Baseball fans are loving the return of the ump cams.
The cams debuted at last year’s MLB All-Star Game, which was held at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ home venue of Dodgers Stadium.
The ump cam was shown again during the Chicago Cubs’ Friday afternoon home game against the Texas Rangers. In the clip below, you can see the home plate ump’s view of Cody Bellinger’s RBI single for the Cubs.
Social media absolutely loved the return of the ump cam. Here are some of the best responses we came across:
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The Cubs went on to defeat the Rangers 2-0 to improve to 4-3 on the year. A strong start from Marcus Stroman (six innings pitched, two hits allowed, six strikeouts) were key in the Cubs’ victory. Chicago also won 10-3 on Saturday to clinch the series vs. Texas.
Major League Baseball introduced plenty of rule changes this year, including a pitch clock that has drastically shortened game lengths. Per Pro Baseball Reference, the average nine-inning game in 2023 is just two hours and 38 minutes.
To put that into perspective, nine-inning games in 2021 averaged a record 3 hours and 11 minutes. Two years earlier, the average game length was 3 hours and 10 minutes.
In order to help increase scoring, Major League Baseball also implemented a permanent ban on defensive shifts this year while also making the bases bigger. The aforementioned pitch clock rule gives pitchers 15 seconds to throw a pitch with no runners on base, and 20 seconds with a runner on base.
