SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The Giants' exhibition game against Team USA was meant to prepare the opponent for the World Baseball Classic, so the nine innings at Scottsdale Stadium earlier this month were played by the WBC rules. That meant no pitch clock, no shift restrictions and no rules about how many times you could throw over to first.
After calling two games on radio with the new rules earlier in the week, Duane Kuiper teamed with Javier Lopez for that Giants-Team USA broadcast. Even with just 18 innings of pitch clock life under his belt, he said going back to the way it was before felt weird.
"It was like, 'We want the rules!' " Kuiper said on Thursday's "Giants Talk"
The transition this spring has been pretty seamless for the Giants, who have embraced the new rules and haven't had many issues during games. Kuiper said he loves watching a game that looks more similar to the one he played when he was in the big leagues, but there will be some adjustments for the broadcast team.
"We're going to get caught -- and hopefully not a lot -- where we don't understand what the call was and it may take us a little while to figure out, was it the pitcher, was it the infielder, was it the catcher? It may take us a little while to figure it out, but we will," Kuiper said. "After the first couple of innings of the first game I forgot about the pitch clock, because everybody else seemed to get into the rhythm of when they had to catch and throw the ball and get into the box and make eye contact with the pitcher. It all seemed to work very quickly.
"It's always going to be a story, I just don't think that it's as big a story anymore because everybody is going to get the hang of it."
Kuiper said he likes the rhythm of the game this spring and thinks the early experiments with the pitch clock have led to a better pace and "a lot of fun." If there's one downside for Giants fans, it's that they'll spend a bit less time each night with Kuiper and Mike Krukow, who often are at their best when games get long and weird.
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But Kuiper said the duo doesn't anticipate having issues telling their usual stories and jokes. The pitch clock will be shown on the score bug so fans won't need any reminders from the broadcasters.
"It's easier for me being a play-by-play guy, because -- especially on TV -- I can work at the rhythm with what the pitchers and hitters are doing," Kuiper said. "It's a little harder for the color guy like Mike to maybe make his 20-second story into a 12-second story or a nine-second story (but) he can keep telling a story, stop for the pitch and if the pitch isn't put into play, he can keep going.
"People can see what's going on, they don't need me to say 'low, ball two.' It's not going to be an issue."