Lock violations, batter timeouts, shift violations, disengagement counts, and more. These are just some of the things that have been keeping Major League Baseball umpires on their toes this season. Dan Bellino, in his 15th season as a major-league umpire, shared his early thoughts on the new rules in a recent interview with The Athletic. Here are some of his views, edited for length and clarity, but with added humor and wit to keep things entertaining.
At the annual meetings in Phoenix, league officials detailed how the new rules would work. “It was very refreshing that they had thought through so many of the contingencies and were able to answer our questions,” says Bellino. “This was the learning process the first few weeks in Triple A. This is what they experienced, and then things balanced out.” So far, things have been going well, and fans are actually paying attention to the games now instead of scrolling through their phones.
The biggest adjustment for umpires is working the plate. “It is mentally exhausting,” says Bellino. “Now we are taking our attention away from just eyes on the ball, eyes on the pitcher delivering the pitch, to making sure the batter is in at a certain time, making sure the clock is reset properly.”
Mastering the new hand signals has also been a challenge, but umpires are working on it. “It’s a little different than what we’re used to. But it does make sense that we’re trying to make sure everyone understands who called time. Then we restart the clock,” says Bellino.
Two weeks into the season, Bellino has already noticed players changing their behaviors. “Nobody wants to go down swinging in 22 seconds,” he jokes. “We kind of anticipate that’s where they’re going. And it’s good to know because we want to make sure we’re in sync with them.”
Enforcing the pitch-clock violations is not something umpires want to do. “Letting them know they have options is really important,” says Bellino. “If you still have one more pitch to throw and you see it’s at 30 seconds, you could just say, ‘I’m not going to throw another pitch. I’m ready to go.'”
Naturally, there have been surprises. “Every day you kind of see something new,” says Bellino. “We had a pigeon on the field in Colorado. The security guy came out. He brought out a towel and he grabbed the pigeon. I had to signal to kill the clock. And it’s like, how do we classify it? It was like, what do I call this, a pigeon delay?”
Overall, Bellino thinks the new rules are a positive change for the game. “These are great, I really like this, you take away some of the lag,” he says. “Everyone understands having the game be played in less than three hours is actually what it should be. Everyone is on board with it and understands this is really good for the game.” And who doesn’t want a faster-paced game with less downtime?
Serious News: nytimes
