[greymule]

A member of our ASA association recently worked the 10-and-under girls' LL softball "Districts" and reported that one of his games started at 6:00 p.m. and ended at 10:04. No delays for rain, injuries, fixing the field, getting the lights working, or anything else. It took 4 hours and 4 minutes to play a 6-inning, 28-26 game. (Too bad it wasn't tied after 6 innings!)

He said there were a lot of walks. Hmm. I wouldn't have guessed.

These games pay $25, so that's $6.25 an hour (and he got to the field an hour early, as instructed). But even for just the game time, he worked for less than minimum wage in New Jersey.

I've heard some of the old-timers around here reminisce about the marathon FP games of the 1940s and 1950s (2-1 in 31 innings, game ended at 2 in the morning, etc.), but I know I never did a softball game that took anywhere near 4 hours. The rec leagues have time limits, and so do the tournaments, except sometimes in the semifinals and finals, where the pitching is likely to be good and long games rare.

But the LL tournament games have no time limit.