Cardinals’ announcer Dan McLaughlin boos Rockies’ pitcher Jordan Lyles for slow pace

Pace-of-play has become a big discussion in Major League Baseball over the past few years, and St. Louis Cardinals’ TV announcer Dan McLaughlin got in on it in a big way Wednesday. The Cardinals were up 7-5 in the bottom of the fifth against the Rockies with Colorado reliever Jordan Lyles on the mound, and Lyles was taking a very long time to pitch, between getting signals, settling in, throwing over to first, stepping off the mound and more.

That caused McLaughlin to say “Another throw over, the headset is off, I’m going to jump into the crowd and start booing.” And then, when Lyles stepped off the mound again a couple of minutes later, it appears McLaughlin did the booing part of that. Here’s video, via Reddit:

A couple of minutes later, with Lyles again being slow while pitching to Kolten Wong, McLaughlin says “All right, headset’s off,” and a loud boo immediately follows. They then discussed the slow speed of play further. And this wasn’t just something complained about by the Cardinals’ broadcasters; they also showed some great footage of a seemingly-incredibly-bored Rockies’ outfield. Including Mark Reynolds checking his pulse:

Yeah, when even your teammates need to make sure they’re still alive, that’s the kind of exciting baseball everyone wants to see, and it’s hard to blame McLaughlin for getting frustrated with it. It’s certainly notable to have broadcasters commenting on it so prominently, but that’s not entirely new. During his playing career, Mike Hargrove was dubbed “The Human Rain Delay” for his endless batter’s box routine before each pitch:

At least Lyles isn’t quite that slow.

[Reddit]