10/8/25 Mariners @ Tigers 3:08 PM ALDS Game 4

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, oblong said:

It does speed the game up because they also have the pitch clock.  But I’m on record for not liking the game sped up. I want more baseball.  Not less. Baseball is leisure and pastoral. For lazy summer nights where the sun sets at 10 pm. Now it’s a mad rush to the next thing. Hurry up. Let’s go. I leave the park in the summer before sundown.  That’s not a night out. That’s a trip to Lowe’s.  

I think they had to do pitchcom though because it's just gotten to where there were too many camera's looking at the catcher and so much real-time communication available that teams felt they had to go to such complex signing that it was breaking down too much.

[Screwball]

2 minutes ago, oblong said:

It does speed the game up because they also have the pitch clock.  But I’m on record for not liking the game sped up. I want more baseball.  Not less. Baseball is leisure and pastoral. For lazy summer nights where the sun sets at 10 pm. Now it’s a mad rush to the next thing. Hurry up. Let’s go. I leave the park in the summer before sundown.  That’s not a night out. That’s a trip to Lowe’s.  

And the stuff they are eliminating (like signs) are part of the game, and should be, as it has been since when baseball was what it once was. Same thing with the electronic strike zone. The way the ump is calling the game is part of the game, and can be taken advantage of. As a pitcher, you know what you are getting that day, and what you aren't. Same with the hitter. 

It is, and should be, a very cerebral game.

But I must admit, I don't really have a huge issue with the pitch count. I do remember the guy who played for the Indians who they called the human rain delay. 

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, Screwball said:

But I must admit, I don't really have a huge issue with the pitch count. I do remember the guy who played for the Indians who they called the human rain delay. 

Mike Hargrove

[Screwball]

3 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Mike Hargrove

Yep.

True story, but it dates me. I live in the middle of Indian country. About 2 hours from the stadium. We had baseball connections and could get the best seats ever. Of course this was the old cavernous stadium. In those days we would buy a dozen or so seats for all that wanted to go, right behind the dugout less then 10 rows up, and one was for a keg size cooler full of beer. That is not BS. You could do that back then.

[Tiger337]

11 minutes ago, Screwball said:

And the stuff they are eliminating (like signs) are part of the game, and should be, as it has been since when baseball was what it once was. Same thing with the electronic strike zone. The way the ump is calling the game is part of the game, and can be taken advantage of. As a pitcher, you know what you are getting that day, and what you aren't. Same with the hitter. 

It is, and should be, a very cerebral game.

But I must admit, I don't really have a huge issue with the pitch count. I do remember the guy who played for the Indians who they called the human rain delay. 

I don't like a lot of the things they have done to the game, but I do like the pitch clock.  I don't care how long the game is, but I want the pace to be reasonable.  The guy you are talking about is Mike Hargrove, but it got to the point where every player was acting like him today and it was slowing down the game with stuff I don't want to see  The pitch clock eliminates those excessive and unnecessary delays which I think is a positive.  

[Screwball]

13 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I don't like a lot of the things they have done to the game, but I do like the pitch clock.  I don't care how long the game is, but I want the pace to be reasonable.  The guy you are talking about is Mike Hargrove, but it got to the point where every player was acting like him today and it was slowing down the game with stuff I don't want to see  The pitch clock eliminates those excessive and unnecessary delays which I think is a positive.  

To be fair, some of the pitchers dicked around too much as well. We are here to play baseball, let's get at it.

Edited October 10 by Screwball

[gehringer_2]

17 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I don't like a lot of the things they have done to the game, but I do like the pitch clock.  I don't care how long the game is, but I want the pace to be reasonable.  The guy you are talking about is Mike Hargrove, but it got to the point where every player was acting like him today and it was slowing down the game with stuff I don't want to see  The pitch clock eliminates those excessive and unnecessary delays which I think is a positive.  

Yup. I think it's a little ironic that because it's called a pitch clock there is this implication that it was the pitchers that were slowing down the game, and OK, there were a *few* who would work unbearably slow, but 90% of the slowdown was the batters. Most pitchers want to work relatively fast. It's not the 15 seconds for the pitcher that has changed the game but the batter back in the box timer.

I'm good with it, but still think it would have been more appropriate to call it the "bat timer". 

Edited October 10 by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

15 minutes ago, Screwball said:

To be fair, some of the pitchers dicked around too much as well. We are here to play baseball, let's get at it.

No doubt.  I think it was more batters than pitchers, but there were definitely some slow pitchers too.  

[gehringer_2]

Just now, Tiger337 said:

No doubt.  I think it was more batters than pitchers, but there were definitely some slow pitchers too.  

and the Tigers had one of the worst for a while.  Benoit, Just hated to see him come into a game.

[oblong]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

and the Tigers had one of the worst for a while.  Benoit, Just hated to see him come into a game.

Then he’d walk the guy.  Which made it a lot worse. All that just to throw it high and outside?   Even his windup was slow. 
 

 

[Screwball]

Benoit! I forgot about him. He drove me nuts.

[RedRamage]

15 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

As for hacking, that's a lot harder to do if you can't be there listening when the pairing takes place, so if the units come pre-paired they could be pretty secure - but I have no idea how hardened they actually are.

Just like anything, it wouldn't be impossible to hack given you throw enough money and talent at the problem, but I suspect it would be quite difficult. Then you also have to hope that your efforts don't get discovered. And honestly if you're going to hire someone who unethical enough to take lots of money to do this, that same person may see that he could earn a extra chunk of money selling you out to MLB or media. 

Plus hacking the pitchcom is only half the battle. Next you have to find a way to reliably, secretly, get that pitch data to the player. This could be done with a sound or a light, but I don't think it would take too long for someone to start catching on to this. And you have the danger of your own teammates. This was how the Astro's sign steal scandal broke. Your pitchers might be loyal to the team and not talk about it, but once a pitcher moves to a new team, you think he's going to remain loyal to the old squad? You think he's going to want to face his old squad knowing that they hacked ptichcom and his pitches are going to be known?

So, in short: Yes, it probably can be hacked, but the cost and effort would be high, and the risk of getting caught would also be very high.*

(*Now the players may not care... I mean look at how none of the players in in Houston Scandal got even a slap on the wrist. They might go along with it for temporary glory. Honestly, not even the front office or manager suffered extensively.)