How pace-of-play rules impact the show off the field at Isotopes Park

Apr. 22—It's about time.

While Major League Baseball, and the bulk of the sports-watching world, has been discovering the good and bad that comes with new pitch-clock rules, the Albuquerque Isotopes are veterans of the faster-paced games.

Though some version of a pitch clock has been in place at lower levels of the sport since 2015, the strict enforcement of the pitch clock that MLB is experiencing this season got its trial last season in the minors.

And while the most noticeable changes are on the field, what happens on that patch of green grass affects a lot of things around the game, too.

Here are five things that faster games and the pitch clock has been changing off the field — and how the Isotopes are dealing with it.

In-game promotions

Fans love the between-innings games and promotions on the field at Isotopes Park.

It can be the tricycle races, balloon-popping contests or fan favorite Taco blowing away the field in mid-game Chile pepper mascot races.

But the umpire's job is simple. Once the game starts, he has to run it by the rules, and now that means such things as limited time during and between innings for pitchers and hitters to warm up.

That means Dylan Storm, the man on the field trying to pump up the crowd and running many of the on-field promotions, has to up his game and move things along.

"It's less time for me to be funny," Storm, the Isotopes' Marketing and Promotions Manager, said. "We've got to just jump right into things and get them moving along."

Storm acknowledges he's felt the glaring eyes of a home plate umpire a time or two when the game is ready to resume and he's still on the field trying to get game participants off it.

"We've been pretty good at it for the most part," Storm said. "I'm like a drop-back quarterback. I have an internal clock in my head where I pretty much know when we better start wrapping up the promotion even if they're going a little slow."

Broadcast

Broadcaster Josh Suchon used to come back from commercial in a game and set the scene — talk about the weather, the score and whatever else was going on in the game before the action resumed.

Now, he comes back describing the first pitch of the inning as it's happening and then starts setting the scene.

The pitch clock means there is much less time between innings and between pitches for broadcasters to use their old storytelling style of calling baseball.

"Initially last year, I was still trying to get in the same amount of information, so it was harder to let the broadcast breathe the way you want it to breathe," Suchon said. "That was the other main adjustment, was giving the audience a break. Let the audience hear the natural sound of the game. You don't have to fill in with so much background. That's baseball."

Beer and concessions

A handful of MLB teams have extended beer sales at games through the eighth inning since shorter games, understandably, mean a shorter amount of time to sell beer.

Isotopes General Manager John Traub said a decrease in concessions revenue was a concern at the beginning of last season, but no alterations to concessions sales, specifically beer sales, were made.

"Ultimately, we didn't really see it affect our sales like maybe you would think," Traub said of the shorter games.

But even if it did affect revenue, Traub said he wouldn't consider extending the beer sales cutoff point beyond the seventh inning.

So fans be warned.

Last call at the ball park may come earlier.

Sounds of the game

Between the promotional reads from public address announcer Francina Walker to the between-pitch jingles played by the Isotopes' live organist to the wide variety of walk-up songs played for each hitter before their at-bat, the sounds of the ballpark are all on notice now.

Be quick. Be done.

And if there's any one nugget that thousands of fans who have attended an Isotopes game through the years can understand, it's this:

Kris Shepard, the Isotopes Director of Game Production, said that the popular playing of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" during a pitching change, in which fans sing along to the addictive chorus, has been forced to be cut off much quicker than usual.

"There used to be games we'd play the entire song while the pitcher warmed up," Shepard said. "Now, we have to cut it off after the first 'Bah! Bah! Bah!' They only get one now, and it's time to play."

Fire in the sky

With quicker play and later sunsets for those midsummer games fans attend to see postgame firework shows, the reality is many games just might get wrapped up long before it's dark enough to set off the colorful aerial displays.

A look ahead at the Isotopes schedule for early July tells us home games on July 2 and July 3 have start times set for 6:05 p.m.

In 2022, sunset in Albuquerque — when the sun disappears beneath the western horizon, not necessarily when the sky is dark enough for a good fireworks show — came at 8:24 p.m. That means a crisply played, pitch-clock era game that wraps up in a little more than two hours could leave a half hour or so between the final out of the game and the first colorful explosion in the sky.

And the days of setting them off with light in the sky are over.

Shepard recalls the June 11, 2011, game, during which the team moved up first pitch from 7 p.m. to 4:35 p.m. Smoke from wildfires in eastern Arizona had been blowing in nightly to Albuquerque, making breathing difficult for the players.

That game ended in 2 hours, 30 minutes with the sun still in the sky. Fans voted (with cheers) that they wanted the fireworks immediately instead of waiting more than an hour.

Between the sun still being up and smoke in the sky, Traub recalls of that game: "You could see a couple little puffs of smoke, but you couldn't see anything from the fireworks.

"It was terrible."

'TOPES SUNDAY: Oklahoma City at Albuquerque, 1:35 p.m., 610 AM/95.9 FM

PROMOTION: Bark in the Park/Cups giveaway

PROBABLES: Dodgers RHP Matt Andriese (0-2, 9.35) vs. Isotopes RHP Karl Kauffmann (2-1, 8.10)

SATURDAY: Gavin Stone, the No. 4 prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system according to MLB Pipeline, looked the part at Isotopes Park, allowing just two hits over 4 2/3 scoreless innings and striking out seven in a 3-2 Oklahoma City win.

The rare pitchers duel at Rio Grande Credit Union Field was mostly matched by the Isotopes, who had five pitchers combined to allow just seven hits. Starter Connor Seabold allowed two first inning runs and Albuquerque allowed just one run the rest of the game.

Coco Montes and Aaron Schunk each had two hit games for the Isotopes, who had six hits to go along with 10 strikeouts.

Albuquerque looks to split the series at three games apiece in Sunday series finale. The Isotopes are off Monday, then hit the road for a six-game series at Round Rock.

BOX SCORE: OKC 3, Albuquerque 2