Ortiz bothered by MLB's new batter's box rule
FORT MYERS, Fla. — David Ortiz has a deliberate routine at the plate.
He sounded prepared to pay for it.
“I might run out of money,” Ortiz said during a colorful rant Wednesday about the new pace-of-play rule requiring hitters to keep at least one foot in the batter’s box in some instances.
Ortiz said he felt this provision, announced last week, unfairly targeted hitters. One of the more radical alterations discussed, a limit on the number of seconds between pitches, was not implemented.
“I’m not going to change my game,” the Boston designated hitter said. “I don’t care what they say.”
Major League Baseball can dock him, starting May 1, up to $500 per offense. Penalties were limited to warnings and fines, rather than allowing umpires to call strikes.
Another part of the initiative agreed to by MLB and the players’ association will be the installation of clocks in stadiums to limit the length of pitching changes and between-innings breaks. Managers, too, are no longer required to leave the dugout to request video reviews.
In his first remarks to reporters since arriving at spring training, Ortiz said he wasn’t aware of the batter’s box rule.
“So after the pitch, you’ve got to stay in the box, basically?” he said, incredulously.
Yes, with one foot, unless there has just been a foul ball, wild pitch or other specified reason.
“One foot?” Ortiz said.
Yes, to speed up the game.
Ortiz then used a profanity to describe his reaction to the rule.
“When you come out of the box, you’re thinking about what a guy’s trying to do,” he continued. “This is not like we go to the plate with an empty mind. No, no, no. When you see guys pitch coming out of the box, we’re not doing it just for doing it. Our mind is speeding up. I saw one pitch, when I come out, I’m thinking, `What is this guy going to try to do to me next?’ I’m not walking around just because there’s cameras all over the place and I want my buddies back home to see me and this and that.”
Ortiz blamed pitchers for wasting more time than hitters.
“How about the guy on the mound who goes like this for three hours?” he said, shaking his head back and forth to mimic the act of shaking off a sign.
Toronto’s R.A. Dickey, one of the faster-working pitchers in the major leagues, said he loved the new rules.
“Bring on the pitch clock. Bring on whatever. I like it, because it makes the hitter feel uncomfortable,” the 2012 NL Cy Young Award winner said. “I’m already fast, so it’s only going to put more pressure on the hitter that has to get in the box and get ready.”
