The Infield Fly Rule dominated discussion in the aftermath of St. Louis defeating Atlanta in baseball's first Wild Card versus Wild Card game. Lost in that shuffle was another controversy, one with which Major League Baseball has been dealing more regularly over the past few seasons. This issue impacts every spectator at every game.
The pace of play.
In the game in question, Braves catcher David Ross - starting in place of the hobbled Brian McCann - came to the plate in the second inning with a runner on first and two out. Ross got himself into a 1-2 hole. Then, immediately before Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse threw the fourth pitch, Ross verbally asked for time. He did not move his head to face the umpire or gesture in making his request. He simply uttered the request while looking forward. Lohse began his windup milliseconds before the home plate umpire granted the request. As a result, Lohse went through his pitching motion, delivering a strong change-up that fooled Ross into a swinging strikeout. Or so Lohse thought.
Because the umpire granted the request, Ross was given another chance. On the real fourth pitch, Lohse went back to his change-up, but the delivery hung high-and-away. Ross pummeled the ball over the wall in left-center for a 2-0 lead, one the Braves would relinquish in advance of the Infield Fly controversy to follow. You can watch the entire sequence here.
Baseball games in the 1920s average just under two hours. That average climbed steadily throughout the succeeding decades, finally nearing in on the three hour mark in the mid-1990s. Baseball has made a concerted effort to bring down the length of games with some success as the average length of game has settled back in the 2:45 territory with Commissioner Selig hoping to push that number further down near 2:30. One of the ways Selig has encouraged to cut down on game times is to require batters to keep a foot in the batter's box at all times. While this doesn't govern the situation in question, it provides the relevant background policy in determining whether the umpire was correct to grant Ross "time."
In the Comment to Rule 6.02(b), MLB's rule book explains that the umpire will not grant "time" at the request of the batter once the pitcher has started his windup, even for otherwise valid reasons such as dust in the batter's eye or steamed glasses. Here, although only by the slimmest of margins, Lohse began his windup prior to the granting of time. Going by the letter of the rule and its comment, the umpire was incorrect in granting "time."
But let's be a little more lenient. The umpire cannot be expected to perfectly perceive every millisecond of the game, especially when one player requests the timeout and another player 70 feet away begins to move his body. Rule 5.10 lays out the basic framework for the use of the "time" call by the umpire. Specifically, the umpire is empowered to call "time" when the weather makes play impossible, light failure makes following the game impossible, an accident incapacitates a player or umpire, a manager requests a conference with his player or makes a substitution, the umpire wants to inspect the ball, a player catches a ball but falls into the stands, or the umpire orders a player to leave the field. Rule 5.10(h) emphatically states that no umpire shall call "time" while a play is in progress. No other reasons for calling "time" are granted by the book.
But what does "while a play is in progress" mean? Incredibly, the MLB rules only define "Play" as the "umpire's order to start the game or resume action following any dead ball." It seems that the implication is that once the umpire starts play, it can only be stopped by an affirmative declaration of "time" as granted by the rules above.
At this point, we see the key issue surrounding the granting of "time" by umpires: in the most frequently invoked circumstances, the umpires lack rule book authority to call "time."
My Constitutional Law professor often spoke of two constitutions. One, the "Big C" Constitution, is the famous written document on which the United States government is founded. The other is what he called the "small c" constitution, "the way we do things around here." At some point in baseball's history, be it at the Elysian Fields, when the World Series started in the early 1900s, during the time of the Muderers' Row Yankees, in the midst of the game's post-World War II explosion, or some other time, it became a part of baseball's constitution for umpires to grant batters time whenever they requested it. The Commissioner has taken some steps to speed up the pace of play but thus far has been unwilling to challenge this piece of baseball's governing attitude.
As a result, while David Ross getting "time" has no written authorization, there would have been outrage had the umpire followed the written rule and refused to grant time. Perhaps MLB should consider revising the rule book so it better liens up with how the game is actually played by the players and officiated by the umpires. Then again, perhaps allowing "the way we do things around here" to continue is the best method.
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