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Originally Posted by Andy
I'm going to disagree with my two esteemed colleagues on this one....
Irish is absolutely correct that it is not illegal to request time and Tee is correct that, by rule, the action must be done with the intent to cause an IP.
While the action of requesting time is not illegal, it is unusual. It doesn't happen on every pitch with every batter.
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Unusual? What games do you umpire?
Are not batters told that if they want "time", they must request it, not just assume it will be approved just because they raise a hand or step out?
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The "intent" of the batter in most of these situations is to disrupt the pitcher from her pitching routine. The batter usually thinks that the pitcher is taking too long to deliver the pitch, so she (batter) wants to make the pitcher start over. If an IP is called, not only has the batter succeeded in disrupting the pitcher, she has received the "bonus" of an IP that her actions directly led to.
Yes...a GOLD level pitcher should know enough that once she starts the pitch to finish it. However, I'm not going to allow an unusual action of the batter, even though it's a legal one, to result in an IP.
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Please. That is taught at 12U. You are making a lot of assumptions that simply have not been presented. The umpire did not approve the request for time, the batter did not make any movement or action that would affect the pitcher
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Call time, No pitch, reset and go again.
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Back in the day.......we were taught that when something like this happened, you called the whatever happened. If it occurred again, then you called no pitch and warn players and coaches.