Baseball peeve: that darn speed graphic

What is that up there?

When I tried to google the right graphic for this post, I found that not knowing the name of a thing makes it very hard to find. What is the word for the game-play summary graphic at the top of the screen when you watch a game? You see it at the top of the image to the left. I tried scorecard and ticker and other likely words but I never found an image of the graphic I was looking for.

Well, whatever it is, they've come up with a great new format for it. Last year a lot of the sportscasters used the new graphic. It lets you know instantly what's going on in the game, and in a very small format. I love the use of green, red and yellow balls to indicate strikes and balls. (I wish I could show you this; alas. Hopefully, you know what I'm talking about.) 

The only bad thing is that not every station has switched to the new format. Maybe they have to rent it on a per-show or season basis, and are unwilling to cough up the cash. That sounds just like baseball: cheap. (That's not it in the image above, by the way. I couldn't find a photo of the new whatever-they-call-it.)

Anyway, this is all just a lead-in to my pet peeve. Why, oh why do they use the space where the balls and strikes are listed, to show the speed of the pitch? Insanely, the balls and strikes total disappears while they show us how fast the guy's throwing. I don't care how fast he's throwing. I want to know how many balls and strikes there are. If they want to disappear something, disappear the station name -- the ESPN or whatever, to show the pitch speed. We never look at that anyway. But no matter what, why pick the only thing we need to know, and disappear it for the stupid speed information? Why? Take the team name, fer gawd's sake, and make it disappear so you can show the speed. Anything but the balls and strikes. Nitwits!

Next weekend, we'll be into Spring training. It's been a long, cold, hard haul but we're almost there. Yay!!!!!