In an exclusive interview with Dan McLaughlin (the first part of which we’re running this morning), the pair discuss a number of heavy topics, but Dan also got the justice to weigh in on the new baseball rules. And Alito went 3-3. That is, he opposed the grotesque rule that puts a “ghost runner” on second base during regular season extra inning games, while supporting the more sensible changes — the pitch clock and the ability to review balls and strikes.
Here is their exchange:
NR: Have the game’s rules changed too much?
JUSTICE ALITO: So, I don’t like some of them. I don’t like the extra-inning rule at all. I hate that. The pitch count, I think, has been valuable because the games have gotten insufferably long, and it has shortened the games. I think that’s an improvement. I think that the challenge system they had this year is good. If fans are going to be able to see the box on the screen and see that a ball is really a ball, that a pitch that’s called a strike is a ball, then it’s better to have the computer check. You know, most of the time it’s probably not going to make much of a difference. But when something like that ends up dictating the outcome of a game, it’s better for it to be accurate.
Again, read more of the interview here. And check out Alito’s new book, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country.