Skip to main content

MLB playoffs ump cam gives first-hand look at why baseball is so beautifully difficult

Idk, man, I'd just swing and hope for the best

Baseball game at the Coliseum in Oakland.
Matt Dodd / Unsplash

Now that MLB playoffs are well underway, it becomes harder and harder to deny the remarkable skill that every major league player has to possess in order to compete. The ALCS and NLCS have both turned into nailbiters, proving that even within the MLB, there are a few teams and players that stand above the rest.

Even as we remain riveted by individual games and performances, though, it’s also worth considering just how difficult the game of baseball always is at the professional level. TV can make this strangely difficult sometimes. It makes long distances seem shorter, fast pitches seem slower, and incredibly precise windows seem easy to hit. When you see things from a slightly different angle, you begin to realize just how difficult hitting a professional pitch can be.

Recommended Videos

The MLB ump-cam explains why it’s hard to hit the ball

In a post on Instagram, the MLB shared footage from a recent playoff game between the Astros and the Twins. In the footage, which was taken from the ump’s point of view, you can see how quickly the ball comes at and past the batter in professional baseball. The short snippet features roughly five pitches, and each of them whizzes past the batter with incredible speed. Frankly, it’s a miracle that batters are ever able to hit these balls, which travel a fairly short distance at roughly 100 miles an hour.

We already know from this video that batters have less than a second to react to a pitch and determine what to do. These videos should also give you some appreciation for how good umps are at their job. They have a split second to determine where a pitch landed and have to make a call just a second later. We know umps don’t get everything right, but the fact that they’re usually right more than 90% of the time suggests that they have a pretty specialized skillset.

The speed of the ball isn’t the only difficulty

As many in the comments pointed out, the shadows in the stadium made seeing the ball quickly even more of a challenge.

“The shadows are nastier than the pitches,” one person wrote.

“Those shadows are brutal!” another person added.

Between the shadows and the speed of the pitches, hitting the ball becomes a major challenge. Of course, there’s a reason baseball players are paid millions of dollars and only a few people can do it. Hitting these kinds of balls well is incredibly difficult, and intentionally so.

The MLB has instituted a number of new features designed to make the game feel more modern in recent years, and this ump cam seems like one small addition that can help reinvigorate the game. Baseball gets a reputation for being one of the drier, less interesting sports, but when you can see how fast pitches fly past home plate, you realize that speed is definitely an important part of the game. And, with the new pitch clock, those pitches are coming faster than ever.

Joe Allen
Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…
Topics
Jeremy Allen White was born to run in the first trailer for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
The movie follows Springsteen as he makes his album 'Nebraska.'
Jeremy Allen White in Deliver Me From Nowhere

Music biopics are all the rage these days, and Bruce Springsteen is the latest icon to get the treatment. The first trailer for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere sees The Bear star inhabiting the role of The Boss. The film is based on Warren's Zane's book of the same name, which focuses on the period when he was making his 1982 album Nebraska.

The film is directed by Scott Cooper, who also directed Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. In the trailer, we see White embodying Springsteen as he sings "Born to Run," and we also get a lengthy monologue from Jeremy Strong's Jon Landau as he explains why Springsteen feels the need to make this album.

Read more
Tony Soprano vs. Walter White: Who is the ultimate antihero?
TV's biggest heavyweights duke it out for the antihero crown
Breaking bad season 4 screen shot

Sports fans often debate between two heavyweight legends. For basketball, it's LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Switching to tennis, you have Roger Federer fans and Rafael Nadal diehards. Debates like these are ingrained in the culture of athletics, but TV fans have their own version of this sparring match.

Tony Soprano from The Sopranos and Walter White from Breaking Bad are the two characters who still send shockwaves through every drama in the 21st century. These men were the perfect mix of good and evil. They navigated family life and the criminal underworld with cunning intelligence and ruthless risk-taking. Every show with morally gray characters at the center owes its storyboard to Walter and Tony, but which character deserves the antihero crown? This is Tony Soprano vs. Walter White for all the marbles.
Who was the more complex character?

Read more
Learn how to smoke a pipe the proper way with our guide for beginners
Let us show you the classy way to smoke a pipe
Packing a pipe

Pipe smoking is the most aesthetically distinguished way to enjoy tobacco, but you lose the classy effect if you don’t know how to smoke a pipe properly. Smoking a pipe has become a lost art, and these days, most people who engage in pipe smoking do so to achieve a sense of nostalgia. Perhaps your grandfather enjoyed a puff now and again paired with a good stiff whiskey, or maybe your goal is to emulate a pipe-smoking artist.

I know that I enjoy a good puff on a pipe now and then, and knowing the right way to enjoy a pipe has made the experience much more pleasurable for for me. Whatever the case, if you intend to take up the time-honored tradition of unwinding with a pipe like me, you should learn how to smoke a pipe the right way. And smoking a pipe is very different than smoking a cigar (except you shouldn't be inhaling either).

Read more