Baseball fans were annoyed on Saturday night when Chicago Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger was given a pitch clock violation for apparently soaking in the ovation from the fans at Dodger Stadium for a little too long.
It didn’t seem right. Bellinger was a star for the Dodgers from 2017-2022. It’s only natural that he’d get a big ovation in his first game back at Dodger Stadium. Are the pitch clock rules so rigid that the umpires really can’t overlook a violation in this kind of situation?
There are, indeed, provisions to allow such an occurrence. But the Cubs and Dodgers did not follow the proper protocols.
Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, shared a story on Saturday about calling Dan Halem, MLB’s deputy commissioner.
“I called [Halem] and said, ‘Why do we not have provisions for this?’ And he goes, ‘We do,'” Boras said, per Mike DiGiovanna, Los Angeles Times. “It’s umpire discretion, and normally the clubs notify the umpires beforehand if they have any kind of special things.”
Boras continued.
“[Dodgers manager Dave Roberts] was even screaming from the dugout, ‘Hey, give him some time!’ You have the opposing manager trying to make sure a [visiting] player is appropriately welcomed. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Why are you not doing that?’ Unreal.”
This pitch clock violation was bad when it was called. Using protocols to defend it is weak.
The umpires didn’t know that Bellinger was a longtime Dodger returning home? They didn’t figure that an ovation might be coming? And even if not, what exactly were the Cubs and Dodgers going to do? Tell 50,000-plus fans to be quiet?
Furthermore, sometimes ovations like this are spontaneous. Strangely enough, one such example occurred in a game between these two teams at Dodger Stadium. In 1976, Rick Monday, then of the Cubs, pulled an American flag away from a pair of protesters who were trying to burn it on the field. He was given a long ovation in his following at-bat.
Players are also often given lengthy ovations in their first at-bats after making a great defensive play. There’s obviously no way a team can let the umpires know that may be coming before the game.
The pitch clock is fine. And if a hitter or pitcher is simply taking too much time, it’s completely fair to penalize them for that. But spontaneous stuff happens and sometimes, the fans want to honor a player. They should be allowed to do so. Penalizing a player when that happens is simply petty.
MLB did itself no favors with this violation. Defending the call a day later is even more inexplicable.
