, I knew it was the last date!

With a hot dog in one hand, you certainly need a beverage in the other.   For me, that is usually a beer.  As an 18-year old (of age) kid, my first ballpark beer was a Hudepohl (“Get Moody with Hudey”) at Riverfront.  In college I was in Wrigley’s bleachers and enjoyed Old Style in paper cups with plastic lids.  My adult life took me to Busch where you always had to have a Budweiser (“King of Beers”).  These later years I must admit I’ve attained a more refined taste and find myself at the Goose Island stand at Wrigley.   I hear Guaranteed Rate Field now has its own Goose Island premium seating!

Finally, I’ve arrived at my seat and it’s time to Play Ball! There’s so much to enjoy watching a game. Early on, it’s good to clue in on whether the starting pitchers are in command of their respective games. Whether there is early scoring or not, you get the sense of how the game will go based on how hard balls are hit the first time through the lineup. There is the ultimate excitement for the average fan, the home team’s home run ball. For me though, I want something else, a batter sacrificing an at bat by moving a runner over with no outs, a stolen base, or the most exciting play in the game, a triple hit in one of the gaps or down the right field line.

And then there’s the part of the game that I also appreciate, the lull.  Sometime in the middle innings there may be an inning or two when both sides are out in order, a time to sit back and just plain relax.  I usually take that time to reflect a little or maybe check in with whom I am attending the game.  I remember fondly those days when we were raising our daughters and it was my tradition to do a one-on-one weeklong baseball trip with each of them.  You find out a lot about each other during those quiet times in baseball.

As we reach the middle of the seventh inning, it is time to sing!  I don’t sing much in public (many are very thankful for that), but I do love to belt out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”.  There’s probably no better tradition in all of sports!  No matter what ballpark I’m in, I have to admit that when it comes to the lyrics, “and it’s root, root for the . . . “, I reach back to my childhood days and think to myself  “Redlegs”.  It’s good to be young at heart.

The game is ending now, and oh by the way, the Cubs won, 2-1, in thrilling walk-off fashion. It’s time to sing “Go Cubs Go” and raise the “W” in centerfield, but also time to check the schedule for the next game I plan to attend. I can never get enough of my Happy Place!

Until next Monday,
your Baseball Bench Coach

April Power

As a pitcher growing up, I was intrigued by the notion that early in the season the “pitchers were ahead of the hitters”.    The mindset was that cold weather in the Midwest made batting uncomfortable.  A pitcher could pour fastballs inside on a hitter’s hands and have great success.  It was April Power pitching!

Although there are some differing views, much of the commentary prior to 2000 suggests lower run production in April MLB play.  Cold weather certainly played a role given that MLB schedulers, until recently, refused to stay away from early home stands in northern cities.  More than that, science did, and still does, come into play since a baseball does not “carry” as well in colder weather and hence, long drives are less likely to reach at or beyond the outfield walls.

Other factors played a part.In spring training, starting pitchers went deep into the game in their last two starts so they were in ready form when the season started. April schedules provided for many open dates that allowed managers to utilize four-man (and in some earlier days, three-man) starting pitching staffs through much of April, so that teams would more often than not see your top end starting pitching.Also, opposing team hitting coaches and players would in many cases not have a scouting book (and clearly no video) on any new pitchers.

April MLB baseball has now changed and is just like any other month.  A review of FanGraphs information during the 2009-2013 MLB seasons shows no statistical difference in run production or pitching performance in April vs. other months. 

Indeed, it seems that in 2019 it is now April Power hitting!  Prior blog entries have referenced the Dodgers’ early home run prowess.  Seattle has more than matched that by hitting a home run in each of its first 18 games, 41 HRs in total.  Last Monday Edwin Encarnacion of the Mariners hit two home runs in the same inning.   Tim Anderson of the White Sox leads the majors with a .429 batting average after 14 games.  Whit Merrifield of the Royals continued from last September his consecutive games with hits streak into this season at 31 games before it ended on Thursday.  It’s a regular batting barrage in the MLB!

I know what jumps to your mind; the ball is more lively now!That is an easy out, so to speak, and does not give credence to some other key factors.Putting the April analysis aside for the moment, the game of baseball is just a different game nowadays with so much emphasis on offensive production.No longer is it a station to station game (taking one base at a time), but rather managers (and bench coaches, of course!) play for the big hit and the big inning. Players up and down the lineup are not able to execute a bunt.And frankly, in traditional situations where a sacrifice is the right strategy, batters aren’t being asked to do it.

But let’s get back to the April analysis and pitching.   Managers in spring training now seem to ease the starting pitchers into form.  In fact, ESPN’s Buster Olney mused this week that one reason that the Red Sox are off to a slow start is that its starting staff was taxed due to the long postseason run last year.  As such, they were allowed to back off from the usual spring training rigors. 

While MLB schedules still have more open dates in April than other months (teams average six in April and two in September), pitching staffs are being deployed differently.  It is now uncommon to go with a short rotation in April.  Managers simply don’t want starting pitchers to start more than 30-32 games a year. 

Finally, April Power pitching meant owning the inside part of the plate for a pitcher.  You weren’t afraid to get inside on the hitter because backing hitters off the plate was just playing the game.  Now, hitters come to the plate adorned with so much padding that they appear ready for the Game of Thrones.  The effective, inside pitch and April Power pitching are now relics of the past.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Strong Start

What do the 1927 Yankees, 1955 Dodgers, 1984 Tigers, 1990 Reds, and 2005 White Sox teams have in common?  They all went “wire to wire”, in first place in their league (or division after 1968) after every game of the entire season and capping the season off with a World Series Championship.  Just 5 teams in the history of Major League Baseball have done this!

Just about 10 games into the 2019 season, and we do have a team in the American League that is in the position at least to accomplish the feat.  The Seattle Mariners, buoyed by the two early wins over Oakland in Japan before the rest of MLB opened the season, have led the AL West from the first pitch and are sitting at 9-2 after yesterday’s win against the White Sox, 3 1/2 games in first place.  Will the magic continue wire to wire for the Mariners? The odds are heavily against it.

Both leagues have other teams off to some hot starts, the Brewers and Dodgers in the NL and the Rays in the AL.  Milwaukee and L.A. are no secrets, given that they met in the NLCS last year.  The Brewers’ 8-2 record after yesterday’s play has other NL Central contenders scrambling.  The Dodgers have started the season with an identical record and bats booming, a home run in each of its 10 games and 24 HRs in total.

Tampa though was somewhat of an afterthought by the experts as the Rays compete in the AL East with the media darlings Yankees and Red Sox.  Beware of the division-leading Rays!  They are pitching deep with a team ERA of 2.09 during the first 10 games of the season.

And what about the NL East with the best win-loss division record in baseball.  The Phillies jumped off to a 4-0 start (their best since 1915!) and lead the competitive division with a 6-2 record.   Have the 2019 Amazin’ Mets returned for a 50-year reunion of the ’69 title?  Perhaps so with starters Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, reminiscent of the Seaver-led staff days. One of the Mets players you need to watch play is rookie first baseman Pete Alonso who is batting .382 at the end of week’s play.  The Nationals, despite the loss of Bryce Harvey, will contend with its own ace pitchers, Scherzer, Strasburg, and Corbin.  Certainly don’t count out the Braves, who won the division crown last year, and are 5-1 in the last six games.

This April, like any April in baseball, the standings look somewhat upside down in other divisions.  The Red Sox  (3-8) and Cubs (2-7), winners of two of the last three World Series, are off to slow starts.  Has the panic button been pushed in Boston or the north side of Chicago?  I don’t think so, especially since they are the only remaining teams yet to play a home game. It will be interesting to see this week if home stands at Fenway and Wrigley will right their ships.

Other not so strong starts belong to the Marlins, Reds, Giants, Rockies, Blue Jays, Royals, and Angels. But there is so much baseball to be played in the 162-game marathon. Think of it this way; playing your first 10 games of a season in baseball is the equivalent of playing one game in the 16-game NFL season.

There’s an old adage that baseball standings do not matter until Memorial Day.   By that point each team has played about one-third of its games and seen the other teams in the league at least once.  (Yes, I know, with the odd scheduling in baseball nowadays, there are exceptions to that.)  For those of us attending a game at the ballpark in the next several weeks, we can ignore the pennant race flags flying beyond the outfield fence for now.  But of course pay attention on Monday, May 27, to see which teams are leading the divisions in the Memorial Day edition of this blog!  There is so much to cover between now and then.

Until Next Monday, 
your Baseball Bench Coach

Opening Day

Opening Day, my favorite day in sports!  Your Baseball Bench Coach was raised in a baseball town, Cincinnati, where, until most recently, the National League would officially open its season.  Opening Day is a holiday there, featuring half-empty schools in the area and the Findlay Market Parade downtown. My strongest memory was actually watching the opener in 1970 on my family’s brand new color television set purchased for the occasion.  The Reds beat the Montreal Expos 5-1 in the last home opener at Crosley Field. Yes, I remember the score (only a baseball nut would understand).

The 1970 Reds home opener was also memorable because you came away with the belief that something big was about to happen that season.  Indeed, it was the first game of the Big Red Machine era. Maybe that same feeling was in the air on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.  The Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves 10-4 with the help of its new, powerful top of the lineup, Andrew McCutcheon, Jean Segura, Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and J.T. Realmuto. Led by veterans McCutcheon and Harper with 2 home runs apiece during the series Philadelphia completed the only sweep of Opening Weekend last night. Philly is certainly primed to be a contender this year.

This past weekend ESPN and MLB TV allowed me to tune in for some other home openers throughout baseball.  It’s your ace against their ace, and interestingly we saw match-ups featuring the best pitchers in each league from last year.  Both Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, 1-2 in the 2018 National League Cy Young race, threw gems as the Mets squeaked by the Nationals, 2-0.  DeGrom’s 10 Ks and Scherzer’s 12 was the first time since 1970 that the starting pitchers both recorded 10 or more strikeouts in an opener.

In the American League duel between last year’s Cy Young winner, Tampa’s Blake Snell, and runner-up, Justin Verlander of the Astros, the veteran Verlander stole the show in Houston’s 5-1 win.   Blake Snell though is a wonderful stylist on the mound. Make a point of catching one or more of his starts this year.

Home runs, all 46 of them on Opening Day throughout the big leagues (most since 1999), was the highlight reel story.  The Dodgers actually hit 8 of them on Opening Day. Beyond the arm raising and fireworks of today’s HR celebrations, there is the art of hitting the ball with power where it is pitched.  That was so evident in Arlington, Texas, where the Cubs saw two of its right-handed sluggers, Baez and Bryant, launch home runs to right center field. Ask any hitting instructor; hitting the ball with authority to the opposite field power alley is a sign of good things to come.

The series of the Opening Weekend had to be in Milwaukee.   You have probably seen by now Lorenzo Cain’s ninth-inning, leaping catch over the center field wall to close out the Brewers’ 5-4 Opening Day win over St. Louis. On Friday night, Lorenzo Cain could not keep Paul Goldschmidt’s three long blasts in the park as the Cardinals rebounded with a win. Speaking of three’s, how about Josh Hader’s 3-pitch, 3-batters, 3-strikeout save in game 3 of the series! Then yesterday, the reigning NL MVP, Christian Yelich, tied the major league record by hitting a home run in each of the first four games and added a walk-off double in the ninth inning to win the series. It was a wild weekend in Milwaukee, and it promises to be an exciting NL Central race this year.

I have to give the Baseball Bench Coach nod to the most interesting managerial move made this weekend. It comes back to the place where this story began, Opening Day in Cincinnati. It’s not something you would notice unless you saw the game or devour box scores each morning.  In the seventh inning of the Reds 5-3 win over the Pirates, new Reds manager, David Bell, brought in one of his top relief pitchers, Michael Lorenzen, as a pinch runner. (I guess this blog should give credit as well to Freddie Benavides, Bell’s bench coach!)  Lorenzen, who also happens to be a great athlete and good stick, finished the game as the Reds centerfielder. It’s one of those creative ways to make use of today’s pitcher-laden player rosters, a story we are going to follow throughout the season.

I hope you are as excited about this season as I am.  What’s your fondest Opening Day memory?

Until next Monday,
your Baseball Bench Coach.