Reese Kaplan -- When Stupid Rules Overcome Common Sense

In Thursday's game Max Scherzer was once again in conflict with the league and its representative, the man in blue.  This time was not the usual pitch clock complaint this time whereby Scherzer felt he was being pushed to throw the ball inordinately fast.  It was nothing to do with sticky substances on his hands either.  No, this time the matter concerned the almighty pitch clock when it didn't relate to facing a live batter at all.

For those of you who missed this little foray into the ridiculous nature of what umpires can do to interfere with the game, Scherzer was told he was in danger of a pitch clock violation BETWEEN INNINGS WHILE THROWING WARMUP PITCHES.

Please read the end of that sentence again.  Now the men in blue are so scared of the idiosyncracies of the new rules that they feel shortening the game must take place in every aspect possible.  In this case, catcher Francisco Alvarez was the final out in the 4th inning and as such took a little bit of time to get his gear back on and that circumstance caused an impact to the starting pitcher.  

Apparently the impact of Alvarez's tardiness was interrupting Scherzer's warmup routine.  The "normal" between inning preparation for starting pitchers is to make eight tosses to get a feel for being ready to pitch the upcoming inning.  The pitch clock violation occurred when the extra time required by Alvarez allowed Scherzer only time to throw seven of his eight customary pitches.  

Now no one would ever dare call Max Scherzer a shy man when it comes to putting on his game face, so he was understandably upset at what the home plate umpire had to say in regard to his warmup pitches.  He even suggested as politely as he could that perhaps the umpire could take the initiative to realize that shortchanging him on his warmup pitches wasn't impacting any batters at all as there was no live batter in the box.

Not surprisingly the umpire said that he did not have the authority to use common sense and must abide by the new regulations no matter what.  

Mr. Sherzer was not pleased with this reply nor with the lack of, uh...manhood that the umpire exhibited in making sure that facing no one in the box it was more important that the pitcher risk injury or pitching poorly than to use his brain to do what was in the best interest of the ballgame.

The pièce de résistance, of course, is that Scherzer threw a masterful 5th inning, putting his anger into pitching form and making the upcoming batters the recipient of what he was feeling for the game itself.  

Stupidity in enforcing rules is not new thing.  We can all remember times when the game's interference impacted the manner in which the results were calculated.  It's not an exclusive problem in baseball as we've seen the same lunacy in other sports as well.  Perhaps some day common sense will overcome the need for the folks at the top to demonstrate that they are bigger than the game they represent.