As a rule, it's baseball as usual to the viewers

I spent a few days at spring training in Arizona last week, hoping to see how Major League Baseball's new rules make watching games different.

MLB's first major rule changes in decades, meant to quicken and liven games, debuted in the Cactus League and Grapefruit League this year. A pitch clock requires the ball to be delivered within 15 seconds when the bases are empty and 20 seconds with runners on. Bases now are three inches wider. Pickoff attempts are limited, essentially, to two in any plate appearance. Last but not least, infield shifts are banned.

My first reaction to the changes being announced was disgust on principle — baseball should leave rule tinkering to football! — and worry that a violation of the shift ban could result in a great play being called back — again, too much like football!

Those philosophical, theoretical concerns stand (as does the understanding that copying football, America's most popular sport, isn't the dumbest way to go).

But do the new rules spoil anything about going to an everyday game?

Something became clear to me almost halfway through the Angels' game against the Milwaukee Brewers in Maryvale, Ariz., last Thursday.

That's when I suddenly realized that I'd forgotten to pay any attention to the rules. Not the pitch clock, at least not until an Angels batter was charged with a strike in the fourth inning for failing to be ready in time. Not the bigger bases, which you might not notice unless you knew. Not the new dynamic between pitcher and baserunner. Not the absence of shifts, because there hadn't been a ground ball through the right side.

There were so many other sensory sensations to enjoy about my first majorleague game of 2023, and again Friday when I saw the Dodgers play the Chicago Cubs in Mesa, that it never crossed my mind to figure out if the “pizza box” bases are large or extra large, New York or Chicago style.

If the rules weren't grabbing my attention even after I showed up at the ballpark with them on my mind, they might not be as intrusive as feared.

I actually thought more about the new rules when I went to Mexico's 2-1 victory over Great Britain in a World Baseball Classic game at Chase Field in Phoenix, a game played under the old rules. The lowscoring game passed three hours, I wished there'd been a pitch clock. (The Angels and Dodgers games took 2:37 and 2:45.)

And I've thought about the new rules more in watching games on TV, maybe because of the pitch clock on the screen and because announcers were talking about them for the first couple of weeks.

Don't take my word for it.

Bill Plunkett, on the Dodgers beat, and Jeff Fletcher, covering the Angels, have been watching Cactus League games all spring for readers of the Southern California News Group papers and have the same impressions I now have.

“These might be the most drastic rules changes MLB has made since the DH (the designated hitter, introduced in the American League in 1973), but once you get used to them, you don't notice,” Plunkett said.

“You might notice the pace being quicker. But it's just a general feeling. You won't be focused on the pitch clock unless/until there's a violation. The shift is more noticeable because we kind of got used to seeing third basemen playing short right field. Those ground balls from left-handed hitters are going to be hits again.”

Said Fletcher: “I barely notice that the game has changed at all until we get to the end and I realize the game took 2:40 instead of 3:05. It makes you wonder what was happening in that other 25 minutes. Whatever it was, I don't miss it. I do notice when I'm watching a WBC game that it seems to go slower, though.”

Fletcher added: “As for the bigger bases or lack of shifts, those have almost no impact whatsoever. Baseball without shifts just looks like baseball as I've known it most of my life. I don't think there are that many more hits resulting from it, though. We add some and lose others.”

We fans tend to exaggerate the importance of things like specific rules or scoring rates on our like and dislike for different sports. We fall in love with the sports that are big where and when we're growing up, the sports we associate with family outings and lazy afternoons and local pride. Then we rationalize that we love a sport because it has, say, 8.56 runs per game instead of 2.73 goals.

In all the times I've heard people talk about the first time they walked into a major-league ballpark and took in the vast emerald vista, I've never heard anyone recall exclaiming: “The bases are 15 inches across! Dad, I love baseball!”

There will be times when we love baseball's new rules, times when we hate them, and times when it's fascinating to see the effects and debate if further tinkering is needed.

But watching games in person last week, games with the new rules and one without them, makes me think that most of the time we'll happily not have to pay them much attention.