Adam Wainwright was one of the rare players in Major League Baseball who spent his entire career with one team. And he pitched for so long he got to see firsthand how the game evolved, starting from the mid-2000s to the early 2020s.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the players union instituted a pitch clock and enacted a universal designated hitter among other rules. Wainwright pitched in the majors for the St. Louis Cardinals, from 2005 to 2023, after the team acquired him from the Atlanta Braves in December 2003.
He was a World Series champion with St. Louis in 2006 and was on the team in 2011 when it won another title, though he didn’t pitch during the year due to injury. Additionally, he was a Silver Slugger and a three-time All-Star. He retired from the majors after the 2023 season.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Wainwright is now more focused on spending time at home with his wife and children, and the singer-songwriter is gearing up to perform at the Grand Ole Opry Saturday in Nashville.
He talked to Fox News Digital about the evolution of the sport, including having to adjust to the pitch clock.
“The pitch clock was a little bit more of an adjustment than I thought,” he said. “I’m a pitcher that likes to work fast. So, I thought it wasn’t going to bother me a whole lot. But, you know, there’s moments in the game … where I wish I could call time just to have a few seconds to think about something because a hitter comes up third (in his) at-bat.
“And you got all these sequences in your head already. And, now, I’m thinking, ‘All right, I could start him here, I could go there,’ but you only got 15 seconds.
“Now, you got the catcher whose doing the sign in your ear with the PitchCom. So, you’re trying to think all this, and you got fastball, curveball, slider, and you’re like, ‘Just wait a second, you know.’”
Wainwright said most of the time when he threw a pitch and saw a reaction he knew exactly how he would approach the rest of the at-bat.
He told Fox News Digital he would like to see MLB tweak the pitch clock rules and have pitchers be able to call timeouts with nobody on base.
“We don’t need to get too fast because you get to a game, you want to sit down and have a drink, get a hot dog, get some popcorn,” he explained. “You still want to be able to sit there and enjoy it. But I do think the pitch clock was a good thing in many ways. It was getting a little slow.”
Starting with the 2022 season, the designated hitter was added to the National League as part of the collective bargaining agreement.
On the surface, it may have seemed like a good thing for Wainwright. He ruptured an Achilles early in the 2015 season while batting. He was able to make it back in time to finish out the season.
PHILLIES’ ZACK WHEELER MAKES MLB HISTORY WITH 3-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION
He told Fox News Digital he enjoyed batting and pitching.
“For me, the best feeling in the world was pitching a nine-inning game, pitching a whole game and getting clay all over me from being on the bases,” he said. “That was like my dream come true. I got to be Shohei (Ohtani) a couple of times in my career, and that was fun.”
Wainwright finished his career with a 3.53 ERA, 2,202 strikeouts and 200 wins. At the plate, he was a .192 lifetime hitter in 848 plate appearances with 10 home runs, 39 doubles and two triples.
As he takes on a new role in life, he told Fox News Digital he’s enjoying being at home.
“I’m very blessed to be able to transition into other good things. My wife says I lost one job and got three instead.”
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
