For the uninitiated, it will look like a crisis. For the faithful, it will be the moment of inevitable triumph.<\/p>\n
At some point this weekend, if all goes to plan, the lights of Citizens Bank Park will go dark. The speakers will become eerily silent. Small fires will ignite and spread, engulfing not only the outfield wall but also the upper decks and giant Liberty Bell. As it burns, the bell will toll with tones loud and ominous. Giant spiders will creep through the flames.<\/p>\n
All around, the people immersed in this apocalyptic hellscape will hold their phones aloft and scream while one man enters the field of play, his last name shining amid the blaze.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the way Philadelphia Phillies closer Jhoan Duran jogs into a baseball game.<\/p>\n
Like Mad Max driving through a sandstorm or The Undertaker marching into WrestleMania, Duran\u2019s entrance is both primal and theatrical, immersive and extravagant. The entire spectacle became a part of the deal<\/a> when the Phillies traded for Duran at the deadline, and its digital flames will never burn brighter than in the month of October.<\/p>\n Relief pitchers might be the underappreciated ditch diggers of baseball\u2019s regular season, but they are marquee difference makers in the playoffs. As the Division Series get underway on Saturday, relievers will be asked to do more in the coming weeks than at any other time of the year. They will be scrutinized and celebrated more than usual, and modern technology will allow these guardians of late-inning leads \u2014 especially the game\u2019s most established closers \u2014 to arrive like true rock stars, if those rock stars were also comic book heroes and professional wrestlers. The bullpen entrance has become a status symbol for those responsible for the last three outs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe closer has now transcended into that,\u201d two-time Reliever of the Year Liam Hendriks said.<\/p>\n New York Mets closer Edwin D\u00edaz helped usher in this era of larger-than-life ninth-inning entrances with his Timmy Trumpet extravaganza. In the coming weeks, Rogers Centre will glow purple for the Thanos-themed entrance of Toronto Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman. The Yankee Stadium ribbon boards will pulse for trade deadline acquisition David Bednar. T-Mobile Park will sound an alarm as Seattle Mariners All-Star Andr\u00e9s Mu\u00f1oz enters to exploding pyrotechnics, flashing lights, and pulsing rhythm befitting a music festival DJ.<\/p>\n Such multimedia bombast was not possible during the heyday of Hall of Fame relievers Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, whose entrances were iconic but almost entirely musical. Today\u2019s top closers walk into a stadium that looks more like a big-budget action movie.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re different times, different eras,\u201d said Phillies reliever David Robertson, a former teammate of Rivera and current setup man to Duran. \u201cMariano\u2019s, like, you just kind of knew it was over because he\u2019d been doing it for so long. But Duran\u2019s is just different. The crowd\u2019s in it. The phones are out. The lights are going crazy. They\u2019re both really good.\u201d<\/p>\n Both are good, but it\u2019s like comparing a personal computer from 1985 to the latest edition smartphone. One set the standard and changed the game, but the other just does so much more.<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of think,\u201d Robertson admitted, \u201cDuran\u2019s is a little bit cooler.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course it is. Rivera had the cutter, but he didn\u2019t have the technology. Modern sound systems, computer programs and lighting systems \u2014 it\u2019s mostly the lights \u2014 make immersive entrances like Duran\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n Mark DiNardo, the Phillies\u2019 director of broadcasting and video services, came to the team in 2006 after working previously for the Flyers and 76ers. He remembers when stadium lights needed 20 minutes of warmup to achieve full brightness and it was nearly impossible to make an entire ballpark go dark without waiting almost a half-hour for the field to become playable again. The Flyers, DiNardo said, used to have shutters over their lights, and the shutters would open and close to create darkness, but someone once hit the wrong switch, and a game was delayed 20 minutes.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s lights can turn on and off at a moment\u2019s notice. They can change colors. They can pulse. They can flash in specific shapes and patterns \u2014 the Phillies\u2019 light towers shine in a K after a strikeout \u2014 and they can be programmed to almost dance to the rhythm of a specific song.<\/p>\n And that song \u2014 along with any accompanying sound effects \u2014 will sound much louder and clearer on modern speaker systems, while LED ribbon boards show essentially high-definition video that can be programmed and coordinated to build a digital scene throughout a ballpark. The Phillies employ a specialist who works with all their lighting products to design elaborate shows that can be activated with the push of a button.<\/p>\n \u201cThe technology has just completely altered the landscape of what\u2019s going on,\u201d DiNardo said.<\/p>\n The Phillies have a generic entrance for any reliever who enters into a save situation, and it\u2019s a fairly elaborate show, but the Phillies don\u2019t want to give every reliever an individualized, Duran-level treatment. They want his entrance to be special. They want fans to anticipate it. Duran is one of the great closers in the sport, and his entrance reflects that.<\/p>\n DiNardo was with the Phillies in 2008 when their closer, Brad Lidge, had one of the great relief seasons of all time. Lidge was an All-Star who finished eighth in MVP voting, and the Phillies did their best to give him the superstar treatment by cranking up \u201cSoldiers\u201d by the band Drowning Pool, showing a highlight video, and making Lidge\u2019s name flash in two tones on the black-and-white scoreboard.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the big show,\u201d DiNardo said. \u201cAnd that was in 2008, not that long ago!\u201d<\/p>\n Rivera jogged out of the Yankee Stadium bullpen to \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d by Metallica and Hoffman closed games for the Padres to \u201cHells Bells\u201d by AC\/DC \u2014 Hendriks says those two songs should be retired like jersey numbers, unavailable to all relievers in today\u2019s game \u2014 but Rivera and Hoffman didn\u2019t play in stadiums capable of much more than a rock song and a screaming crowd. Hoffman finally got the full-stadium experience this summer when he pitched in a Savannah Bananas exhibition game<\/a> and entered to flames on the ribbon boards and cell phone lights in the stands. It was a triumphant return and a shared experience. The shining phones were a part of the show.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how far reliever entrances have spread. It\u2019s not just the millions of dollars invested in stadium lights and speakers. It\u2019s the hundreds of dollars spent on smartphones that can fill ballparks with tiny glowing lights. At Phillies games, fans can connect to an app so that their phones pulse in time with Duran\u2019s music as he enters the game.<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t possible \u2014 on several levels \u2014 when Rivera closed out the World Series 25 years ago, but if the Phillies advance to the Fall Classic this month, or even if they have a narrow lead in the ninth inning of a game this weekend, Citizens Bank Park will become an interactive movie set, inside of a digital amusement park, all because one man is about to try for three outs in a baseball game.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more we can use technology to interact with the fans to bring them into what\u2019s going on in the ballpark and the field, the better it is for the game and for the sport and for our fans,\u201d DiNardo said. \u201cIt should be part of the show, and they should come in and expect something that they haven\u2019t seen before that will really electrify them.\u201d<\/p>\n When the end of the game looks like the end of the world, it\u2019s just getting to the good part.<\/p>\n With reports from The Athletic\u2019s Charlotte Varnes<\/p>\n (Illustration: Demetrius Robinson \/ The Athletic; Top photos: Eric Hartline\/Imagn Images, Dustin Satloff\/Getty Images, Al Bello\/\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the uninitiated, it will look like a crisis. 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