A Grip on Sports: The pitch clock changes Major League Baseball games in good and bad ways

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We spent some time with the Mariners, in person, already this season. And were able to experience, in person, the rules baseball put in place to speed up the game. We’ve also watched other games, at home on our TV. And we’ve come to a conclusion.

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• The rule changes for the TV watchers? Good. Great. Near-perfect. The rule changes for those in the stadium? Good. OK. Eh, maybe not so perfect after all.

Why the difference? We have come to believe it’s about the expectations.

(If the above paragraphs made no sense to you because you are not aware of what changed, here’s a quick primer. Major League Baseball introduced a pitch clock this year, an entity its used for a couple years in the minors. At its core, the rule is simple. The hitter must be ready with 8 seconds left and the pitcher has to start their windup before the clock expires. There are also rules limiting pickoffs, time outs and mound visits. All trying to speed up the game and cut the length by about 30 minutes. OK, back to the discussion.)

As a home viewer, we’re just watching, if that makes sense. It’s another TV show. The game itself is the entirety of the entertainment. If it moves quickly, gets from point A to point J in under three hours, that’s important. Show us what matters, edited out the flotsam and jetsam and we’re good.

That’s what baseball has done.

But for someone watching in person, the expectations are different.

The ballpark experience is, well, an experience. It’s not just the baseball game. We won’t argue that part of heading to T-Mobile – or any other big-league park – is the centerpiece. The piece de resistance, as the French say. The ultimate determiner if you will head home happy or sad.

There is, however, so much more to the ballpark visit. And all those auxiliary perks are what gives the in-park trip its special feeling. The new rules are cutting into that a bit.

No, we’re not talking about drinking time, though we were amazed at how many folks make that a key part of their trip.

It’s the little things. Keeping score. Grabbing a hot dog, soda and maybe some ice cream for dinner. Following the flight of a foul ball into the upper deck. Opening and eating peanuts, then dropping the shells at your feet. Looking for a souvenir. Arguing the merits of one hitter vs. another with a person you only met in the first inning, then agreeing a pitching change was due.

All are threatened, to some degree, by the rule changes.

We found it’s nearly impossible to keep a complete scorebook, as is our wont. Too little time to mark down the number of pitches and other items that have, for more than 50 years, allowed us to rebuild any game we saw in person with certainty years later.

And don’t even think of taking a bathroom break or grabbing a bite. If the lines are long, you may not miss just a few pitches, you may miss a few outs. Heck, a couple innings. We found even eating peanuts meant a new routine. Grab one, watch a pitch. Break it open. Watch a pitch. Pop it into our mouth. Watch the hitter swing a miss and head back to the dugout.

We will admit, leaving the ballpark before nine p.m. for a game that started at 6:40 has its advantages, but we had a weird feeling about that as well.

We thought back to our younger days. We once attended a Led Zeppelin concert in which John Bonham had a 40-minute drum solo. And not long after, a Beach Boys gig in which the group couldn’t wait to get off the stage. One was too long. The other too short. They both were, as Bob Uecker would say, just a bit outside the Goldilocks zone.

Just like the new rules.

• There have been reports concession sales, including beer, have plummeted at games. It was something our son predicted on Opening Night. Who wants to risk missing Julio Rodriguez hit standing in line for a Coors Light? But more importantly, instead of having three hours to sale alcohol before a seventh-inning cutoff, there is only two-and-a-half or less.

That can’t be tolerated. The response, thus far, has been typical. Extend beer sales into the eighth.

Wait, what?

The cutoff was instituted years ago so fans would have a little time to sober up before plopping down behind the wheel and braving the freeways home. It was not only the right thing to do, it also covered the clubs’ rumps to some degree in event of a postgame crash. Baseball, of course, sold it as wanting to ensure fan safety because, you know, the billionaires who owned the clubs cared deeply about you.

Hogwash. If that were really true, the speed of the game would have forced teams to move up the cutoff, as there is, on average, fewer minutes after the middle of the seventh until the end of the game.

But, money.

There is an easy solution, however. A solution that would make almost everyone happy.

For years, stadium gates opened two hours before gametime. That has morphed in most places into 90 minutes. Want more beer sales? Open the gates earlier again. Allow fans more time in the place, to watch batting practice, grab home run balls and, most importantly for the bottom line, buy food and drink. The half hour you are saving on the back end is made up on the front – for those who want to use it.

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WSU: The baseball team hosted Arizona last night. Fridays are usually about aces, but this one was about the bullpen. And Washington State’s was lights out. Colton Clark was there and has this story. … We can also pass along another from Arizona. … We shared the TJ Bamba news yesterday but Colton put together this story a bit later. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation in football, Washington is still waiting for the usual flood of commitments. … The Oregon State secondary is in the middle of a makeover. … One Oregon player has grown since he arrived in Eugene. Former linebacker Treven Ma’ae is now a defensive tackle. … The up-tempo offense has stressed the Colorado defense. That’s a good thing. … Expect some crazy things from a USC defender. … Arizona State ends spring with a game today. … So is Arizona. … In basketball news, Washington signed a local kid. … An Oregon State reserve has entered the portal. … KJ Simpson finished Colorado’s season on a down note. … Utah has a new guard who started at BYU, went to a JC and is now back in the spotlight. … In the women’s game, Stanford may have to change its transfer policy if it wants to stay relevant.

Gonzaga: Ryan Nembhard, Andrew’s younger brother who is looking for a new home, visited yesterday. He had a familiar face showing him around. His brother was also in town. The younger Nembhard led Creighton to the Elite Eight, where the Bluejays lost to San Diego State. Jim Meehan has more in this story.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Northern Colorado holds its final spring scrimmage today. … This is how the transfer portal is supposed to work. Montana State’s basketball coach left. A couple key players entered the portal, saying they want to keep their options open. They should have that right. In the past, they did not.

Preps: Dave Nichols has a roundup from Friday.

Indians: A tough start spelled doom for Spokane, despite a late-innings rally. Dave has this story on the 7-6 home loss to Eugene. … Dave also put up a pregame notebook.

Kraken: Seattle will face Colorado in its first-round series. … The Kraken had some great moments this season.

Mariners: Friday’s game time in a 5-3 win over visiting Colorado? It was 2 hours, 34 minutes. And that included Jarred Kelenic’s fourth home run in four games. More importantly, his first against a left-handed starter. Yep, Kelenic played left despite the M’s love of platoons. … We pass along another story about Concern Level Orange, or something like that.

Seahawks: Is Jalen Clark the right guy for Seattle? Larry Stone doesn’t think so.

Sonics: Shawn Kemp has been charged with assault concerning a shooting in Tacoma that the former Sonic great says was self-defense.

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• It’s Saturday, right? Have anything special planned? That presupposes, however, that sitting around, recharging your batteries, isn’t something special. It certainly can be, depending on the way the workweek-just-ended went. Until later …