An afternoon at the ballpark

Today is Opening Day of the 2023 baseball season. Earlier this week, I got a head start by attending an afternoon exhibition game between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in D.C.

What I’ll remember most about this meaningless contest was seeing what a good guy Yankee slugger Aaron Judge is. When I arrived at the park about 45 minutes before the game, Yankee fans were clustered along the rail near my seat down the leftfield line. One Yankee, I couldn’t tell who, was signing autographs.

After he finished, the fans remained but no Yankee replaced him for about half an hour, despite their entreaties.

Then, upon finishing his pre-game stretching, Aaron Judge jogged over. He signed for about ten minutes, moving from cluster to cluster and stopping only when the color guard entered the field before the playing of the National Anthem.

Last year, Judge broke the record for home runs by an American Leaguer. Yankee legend Roger Maris had held that record since 1961 — the year he so famously outdueled an even bigger Yankee legend, Mickey Mantle, for the home run crown.

I hope I’m not being unfair to either legend, but I can’t imagine Maris or The Mick signing autographs the way Judge did.

Then, during the game when Judge caught the third out of the second inning, he flipped the ball to his fellow outfielder, young Oswaldo Cabrera. Why? So Cabrera could toss the ball to fans near the Yankee dugout and earn some good will. That’s leadership worthy of a captain.

The game also gave me the opportunity to observe rookie Yankee shortstop, Anthony Volpe, the talk of New York. I had seen him play at two minor league levels — A+ and AA — and was impressed both times.

But not as impressed as I was on Tuesday. Volpe made two stunning plays in the field and contributed a hit in two trips to the plate. The 21 year-old’s OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging average) for the spring is 1.033. Anything over .800 is quite good, especially for a middle infielder.

Volpe seems to have leadership skills, too. When an umpire came to the mound to inspect the Yankee pitcher (or something), Volpe quickly ran over to find out what was up. Only later did any of teammates or coaches join in.

I was also interested in seeing baseball’s new rules applied in the big league setting. The most important change is the imposition of a pitch clock — something I’ve advocated for at least a decade. Pitchers now have 15 seconds to start their delivery unless there are runners on base, in which case they get 20 seconds.

I have seen the game played with the clock in the minor leagues, but how would veteran major league pitchers cope? The veteran starters, Nestor Cortes and Trevor Williams seemed to cope well, with the former varying his pace to keep hitters a little off balance.

The benefits of the clock are hard to overstate. I’m accustomed to the first three innings of a major league game taking about an hour pretty consistently.

But when we reached the hour mark on Tuesday, there were two out in the bottom of the fourth.

Arguably, though, the biggest benefit isn’t the shorter elapsed time of the games. It’s the pace of play. The pace is brisk, the way team sports are meant to be played.

Fans — true fans who want to follow the action closely — need to be alert. If you bury your head in your scorecard or peruse the scoreboard, you might well miss something.

Another rule change is the limit on defensive shifting. Shifts can still be employed and were in this game. For most left-handed hitters, the shortstop played almost directly behind second base and the third baseman played shortstop. However, the second baseman shaded less towards first base than usual and, most importantly, couldn’t place himself on the outfield grass.

This means no more ground outs to right field. I won’t miss them.

The rules on holding baserunners have also changed. Now, a pitcher can only step off the rubber or throw to a base two times. If he tries a third pickoff attempt and fails to get the runner, he’s charged with a balk and the runner gets to advance.

The idea is to encourage stolen bases (as well as cut down on delay). If a pitcher has used his two throws, the runner can take off for second base with less fear of being picked off by the pitcher. And thanks to the pitch clock, pitchers are limited in their ability to thwart runners’ timing by holding the ball.

In the few exhibitions games I watched on TV this spring, I didn’t see runners take advantage of this change. But on Tuesday, two Yankees tried to.

After two throws to first by the Nats pitcher, Volpe took off for second. He got a nice jump, but the batter spoiled his attempted steal by flying out.

Later, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, whom Volpe beat out for the starting shortstop job, tried the same thing. But unsatisfied with his jump, he headed back to first only to be picked off by Nats catcher, Keibert Ruiz as he dove for the bag.

As far as I know, the new rules don’t limit pickoff attempts by catchers, and they certainly don’t limit pitchouts. We may see more of both this year.

Who won the game? The Nats did, 3-0. But let’s not be fooled. The Nats have the feel of a team that will lose more than 100 games, while the Yankees might win at least that many.

The winning and losing starts today, in a few hours.

NOTE: This post has been modified to correctly state the new rule on pick-off attempts.