For the next hour, as the sun tracked toward the west, the shadow didn't move. By 3 p.m., it covered half the infield, including the mound and home plate. Pitchers, of course, love it. We played a series here with Oakland and a couple of them were day games and we had a lot of shadows. It didn't seem to bother anybody either way.
Hitters tell a different story.
Their livelihood depends on how they see the baseball out of the pitcher's hand. They must get a good look at the rotation in order to gauge whether it's a fastball, changeup, sinker, slider or curve. Without that, they're just guessing. When the pitcher is completely in the shade and the hitting background is in the sun, it's extremely tough to see the ball. The ball is dark and the background is so bright.