BULLPEN CARTS ARE BACK

The Arizona Diamondbacks will be bringing back a piece of baseball history this season. They will become the first team to use a bullpen cart since 1995. That’s right, pitchers will be driven from the bullpen to the infield this season at Chase Field. This is a tradition that dates back quite some time in our nation’s pastime. The Indians were the first team to use a bullpen vehicle in 1950 and the majority of the league followed suit by the mid 1960s. They were full blown cars back then. Golf carts took over around 1980 and the Brewers actually used a Harley Davidson and had pitchers sit in a side car in 1995. The carts were outfitted with ridiculous ball caps or baseball designs and it was all great fun. The Diamondbacks believe it is time to bring them back and hope it will receive a warm welcome. They almost jokingly commented that it might help speed up pace of play as well. The only rule on the books regarding the bullpen carts is that it must be made equally available to both home and visiting pitchers and may not allow pitchers any extra warmup time. The choice of whether or not to use it will be left completely up to the individual pitchers. It will be interesting to see how many players take advantage of the cart and how many continue to jog out to the mound. Either way it should be a somewhat fun but very silly addition to the game this season. Its completely unnecessary, these are professional athletes I think they can manage to jog a couple hundred feet. I do think it is fun for the fans in the stadium as it will add to the excitement of being in the ballpark. This will serve as a test for the rest of the league, lets see how far this gets.