WEBVTT - Does Golf Need a Shot Clock? 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.800 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:04.920 I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:05.960 And when I find my. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.920 Ball in a brid egg Friday Egg, the dreadit Frida Egg, 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:11.800 Frida Egg, Frida egg bride. 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.080 Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off the golf course. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:38.000 Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Egg Podcast. 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:42.080 Today's episode is with Barry's for Luga from the Washington Post. 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:47.680 Barry writes about baseball a lot. He covers the Washington 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.360 Nationals as well as, uh, you know, just general baseball 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.280 topics for the Washington Post. He also covers golf for 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.400 the Washington Post, so he was at the Masters. He 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:01.640 goes to the major Championships. See Barry out on the 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:06.080 golf beat as well it you know, I've been wanting 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.520 to do this pod for a few weeks now. With 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.560 the new rules with Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:18.919 obviously has undergone a pretty substantial change in the rules 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.840 of the game for this year. The intentions of them 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:25.880 really were to modernize the game, speed up the game, 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.560 make the game more appealing to a younger audience, and 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.920 they've instituted things such as a pitch clock, bigger bases, 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.360 and really, you know, this is a seismic change for 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:43.480 a sport that has held long standing traditions history. You know, 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.440 it might sound familiar to another sport we talk about 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.920 a lot on this podcast. Golf. Obviously, pace of play 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:55.160 has come to a head in recent weeks. You know, 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.680 I think slightly unfairly, I think Patrick Cantley has become 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.080 the boy for this. There are a lot of slow golfers. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.360 Patrick Cantley obviously is in contentional lot. He's one of 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:08.720 the best players in the world. So it kind of 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.840 comes to light. But let's not act like there isn't 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:16.480 a hundred slow players on the PGA Tour. Patrick Cantley 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.880 is one of those. It does not excuse him, but 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.760 it also you know, I think one of the one 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.639 of the big issues in golf is that the governing 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.880 bodies of the sport, the PGA Tour, the USGA, the RNA, 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.680 don't do anything to really penalize slow play. We've had 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.320 two instances really in the last ten years of slow 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.680 play being penalized. One of them was said Decky Matsiama 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:43.360 in the Open Championship when he was eighteen years old 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:48.640 at Mierfield. So if it's not being monitored, what Patrick 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.960 Cantley is doing is using the rules to the best 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.000 of his advantage to play the best possible golf. Now, 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:59.440 the bigger question it shouldn't be let's crucify Patrick Cantlay 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:05.160 and Kim an example. It should be more discussing, Hey, 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.400 what are the rules of the game. What's important to 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.279 the game of golf is the ability to make decisions 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:16.960 under the gun and read putts quickly A big part 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.920 of golf, Like, is that an important part of the sport? 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.840 I think it is. Others might disagree, But if you 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.320 think about the product of golf, where it's going, what 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.000 you want golf to be in the next hundred years, 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.760 is pace of play important to the product of golf? 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.360 I don't think you could make an argument that says 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:41.800 it isn't you know these rounds where we were approaching 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.120 five hours with twusome's in golf on weekends. That's not 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.240 good for the sport. It makes it hard to televise 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.880 that there's all these other trickle down effects. So the 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.120 point of this conversation with Barry and I you know, 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.720 I think you know I don't like to say, I 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.080 think it turned out better than I anticipated. I was 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.880 hopeful that this would be a pod that really translated 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.560 and that Barry would kind of understand where I was 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.720 going with it, and he really did and provided a 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.240 lot of expertise on what baseball and is doing and 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:18.080 how it relates back to golf. You know, I think 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.080 that this is the type of things that the sport 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.919 of golf needs to be looking at. It is a 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:26.640 bit unique with the way it's structured, but if you 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:32.960 look at every major league sport, whether it's baseball, hockey, football, basketball, 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:38.480 they are constantly testing and looking at ways that they 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:43.159 can improve their game, improve their product on television because 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.919 they understand in order to stay relevant, in order to 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:52.719 stay popular across generations, you need to make modifications evolutions 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:57.200 to the game that appeal to the next generation. Baseball 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.240 has done this. One of the things that they looked 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.800 at was case of their games, and they have done 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.200 it masterfully with this pitchclock. They're a month into it 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:11.880 and really it's been phenomenal for the sport. So, without 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.320 further ado, we are going to get into this topic. 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.920 But you know, I think these are there are a 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.080 lot of things in here. A lot of things in 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:23.080 other sports that they are doing that golf really should 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.559 look at in terms of modernizing the game and making 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:32.440 the professional game more appealing to a wider range of people. 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.520 All Right, Barry, thanks for coming on. This is gonna 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.400 be a little bit different podcast than than our normal topic. 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.000 We're gonna talk. We're gonna talk a lot about baseball. 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.839 But I promise everybody there's going to be a tie 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:54.560 back to golf here that there's a method to the madness. Barry, 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:59.240 you cover both baseball and golf. I'm curious, just off 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.680 the off the time up, you know, what, what's your 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:05.160 favorite aspect about covering each sport? Like is there something 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:07.880 that you you know when you're at the Masters that 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.680 you said sin that you're like, I love covering golf, 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.800 and and when when baseball season kicks up, like, what 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:15.159 are you most excited about? 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.280 You know? I mean there's an old saying about sports 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.560 writing that the the smaller the ball, the better the writing, 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.680 And so the two smallest balls are baseball and golf. 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:30.320 I don't know if that's literally true, but there's certainly 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.400 if you go through the litany of legendary sports writers 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.360 like there's the Herbert Warren Wins and the you know, 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.480 Peter Gammons, and they're they're kind of are baseball and 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:46.279 golf writers. You don't think as much of the you know, 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.560 literary flair around football necessarily, So I mean from a 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.760 from a professional like aspiring to write well person, those 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.400 two sports, for whatever reason, lend themselves to good storylines 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:03.160 and good storytelling, and I do like them both, and 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.479 i'd like I think I like them both differently. I 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.600 love the flow of a golf tournament of a major 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:11.680 week and you know kind of what to expect on 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:16.360 Tuesdays and all the anticipation and and getting into the 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.360 actual competition, and then you know, yesterday, for instance, I 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:25.480 went up to Camding Yards and it's a sunny Wednesday 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.920 afternoon for a one pm start between the Red Sox 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.440 and the Orioles, and it feels like the whole summer 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.200 is stretched out before you you see a nice, clean 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.400 baseball game. I love them both kind of, I would 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:44.080 say similarly and and differently. There's a different flow, but 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:49.080 they also involve a lot of super insightful characters and storytellers, 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:50.480 So I love them both. 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:56.200 I imagine baseball like the dog days of you know 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:00.480 the famous baseball the dog days like of August? Is 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.960 that really like the dog days of being a sports 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.000 writer and being at like game one hundred and twenty 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.480 or whatever it is on the calendar, and just you know, 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:11.920 if your team's not if you if you've got a 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.880 bad team you're covering, it's gotta be just just an 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.040 absolute drive to write every day. 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.760 For sure, for sure. And that's you know, back when 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.040 I was the beat writer, I covered the Washington Nationals 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.840 for their first three and a half seasons, you know, 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.680 of their existence. Like, yeah, you'd get to you know, 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.920 you're on a one hundred lost pace and you get 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.839 to August and you know it's the eighth day of 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:41.400 an eleven day road trip, and it's not it's not easy. 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.840 I used to try to, you know, walking into the park, 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:50.960 say Okay, what's important and what's interesting about this team 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.400 on this day and try to gear myself up for 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.880 you know, not making it game one twenty out of 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.800 one sixty two kind of a silo, but making it 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:05.839 a chapter that tells that one hundred and sixty two 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:09.520 game game story. And when you find those those threads 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.880 that hold the season together. It makes it more interesting. 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:15.000 But you do I'm not going to say in those 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.480 days for the Beat writers that it's not a slog. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.880 It can you can love the game and it can 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.960 be a slog in late August when you can't quite 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.840 see the finish line yet, you know there's there's still 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.319 quite a bit to go for a season that might 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:32.680 be going nowhere. 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.839 That that's good advice. That's that's great advice. I might 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.160 take it to heart this week with the Mexico Open 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.120 with one one player in the top ten, me wondering 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.600 what are we doing having this event right? You know, 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.200 it's just a chapter. It's a chapter in the season 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.760 long book. You know we need we need William mcgert 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.720 in the field for that for that chapter. It makes 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.559 it more interesting. So to get into what I wanted 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:01.840 to talk about here today, you know, baseball has gone 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:06.679 through some I think, I think pretty major rules changes 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.079 for the year. There are a few changes they aren't 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.280 you know that obviously everybody's talking about the pitch clock. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.000 So the pitch clock is is the big change. There's 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.360 now a timer that between pitches players, you know, the 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.439 X amount of times the pitcher can throw the ball. 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.160 And anytime the batter's got to be ready in that 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:30.000 time frame. Obviously that that was untimed before it could 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.720 be however long you really wanted to throw a pitch. 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.640 You have bigger bases, and the shift has been eliminated. 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.000 So I got those are the three big ones, right. 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.560 What I'd love to hear about a little bit is like, 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:51.760 from your view, what were the prevalent trends in the 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.360 game before these changes, and you know kind of where 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:57.720 what was like if you could zoom out a little, 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.680 what was what was happening to baseball the last five 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:01.480 to ten years. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:06.680 So in addition to games getting longer, just in terms 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.920 of enduring what last year was a three hour and 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:14.640 four minute game, there's been a real imbalance in baseball 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:21.680 over the last decade. Teams have fetishized velocity from pitchers 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:27.720 and really sought to develop it over all other qualities. 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.200 And that's really led to a few things. What was 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:33.000 you know, when we were growing up, what were the 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.400 big narratives about a baseball game? Who's pitching that night? 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:41.840 That was kind of defined what the matchup was going 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:43.440 to be. Was it going to be two aces against 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.160 each other? Was a lopsided matchup, and the job of 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.640 those pitchers in the seventies and the eighties was to 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.640 finish the game and shake the catcher's hand at the end. 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.680 And what the job of the starting pitcher has become 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.319 is to throw as hard as you can for as 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.080 long as you can, and we'll come get you in 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.199 the fourth, fifth, maybe sixth inning, and we're going to 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.839 hand the ball over to a series of dudes that 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.360 throw ninety eight and have ridiculous sliders, and they're going 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:18.600 to go all out. And the only way the offense 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:23.840 could counter was to swing. You know, there were no 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.839 controlled swings. We're swinging up, we're swinging for launch angle, 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.640 we're swinging to hit the ball out of the park. 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.960 So what happened was you had strikeouts going up every 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.720 year since two thousand and five, new record every single year. 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:43.240 But also homer is starting to go up and no action. 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.160 Like I always say, like, what's more interesting in baseball? 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:49.800 A solo home run where you watch the ball go 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.680 out and the guy jogs around or somebody you know, 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.360 a run around first and a ball into the right 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:56.640 field corner and now you have to look at the 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:58.920 right fielder and the cutoff man, and then the third 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.360 base coach, and is the runner is. You know, there's 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.280 five or six things that are going on over a 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:08.120 longer speriod period of time in that play where the 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:12.040 home run is is is boring. So that's a long 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.400 witted way of saying that all of those things had 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.960 the game out of whack, and then it was taking longer, 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.640 too long, and those you know, four hour postseason games 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.240 that no ten year old kid on the East Coast 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:26.920 could see the end of, you know, really threatening to 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.720 kill the game. So change was needed. Change was necessary. 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.680 They made some really fundamental changes and it's already having 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:34.520 a big impact. 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.440 Yeah. I think people would push back obviously immediately on 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.080 the homer being less interesting, But when when you think 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.280 about it, like, what makes a homer special is when 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:51.000 they're scarce, when you know they aren't the prevalent way 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:56.120 people score runs, right, Like, it's I think it's really similar. 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.680 And I don't want to get too into the comparisons 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.560 to golf, but with a long drive, right, everybody says like, oh, 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.480 they're super long drives, but if everybody hits the long drive, 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.800 what is a long drive? Right? I remember growing up 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.880 obviously I grew up in a Bridge era in the 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.920 ninety I mean, I remember early nineties baseball, and then 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:19.960 I was a Cubs. I grew up a Cubs fan, 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:24.400 so I had the Sammy Sosid Mark McGuire steroid fest. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.680 I think that's okay to say on a golf podcast 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.280 where everybody's launching homers, but it was still like, you know, 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.480 you saw like the metamorphos of you talked about the 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.400 Orioles games of a Brady Anderson going from a nine 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:39.280 home run guy. 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:40.480 To fifty home run. 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.960 Yeah, when all of a sudden everybody's hitting thirty to 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:50.240 fifty homers. It's not of a crazy phenomenon. It's almost 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:54.640 like a diminishing return, right is the home run when 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.200 there's a couple, you know, when there might be one 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:01.000 a game. It's really an amazing spectacle that home run. 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:08.120 But the idea of manufacturing runs and the tension that 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:11.920 comes with having to really work for runs, I think 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.760 is I think that's what people fall in love with 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.160 every playoff. In the playoffs, where I feel like runs 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.800 become a little bit more scarce than in the regular season. 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:22.920 I don't know if that's this is just somebody that 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.440 usually watches baseball, but runs get a little bit more scarce. 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.080 And that's kind of what the lure of baseball is 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:35.320 is when you have to, you know, generate the runs 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.840 rather than just, you know, they just appear. 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.200 Yeah, And I mean, I'll just use that game that 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.000 I went to yesterday, the Oriols one sixty two of 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:44.840 the Red Sox. The Red Sox had one of the 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:50.880 runs on a solo homer, but the Orioles they had 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.920 two sacrifice bunts to move guys just from first and 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.320 second to second and third. They I'm not going to 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.200 argue that the sacrifice fly is a particularly interesting play, 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.600 but at least if there's gonna be a play at 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.000 the plate, like, there's some tension there. The guy's setting up, 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.840 you've got places to turn your head and different. You know, 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.080 again the third base coach is he gonna send him? 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.840 What's the timing here? So the Oriols win a game 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.960 six to two in which you know, they had twelve hits, 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:21.960 that's action each one of those hits is you know, 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.760 I think there's more tension. And I don't want to 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:27.880 sound like some sort of home run fascist, but like 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:33.880 there's more tension in a single to write with a 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.720 guy on first and you're evaluating, Okay, is this guy 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:39.280 gonna go for thirty? Is there going to be a 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.400 play at third? There's just there's more action, and then 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.960 you take what we're really here to talk about is 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:51.440 the pitch clock, meaning that the next play comes more quickly. 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.840 There's just more reason to be engaged all the time. 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.920 You don't lose track of how many outs are there, 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.960 how you know what's the count. You're you're more locked 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:04.879 in because you have to be here. You're gonna miss stuff. 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:05.720 You know. 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.560 A great way to synthesize this would be if, as 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:11.920 you were talking about that, I was thinking about going 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.280 back to my youth when I try what I keep score, 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:18.680 you know, manually keep score, and how simple solo home 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.639 runs are versus when you have a guy on first, 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.959 you have sacrifice, like all the little intricacies of of 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.200 keeping that perfect scorecard. You know, you know when that happens, 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.960 and you know that it's it's funny because like you 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.160 think about like a guy going to third, like you 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:40.399 signifying all that while you're keeping score, would be like 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.600 a perfect way to visualize what you're talking about, like 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:45.160 the interest in the game so. 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.199 I'm gonna grab from my trash, uh the score my 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:49.280 scorecard from yesterday. 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.680 Okay, wait, this might be the video video cutout right. 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.480 Yeah, so but anyway, you're you're totally right, Like you 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.280 probably can't see this, but that's this is the orial 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:01.920 side of the board and all this stuff where the 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.199 runs are scored and there's a sack here and I 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.320 keep track of which which hit place in the lineup 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.720 moves the guys over, and how did you know? That? 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.800 To me tells a more interesting story then then if 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.880 we go to the Red Sox, like here's the solo homers, Like, okay, yeah, 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.720 let us let off the inning with the solo homer, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.400 it's just like a block. Like we may be getting 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.640 too deep in the in the weeds. But I'm sure 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.000 there are nerds who listen to this podcast and and 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.439 there's nothing nerdier than than doing that and believing that 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.440 it it tells a story about the game. 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:34.880 Well, I think that you could say the same thing 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.639 with with golf, right it's you know, when you have 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.760 to hit more shots, that's just like what we're talking 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.359 about here. And I didn't mean to get into the 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.320 comparisons directly, but like you know, when when players are 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.439 forced to hit more shots, just like there, when there 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:55.479 are more possible outcomes in in baseball, you could bunt, 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.080 you could try and hit and run, you could try 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.480 and you know you want to hit to the left 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:04.960 side of the enfield, you know, or the right side 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.080 of the enfield to move the right side of the enfield, 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.000 move a guy from second to third, Like you know, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:13.840 when you have these these more varied outcomes in golf, 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.800 it's okay should I lay up on a par five, 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.640 like what we saw with the changes that Augusta National 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:25.040 has made, for example, where it's not a foregone conclusion 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.120 if I hit the fairway that I am going for 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:29.639 the green in two, like the idea that there was 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.320 even a thought in players heads, even though they all 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.240 ended up going for it again, but like even though 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.760 there was a thought, there was discourse before the week. 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.199 It made it more interesting because all of a sudden, 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.359 when they're they hit the fairway, there's the tension of 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.479 the walk to the ball. Are they going to go 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:47.320 for it? Yeah? 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.280 And I think I was absolutely thinking about the team 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.600 move back at thirteen and Augusta when you were talking 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.440 about that, because like it wasn't even just that there 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.399 wasn't a thought that they were going to go for 0:19:57.480 --> 0:19:58.960 it before. It was like they were going to go 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:00.960 for it with an aid iron, right, Like it's just 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:03.720 it's pitch and putt to some Now is there an 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.840 excitement and somebody rolling in an eagle putt at number 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.240 thirteen on August on a Sunday. Yeah, absolutely, I'm not 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:13.240 going to deny that. But like it matters that they're 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.439 standing over you know, in some cases a fore iron 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.119 over that creek and into you know, a green that 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.560 suddenly is not as receptive because the launch, you know, 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:27.080 the angle it's coming in is different. Like you want variety, 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.560 and if you put the home run with the long 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.159 drive and the long drive leading to just you know, 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.320 having a wedge in and spinning it back, that's not 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.800 as interesting as I think for nerds around the sport. 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.959 And I would equate this with baseball too, like all 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:47.639 the stuff that I was talking about earlier, the stuff 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.159 that's actually action that's not involved in a home run. 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.879 It's very very similar to Okay, I just hit a 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:54.800 three hundred and thirty four yard drive and now I 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.679 have a wedge in and that's an easy birdy. 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.479 And I think the thing about it is just like 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:04.440 homer's right, Homers, like what we're talking about, homers are 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:08.199 are more interesting when they're a little bit more of 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.320 a feat. Right. An eagle on a par five is 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:17.280 way way more compelling, way more exciting when it is 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.000 more of a feat. When there's less eagles of like 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.720 scored on a hole, that eagle is more exciting and interesting, 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.080 just the same same way a birdie on a on 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.320 a tough part part four, par three is is more 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.280 interesting than a you know, a birdie on a par 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:37.520 three that's giving them away like you know, free candy. Right, 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:42.160 those birdies, those become more significant, more relevant. So back 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:47.080 to the baseball stuff, you know, before these changes were made, 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.639 what were the complaints that kind of were bubbling within 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.680 within the game before anything was done. 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.760 So I think, you know, if you go to the 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.360 velocity and the imbalance between the pitcher and the hitter, 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.520 that that people couldn't really identify that necessarily. But the 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:08.480 root of all evil here was velocity. But that built 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:11.480 a longer game, and worse than the length of the 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.280 game was the amount of inaction in the middle of 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.439 the game when a pitcher could take as much time 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:22.760 as he wanted to take deep breaths to walk off 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:24.400 the back of the mound to get the rosen ban 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:32.159 bag and dry his hand. He's gathering strength again to 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.119 throw another ninety nine mile an hour fastball to a 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:37.199 hitter who might say, you know what, Actually, I'm not 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:39.719 feeling it right now. I'm going to step out. So 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:42.800 what they've done with this pitch clock, which is fifteen 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:48.480 seconds between pitches on a normal scenario, is the brilliant 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:52.760 part about it is they have eliminated nothing that you 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:55.920 wanted to see in the first place. They have only 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:01.760 cut fat from the game. And it's visceral. You can 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.560 feel it when you're watching a game on TV or 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:07.800 you're at a game. The ball is going back to 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:09.840 the pitcher and he is reporting to the rubber and 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.280 he's getting himself set and the hitter has to be 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:15.480 in there at seven seconds on the clock or it's 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:19.320 a violation against him. And they're doing it again and 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:21.399