MLB umpire discusses how pitch clock led to ‘pigeon delay’

Vp of the MLB Umpires Affiliation Dan Bellino talked with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic lately in regards to the myriad of guidelines modifications to return to America’s Pastime.

The dialog primarily centered on the pitch clock and Bellino mentioned with the emphasis on dashing up the sport, there have been distinctive circumstances which have been out of anybody’s management the place the timer has needed to cease.

“Each day you type of see one thing new. (On Tuesday), we had a pigeon on the sphere in Colorado. The safety man got here out. He introduced out a towel and he grabbed the pigeon. I needed to sign to kill the clock. And it’s like, how can we classify it?” the 44-year-old said. “Any time we kill the clock, we’re supposed to provide some kind of clarification (to the league). Not that we’re being scrutinized on it, however we wish to be sure that there’s consistency among the many 19 umpire crews. So it was like, what do I name this, a pigeon delay? No person is being charged with a timeout. No person is getting a violation. Safety needed to seize a towel and seize a pigeon.”

Bellino — who’s remembered for being on the middle of final yr’s controversial “hand massage” ejection of Madison Bumgarner — additionally famous that there was “much less interplay” on the plate with the batter, catcher and umpire, because of the clock.

“The catchers and batters don’t actually have time to have interaction in dialog. That’s the most important change I didn’t anticipate to see,” Bellino mentioned.

The Fifteenth-year professional has labored seven video games on the sphere this season, in keeping with Rosenthal’s report, two of which have come behind the plate. He additionally spent per week “reviewing calls on the replay middle in New York, one thing umpires do as a part of their regular rotations.”
Apart from the pigeon incident, Bellino mentioned there have been different occurrences the place umpires have used widespread sense to pause the sport. He famous that “the opposite day” a baserunner slid into first base on a pickoff try and their belt broke.

“He will get up and he turns to me and says, ‘Can I’ve time for my belt?’ I’m like, ‘What’s fallacious together with your belt?’ He reveals me. I mentioned, ‘Sure. Time. You possibly can have time for that,'” Bellino mentioned.

It looks like the managers, gamers and umpires are all nonetheless adjusting to the varied rule modifications, however they’re studying collectively and issues have gone easily to this point.