Quote:
Originally posted by illiniwek8
This might be kind of nitpicking, but here is my question/situation. It is the 4th inning and the coach is out to switch pitchers. His pitcher gets to his 7 warm-up pitch and the catcher decides to run to the dugout to fix a bandage which he had on his finger. The coach comes in to finish his pitchers warm-up and procedes to take extra warm-up pitches while the catcher is being attended to. I (thinking I am doing the right thing) tell the coach that his pitcher has had his warm-up pitches and don't allow him to continue. Now that I am writing this...it sounds kind of bad what I did....was I wrong in doing this? This was the coach's 3rd pitching change and the catchers second time having to go to the dugout to fix a bandage on his finger.....the game was dragging and I wanted to move the game on. I also thought it was not fair for his pitcher to recieve extra throws because the catcher decided to take off after the 7th warm-up pitch. Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.
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I remember a coach who would come out to talk to the pitcher and on his way to the mound he would throw a ball to the 1B man, who would then begin warming up with the 2B man. After spending some time with the pitcher he would then make the change to bring in 1B man to pitch. Coaches will do what the can to get extra warmups. What if the bandage is a planned gimic to get more warmups? That is what comes to mind, especially since it happened after the 7th pitch. Give him 8 and call and end to it, and then wait for the catcher, unless it is cold and he was brought in cold (ie no bullpen warmpup), in which case allow him a few more pitches. If he is out to switch pitchers due to a pitcher injury or pitcher ejection (it has happened)give the new pitcher all he wants.
I also love it when the catcher is late getting out to warmup the pitcher after a half inning. If he gets there by the 5th warmup I tell him to throw it down. If he gets there after the 5th warmup we play ball. If a coach comes out to warmup the pitcher while catcher is getting ready I tell him to throw it down on the 5th warmup.
If the coach decides to have a defensive team meeting outside the dugout before taking the field and it takes too long for the meeting I tell the catcher to throw the first warmup pitch down. I love getting the fan comments after that one... Coach sometimes gets the message and sometimes not.
[Edited by DG on Apr 1st, 2005 at 11:40 PM]