Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had a celebrated gaffe in Game 5 of the World Series where he somehow didn't communicate to bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist the relievers he wanted to warm up; this was a key factor in the Rangers winning the game. As a result of this embarrassing moment, La Russa announced his retirement after the Cardinals won the World Series anyway.
Rangers Ballpark Visitors’ Bullpen To Be Reconfigured
Wait, no, that’s not right. La Russa picked the right spot to go out after the Cardinals came back and won the World Series. And on Friday, the Rangers announced changes in their bullpen configuration to make sure this doesn’t happen to any more unsuspecting visiting managers:
The bullpen will now run parallel to the left-center fence, the same orientation as the Rangers’ bullpen. As it is set up now, the bullpen has a screen in front and pitchers throw behind that screen and away from home plate while warming up, making it difficult to see them at times from the dugouts.That’s not really the issue, though, is it? The right communication still has to go on between manager and coach, and just being able to see who’s out there doesn’t mean future managers won’t have screwups.
What, then, can be done? There are just four MLB ballparks where the bullpens are on the sidelines and not behind fences: Wrigley Field, AT&T Park, the Coliseum in Oakland and the Trop in Tampa Bay. In at least two others -- Rogers Centre in Toronto and Progressive Field in Cleveland -- TV cameras have been installed with monitors in the dugouts, which to me would seem to be the best way to avoid these problems, unless you have two relievers who look like each other and your team doesn’t have uniform numbers on the front of its jersey.
When Dallas Green was the GM of the Cubs in the 1980s, he had the Cubs bullpen -- which had been less than 100 feet from their third-base dugout for decades -- moved to the first-base side, supposedly so the manager and coaches could have a better view of them. This experiment ended when Cubs relievers pointed out that, in that pre-lights era, that would give the visting pitchers the shade on the 3B side and Cubs bullpen pitchers would have to sit in the sun on hot days. But the Cubs were also in the forefront of another attempted innovation -- in 2006, they partnered with Motorola to use secure-line cellphones between dugout and bullpen.
The Cubs’ relief ERA actually dropped from mid-June 2006 (when this experiment began) to the end of the season, but the experiment was dropped because:
That ended because the team’s coaches weren’t happy with them, although it didn’t help, either, that players had run up $70,000 in Internet usage charges.Apparently, they forgot to disable the Web-surfing function of the phones.
So what’s the best way for teams to make sure that their stadium has good communication between bullpen and dugout? Here’s a video with a useful idea (complete with Norwegian subtitles to the English subtitles):
OK, so maybe that’s not the best thought. TV monitors would seem to be the best idea, or perhaps you could use another form of modern technology:
Another option for teams would be to avoid the cellular networks altogether by establishing a private wireless network, which managers could use to send encrypted communications across the ballpark to the bullpen through an instant messaging program.
And while managers might not like the idea of text-messaging, Golvin said that such conversations would be easy enough to type out.
“It’s not like the dialogue between Tony La Russa and his bullpen coach is the equivalent of letters exchanged in the 17th century,” he said. “It’s more like, ‘Get Motte up.’ It’s three words.“Maybe that’s why Tony retired. He didn’t want to learn how to text. OMG.
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