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Interesting takes on the pitcher/coach conference between innings. I discussed this with an umpire supervisor earlier this season and was advised to warn a coach that he could be charged a conference if he did it again in the future as most would not even consider this a trip.
The basis was that 1) by having the discussion, it took away from the time the pitcher had to throw his 5 or 8 warm-up pitches - thus delaying the start of the inning unless you subsequently reduced the number of warm-up pitches. And 2) it also was to be considered a conference because the next half inning officially starts as soon as the last out is recorded in the previous half inning.
This becomes a real issue if you are playing games under a time limit.
Unless the pitcher was out running the basepaths, the coach could have given his advice in the dugout (I do allow the 3rd base coach to walk across the diamond and give a brief word of encouragement or whatever as he passes the pitcher though).
Sounds like many of you disagree -
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