[WhatWuzThatBlue]

I worked an American Legion tourney last year that featured six games in one day. They had a two hour and fifteen minute time limit, mercy rule and free substitution as adnendums to the standard Legion rules. In one of those games, the visiting team needed to score three runs to win. With the game right at two hours, the home team coach (now on defense) did all he legally could to slow the game down. He did the slow walk, changed pitchers after the first batter, second batter and then asked for an injury time out for his catcher, another long delay for a substitute that had to come in from right field. The other coach was going bananas and as the Legion Color Guard sat watching, proceeded to be ejected for harassing one of the crew. I was working third base and was clearly the closest to the coach, but he decided to turn his wrath on the younger guy on the dish. The problem was that the younger guy also works D1 regularly and knows how to deal with coaches like this.

In another game, the home team needed to get their half of the fourth in the books so that the game would be official. Since they were up by eight or nine and needed three outs in a hurry, they took 'pepper' cuts and then stayed in the box as they were thrown out. When the coach complained after the inning, I offered that if his kid would have thrown the ball into the stands, they would have had a runner on second and the inning would have continued. He smiles and told me that I should have coached his team.

Strategy means knowing the rules and how to take advantage of the ones that matter. They didn't cheat and despite others protestations, swinging at a pitch that bounces or is just released is not prohibited. Do you expect us to penalize a kid who just stands there with the bat glued to his shoulder? He too is just trying to strike out.