This article is part of our Rounding Third series.
With all but two teams playing Tuesday, there was no shortage of inspiration to draw observations. Here are a few quick things that I noticed.
New Humidors
Late in the Cubs' loss to the Brewers, Cubs broadcaster Boog Sciambi mentioned that the five teams that installed new humidors were the Astros, Marlins, Cardinals, Rangers and Blue Jays:
Video of the segment for those who want to hear it for themselves. Includes the full list of last year's new humidors too. pic.twitter.com/S7spTGTekZ
— Sara Sanchez (@BCB_Sara) April 7, 2021
Listen to the entire clip - Sciambi made a pretty good point that installing a humidor doesn't necessarily hurt the ball's flight in places that are already humid - particularly Miami. We tend to think a humidor automatically hurts a hitting environment, but that might not be the case. The general goal is to level the playing field across all ballparks.
The wild part of this story was that it was 'broken' by Sciambi - the Cubs' broadcaster, in a game against the Brewers - neither team being one that had a humidor or was installing one this year. This all presupposes that I didn't just miss an earlier announcement today about those ballparks. But it was brought up so casually in the broadcast, you'd have thought that there was such a press release.
Angel Hernandez's Tough Day
Fresh off of losing a lawsuit against Major League Baseball, umpire Angel Hernandez had the home plate duties on Tuesday afternoon's game between
