Time Travel — Baseball Bench Coach

In the 1989 movie, “Back to the Future Part II”, the vision of the future included a Chicago 2015 World Series sweep of the Miami “Gators” and the end of the Cubbies’ 107-year drought. Although the Cubs world championship winless streak was actually broken in 2016 after 108 years, many joke that was only because the writers of the film failed to foresee the 1994 baseball strike! Time is a great measuring stick in baseball, maybe not in the actual games where innings preside, but in so many other respects. We love to book back to historical numbers and compare player and team statistics, but also enjoy looking ahead and predicting pennant winners, player signings, and managerial hirings. So with Marty McFly and the 2019 World Series in our immediate rear view mirror, let’s do our own travel back and forth through time.

This past week itself was truly historical. With the Nationals winning it all we witnessed something never seen before in professional sports, a 7-game series where not one game was won by the home team. The hometown fans in D.C. were willing to forego a win at Nationals Park when it meant they could see their Nats become the first Washington team to win a World Series since 1924, certainly a welcomed end of a long drought in its own right. The Nationals’ playoff run was most remarkable for its never say die comebacks, as the Nats won all five games when elimination was staring at them. It was another sign in 2019 that unlikely teams can endure long seasons and become champions, the NBA’s Raptors and NHL’s Blues also demonstrating just that. The Nats turnaround season (playing .667 ball after a 19-31 start) has now even become a rallying cry in NFL locker rooms, exemplified by the Bears head coach Matt Nagy starting practice this past Thursday with a presentation on the Nationals’ comeback championship!

The 2019 playoffs was full of clutch performances. There was none better than hitting star Anthony Rendon of the Nats. In the seventh inning or later in the five elimination games Washington faced, Rendon was 6 for 7, with 3 HRs, 3 doubles, and 6 RBIs. What stood out to me though in the World Series was the masterful starting pitching. Stephen Strasburg received the MVP Award for his overpowering performances in Games 2 and 6. In the playoffs Strasburg’s record was 5-0, the best mark in MLB history. We also witnessed some gutsy performances from Max Scherzer of the Nats. Scherzer’s contribution might have been greater off the mound with his inspiring leadership, such as coming back to pitch after suffering severe neck and back spasms. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more emotion from a player in the post-Series celebration than Max embracing his teammates. On the Astros side, Zach Greinke’s Game 7 outing made the disbelievers believe, and probably the best single game start was Gerrit Cole’s 3-hitter in Game 5. Cole’s win put his Astros in position to win it all, yet he looked hopelessly on from the bullpen in Game 7 when his number wasn’t called.

Looking ahead to the off-season, the standout playoff performances of Rendon, Strasburg, and Cole will certainly bode well for their bank accounts. Strasburg announced on Saturday that he is opting out of the remaining $100 million and four years on his current contract to join Rendon and Cole in the free agent market. It would behoove baseball owners to be a little more like the NBA and the NFL in signing free agents expeditiously and build off of the 2019 playoff excitement. The baseball free agent market can’t afford another lackluster one like year, when the signings of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper went into March. I think there will be more urgency this year, given that baseball’s high profile teams (Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Cubs) have strong needs for these elite players. The 2019 playoffs was certainly evidence of the baseball adage “good pitching beats good hitting”, so who wouldn’t want to have an ace like Strasburg or Cole headlining your pitching staff?!

Most of the managerial openings have now been filled, and it’s been an interesting mix of hiring old school managers with a win now approach vs. building for the future with a new age manager adept at analytics. With the hiring of Joe Girardi by the Phillies and Joe Maddon by the Angels, both teams seem to want to come out of the box swinging next season for a championship. Coupling experienced managers with baseball’s superstars (Harper and Trout), and opening the pocketbooks even more for a top free agent starting pitcher, might make the Phillies and Angels teams to watch. The Padres hiring of 38-year old Jayce Tingler, a little known coach for the Rangers, is on the other end of the spectrum. Tingler has no managerial experience but comes to San Diego with a keen eye for player development and a strong grasp of analytics. The selection reminds me of the Reds hiring of another unknown 38-year old in 1970, San Diego third base coach Sparky Anderson; the Padres certainly wish they are on the receiving end of success this time! Somewhere in the middle is the Cubs signing of David Ross who Chicago hopes will bring a fresh approach to a team looking for a way to return to the playoffs next year.

While “MLB The Show 20” has announced its play station cover Javier Baez of the Cubs, it’s also good to take an early look at which teams might be the cover boys on the ‘20 playing field. Are the windows closing a little on the Astros and Dodgers? The Astros are coming off three consecutive 100 + win regular seasons, while the Dodgers rule of the West included the top win mark of the NL during that time as well. The Astros will most probably see their ace Gerrit Cole in another uniform next season. And assuming they reach the AL playoffs in 2020, they certainly can’t be confident about Justin Verlander leading the staff given his now 0-6 record in World Series games. Houston, we might have a problem next year! Interestingly, the Dodgers continue to have that same nagging concern with their ace, Clayton Kershaw, who just can’t seem to get over his playoff performance woes. Will another team like the Nationals break through in 2020? I’ll save that one for a Baseball Bench Coach edition early next season.

So what will the game of baseball look like five, or maybe twenty-five, years from now? Average attendance at ballparks was down again this year to 28,198 fans, the lowest attendance rate since 2003. Despite the seven-game World Series, television viewership also lagged. We have to do something about the pace of play. This year the average time of a nine-inning game was 3 hours, 5 minutes, which tied the record set just two years ago. As a benchmark, the average game time in 2005 was 2 hours, 46 minutes. The World Series games drag along even more. Yes, the between inning commercial breaks are extended during the Series, but here are the facts over the last three years: the 2017 Series games averaged 3:16; in 2018 it was 3:30; and this year six of the games played ranked in the top 13 longest of all time. In fact, the Astros 4-1 victory in Game 3 took 4 hours, 3 minutes! Baseball fans just don’t have the patience anymore to stay engaged, especially since the games are being played late into the evening. Maybe we go back in time and play a couple World Series games during weekend afternoons as a start.

This summer the Atlantic League did some testing of pace of game measures for MLB, the most controversial of which was introducing technology for calling balls and strikes. While “TrackMan” had some mixed reaction early in the season, it seemed to gain favor as the season wore on. Indeed, some of baseball’s top prospects have played in the Arizona Fall League this past month with TrackMan in place and even more success. Will we see robotic umpires in baseball’s future? Games 3 and 5 of the 2019 World Series had their fair share of strike zone disputes by players and managers alike. And the unfairness of the calls as seen through the eyes of the average fan is certainly exacerbated by the Fox TV strike zone box that does not adjust to the size of batters and where the ball actually crosses the plate. Of course, the dispute in Game 6 of the Series over the controversial runner interference call is not one to be addressed by technology, but really by common sense. I’ve never been sure why we label umpire calls as “reviewable” or “non reviewable”. Maybe in the future we will have in place a review system that has as its main purpose the ability to correct wrong calls.

Baseball is about tradition, and sadly, perhaps that’s what is dragging it down nowadays. I’ve been a long-time advocate of playing the game the “right way”, yet who am I to say what future generations will love about the game. My “right way” mindset took a hit in Game 6 of the World Series. I couldn’t believe that Alex Bregman carried his bat all the way to first base after his early home run, and then watched with even more amazement when Juan Soto did the same with his tie-breaking homer later in the game. What struck me was the reaction of the players during the post-game interviews. Bregman was remorseful, stressing that was not how he was taught to play the game. Rising 21-year old star Soto laughed about it, saying that he thought it was “cool” what Bregman did and wanted to do it himself. Maybe we need a little more “cool” in our game.

Next year’s baseball schedule provides a little bit of old and new. The Yankees will play the White Sox at the Field of Dreams in Iowa, while the Cubs and Cardinals take their rivalry to London. The game needs continuing support from those who love the game rooted in their past, and newfound, broader support from others who might see it in their future. A lot more MLB players, minor leaguers, college athletes, high school players, Little Leaguers, and FANS need to think this time-tested game is cool again.

Until next Season,

your Baseball Bench Coach