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Biscuits top Lookouts with four in ninth
The Chattanooga Lookouts are officially on the clock.
Chattanooga opened its 140-game Southern League schedule Thursday night in Montgomery, but this is more than just a new beginning for the Lookouts in their first season as Class AA affiliates of the Minnesota Twins. For the first time in the sport's seemingly timeless history, digital timers are being used in an effort to speed up the game.
"They've always said there is no clock in baseball, but I guess there is now," Lookouts pitching coach Stu Cliburn, a reliever for the California Angels during the 1980s, said this week. "We'll get used to seeing these clocks. We never used to have the radar guns, either, so it's something else that's going to be part of the game now.
"We'll deal with it and move forward with it."
Timing devices have been in the process of being installed this week at Chattanooga's AT&T Field, and Lookouts general manager Rich Mozingo said Thursday that they should be functioning by Wednesday's home opener against Birmingham. They were not ready Thursday night in Montgomery, so umpires were scheduled to keep track of the time.
Major League Baseball announced in January that games this season at the Triple-A and Double-A levels would be accompanied by pitch clocks. The average length of a nine-inning game in the majors last season was a record three hours and eight minutes, which was 45 minutes longer than the average game in 1950.
The Lookouts led all of Double-A baseball last summer with an average length of three hours and two minutes for nine-inning home games.
"I feel like it's something that's going to help the game out," Lookouts starting pitcher Greg Peavey said. "Fans want to see the game go faster, and I feel like in the long run that it's not going to have a huge impact as far as the pitchers and what we're trying to do out there."
According to Minor League Baseball's website, a 20-second timer will start once the pitcher has the ball in the dirt surrounding the rubber and the batter is in the dirt surrounding home plate. It will stop when the pitcher begins his windup or, if pitching from the stretch, when he begins the motion to come to the set position.
Should the clock run out before the pitcher does so, the batter will be awarded a ball in the count. Should a batter step completely out of the box or not be in position when the timer expires, a strike will be assessed.
April will serve as a grace period, during which a violation will result in a warning.
"It's an adjustment both pitchers and hitters will have to get used to," Peavey said. "Hitters have a routine and may want to step out of the box, but now they know they can't. Some guys want to work around the mound both mentally and physically, but now they have to speed up. Twenty seconds gives us plenty of time.
"It's something we've all got to adjust to. The game is evolving, and we're evolving."
During the last few games in spring training, Cliburn had clocks on the pitchers and said there were no problems. He does not expect it to be an issue, but Peavey said it could be interesting for some pitchers to actually see a ticking clock throughout the game.
Baseball has long been a game devoid of any time constraints, but that's no longer the case in the two highest levels in the minors.
"It's not really baseball, because you think more about football and basketball in terms of clocks being involved," Lookouts reliever Nick Burdi said. "I understand why they're doing it, and 20 seconds is a hefty amount of time. I played football, so I'm a little used to time running down and working against the clock.
"It's going to be different, but we'll get used to it."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.