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'Old school' Jeff Brantley loves baseball's pitch clock. And why not?

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‘Old school’ Jeff Brantley loves baseball’s pitch clock. And why not?

Jeff “Cowboy” Brantley, the former Mississippi State and Major League pitching great, considers himself a baseball traditionalist. “Old school,” he describes himself.

Nevertheless, one game into the first season of MLB’s new pitch clock, which will forever change the sport, Brantley gushes. “I love it. I mean, I really love it.”

Rick Cleveland

I do, too.

“The thing is, I didn’t think I’d like it,” Brantley said in a phone conversation from Cincinnati, where he still broadcasts Reds games. “I thought it might rush the game too much. I thought it would change the rhythm of the sport. But after a full spring training and one regular season game I dan tell you, I absolutely love it.”

Again, I do, too. In my mind, it’s the best thing to happen to baseball since Jackie Robinson.

For those who haven’t paid attention, a quick pitch clock synopsis: With no runners on base, a pitcher must throw to the plate in 15 seconds. With runners on, the pitcher has 20 seconds. Batters must be in the batter’s box, ready to hit, when the pitch clock ticks down to eight seconds. Batters can call timeout once per at bat. Pitchers can throw to a base in a pickoff attempt — or step off the rubber — only twice during at at-bat. A pitcher can make a third pickoff attempt, but if it is unsuccessful, the runner advances a base. If a pitcher doesn’t throw to the plate before the pitch clock runs out, the umpire calls a ball. If the batter is not ready to hit, the umpire calls a strike.

No longer can a pitcher stroll around the mound for a while between pitches, adjust his cap a few times, rub up the baseball for a few seconds, shake off the catcher’s signal a few times before finally throwing a pitch. No longer can a pitcher throw to first base six or seven times between pitches. No longer can a batter step out of the box between every pitch, adjust his batting gloves, arm padding and necklaces, scratch his privates, spit, etc., before getting ready to hit.

All that dead time is gone. If you equate that with changing the rhythm of the game to the sport’s detriment, so sorry for your loss. In my mind, it makes the sport infinitely more watchable.

Or, as Brantley puts it, “People come to watch players play. They don’t come for all that stuff that was happening in between pitches.”

I watched the Braves and Nationals play Thursday. The change was noticeable and appreciated. A word of warning: No longer can you make a trip to the refrigerator between pitches. If you don’t want to miss something, you’ll wait until between innings for refreshment.

“We didn’t have a single game in spring training that went beyond two hours, 30 minutes,” Brantley said. “That’s unheard of. Those games usually take forever with all the lineup changes that take place.”

The Reds’ opener – a 5-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates – lasted three hours, two minutes, but, says Brantley, “there were nine pitching changes and 15 walks. Last year, that game would have lasted more than four hours.”

Only five of 15 games on baseball’s opening day exceeded three hours. The average length of a game was down 26 minutes from last year.

Brantley believes the shorter games – or more appropriately, the less dead time – will appeal especially to younger fans.

“In our culture today, especially among our younger people, they are used to having action at their fingertips,” Brantley said. “They want constant action. Without that constant action, you lose their attention. I just think this is going to make the game that much more appealing to young people.”

Again, I couldn’t agree more. And yet, there are still naysayers who insist we need to quit messing with the grand old game. That argument makes no sense at all. If anything we are returning it to the grand old game it once was. The average length of a nine-inning MLB game in 1975 was two hours, 25 minutes. In 2021, the average game was three hours, 10 minutes. That’s a 45-minute difference. And, as someone who was watching back then and now, I can tell you that’s 45 added minutes of dead time. That’s 45 minutes when nothing happened.

Long live the pitch clock.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1997

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-22 07:00:00

Dec. 22, 1997

Myrlie Evers and Reena Evers-Everette cheer the jury verdict of Feb. 5, 1994, when Byron De La Beckwith was found guilty of the 1963 murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. Credit: AP/Rogelio Solis

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers. 

In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.” 

He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.” 

The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-12-22 06:00:00

About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.

The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.

Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.

During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.

“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”

White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.

Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.

White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.

Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.

People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.

White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.

They are correct.

But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.

As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.

Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.

That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.

Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?

If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.

The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.

In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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On this day in 1911

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-21 07:00:00

Dec. 21, 1911

A colorized photograph of Josh Gibson, who was playing with the Homestead Grays Credit: Wikipedia

Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia. 

When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs. 

He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame. 

The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays. 

Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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