Thinking about your "the most important thing (isn't baseball)" fic.

I'd like to think Patrick is not affected by the new timing rules this baseball season.

Anyway, the fic is one of my comfort fics. It's lovely to re read.

aww thank you! i love hearing that people come back to this one again 💗💗

and yes, patrick has no difficulty with the new pitch clock rules, aside from the fact that it's now another potential cause of Emotions from his pitchers that he has to manage. but he's already used to how to handle all of the other highs and lows of the pitching staff, so this is just another bump in the road that he navigates like the pro he is.

his bigger annoyance is the way that the rule has changed how many times his pitchers can throw over. combined with the slightly larger bases, it's made the steal rate balloon in a way that frustrates him. it's his job to keep those runners from advancing, and—no matter how much pitchers who are slow to the plate might be more to blame—he takes every stolen base a little personal. now he's spending a lot of time in his early work on stealing drills because shaving even a few hundredths of a second off of his pop time or increasing the accuracy of his throws by a few percent can mean the difference between a safe call and an out, between a win and a loss, and it's a responsibility to his team that he takes seriously