11/21/24
July 10, 2019
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Tonight is the Atlantic League's all star game and they are going to experiment with some new rules for the game:
- The home plate ump will have an airpod thingie in one ear, an iPhone in his pocket and will listen to automated system call a ball, strike, or "cannot track." I think the ump is allowed to overrule the system's call.
- The defense is not allowed to play a shift.
- A reliever will have to pitch to at least three batters (or see the inning out).
- The batter is allowed to steal first base. The batter may run to first base on a wild pitch/passed ball, no matter the current pitch count.
posted by NoMich at 05:36 PM on July 10, 2019
new rules for the game
Are you sure this is baseball? The idea of having a pitch tracker for balls and strikes is not too bad. My personal system is to listen to the groans from the dugouts, and I will figure out where I am based on loudness and number of repetitions.
Outlawing the shift is giving in to the bad baseball being played today. Teach your hitters to spray to the opposite field. Down and hard opposite the shift will make the base paths into a merry-go-round.
Making relievers face 3 batters, or finish an inning is not bad. It surely would speed up some games.
From the rules of baseball: "When does a batter become a batter-runner?" "1 When he strikes a fair batted ball. 2 With less than 2 out and 1st base not occupied, when a 3rd strike is recorded against him. Note: the batter-runner is out immediately if the pitch is caught by the catcher." I don't know if the rule of preventing an advance by the batter with 1st base occupied will extend to the idea of stealing 1st base, but I hope it will. The rule is there to protect the team at bat from being subjected to a cheap double play.
Please send your check for $25 to me as payment for the rules clinic.
posted by Howard_T at 06:34 PM on July 10, 2019
Here is video of today's parade for the US World Cup-winning team in NYC
posted by NoMich at 10:52 PM on July 10, 2019
Thanks for posting the video link. The amount of haters in the comments is an unfortunate sign of the times. It's like reading a news story on AOL. That's where all the unabombers with dial up internet hang out.
posted by beaverboard at 09:50 AM on July 11, 2019
"Never read the comments," is especially important for Youtube videos.
posted by NoMich at 10:32 AM on July 11, 2019
Very exciting finish to the NZ/India semifinal today. India was chasing NZ's kinda lowish run total late in the match when MS Dhoni put that weight on this shoulders. He started doing what MS Dhoni does so well with a bat, but then you'll never believe what happens next!