Baseball’s new pitch clock has been generally popular with fans. It has resulted in faster, more evenly paced games, while not being as intrusive as some critics feared.
One recent poll showed fans approved of the pitch clock by a 4-1 margin.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been issues. San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler raised an interesting point this week, claiming the clock puts native Spanish-speaking players at a big disadvantage.
“Over the years, if you have an English-speaking umpire, and you have a Spanish-speaking player, that Spanish-speaking player is going to be at a disadvantage,” Kapler told NBC Sports Bay Area.
“How do we even the playing field a little bit? You have a Spanish-speaking player … these are brand-new rules, and they’re not guaranteed to understand something they’ve been doing for a really long time because of the language barrier. Now you’re layering on brand-new rules and the language being spoken at the plate is English.”
“I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think it’s good.”
Gabe Kapler believes Spanish-speaking players are at a disadvantage with the new pitch clock rules pic.twitter.com/5sZCKA5hR3
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 11, 2023
Kapler’s solution? Let bilingual players leave the dugout to interpret for players that don’t understand English.
“Any native Spanish-speaking player at the plate … he can call someone out to have that conversation together. I just think it’s important we have an even playing field there. The disadvantage is pretty large.”
[NBCS]
