Jon Lester is firmly against pitch clocks in baseball
As we noted following the news, pitch clocks were used at 17 Arizona Fall League games this past year, with those games finishing an average 10 minutes faster than games without it. It’s a small sample size and a relatively small gain, but obviously a good enough sign that MLB wants an extended look in a competitive environment.
As for the players feelings, well, we’ll just go with what we know, and what we know so far is that new Chicago Cubs ace Jon Lester is firmly against the potential change. While appearing at the Cubs’ annual fans convention on Friday night, Lester made it clear that he believes a pitch clock would do the game more harm than good because it will eliminate gamesmanship and take away from the game’s natural beauty.
“If you [use a pitch clock] you take the beauty out of the game,” Lester said Friday night. “There’s such a cat-and-mouse game as far as messing up hitters’ timing, messing up pitchers’ timing. Different things that fans and people that have never played this game don’t understand. I feel like if you do add a clock it just takes all the beauty away from the game. I think you’re going down a path you don’t want to go down.”
This is not a new argument, but it’s a pretty effective one coming from one of the game’s best.
Lester added:
“It’s a beautiful sport. There’s no time limit, there’s no shot clock. There’s no nothing. For me, I’ve always been a big believer in the fans know what they’re getting themselves into when they show up. If it’s a three-hour game it’s a three-hour game. If it’s a five-hour game it’s a five-hour game.”
Having spent nine seasons with the Boston Red Sox, Lester has experienced his share of nine-inning games that were closer to five hours than three hours. Obviously, the length of the game is not a bother to him, but the key word here is pace. If a game goes on and on because a lot of pitches are thrown, that’s baseball. If a game goes on and on because a pitcher is stalling or laboring, that’s baseballs too, though in an undeniably agonizing form.
Lester was also quick to point out how the 10-minute difference is a small improvement, and perhaps one that doesn’t make the experiment worthwhile. That’s a fair point. But just as it’s understandable that Lester would be resistant to changes, it’s equally important for MLB to evaluate this option so it can provide the best possible answers.
In other words, we haven’t heard of pitch clocks in baseball. This is only just the beginning.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
