One of the ongoing storylines of baseball's offseason centers around the league's desire to improve pace of play. Earlier Thursday, word surfaced that commissioner Rob Manfred had proposed some alterations to the players -- including the chance to delay or put off a pitch clock.
The players have their own ideas on how to speed up the games. A suggestion of theirs? Bringing back the bullpen cars/carts:
Cool feature of speed-up-the-game negotiations between MLB and players: The return of bullpen carts! Union has asked MLB to consider them, and MLB is considering it, where possible, as early as 2018 season.
— Phil Rogers (@philgrogers) February 2, 2018
For those unaware, bullpen cars/carts used to be all the rage. They fell out of fashion for various reasons -- the cost of gas and maintenance being major contributors -- and have since occupied a special place in baseball lore.
Of course, it's not clear that the vehicles -- should they return to big-league stadiums across the land -- will make much of a dent in time of games, but at least relief pitchers will have less running to do. That counts for something, right?
