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Originally posted by Danny R
I just umped my 3rd LL game (8 yr-olds). Stealing is allowed. During the game, there were a number of times that a ruuner was on 3rd and after the pitch, while the catcher still had the ball, the runner would take several steps off the bag toward home, trying to make the catcher nervous about blowing the throw to the pitcher. This caused the catcher to stand there holding the ball waiting for the runner to get back on 3rd. Of course, the runner wouldn't go back and so we had these silly cat and mouse games going on. It's a big waste of time in my opinion. How do other umps handle this? If I see that the runner isn't running can I call time so that we can get the game going?
First off allowing stealing in an 8 yr. old division IMO is a joke - Get ready for track meets.
I disagree with the concenses here. Whenever r3 starts to play that cat and mouse game call TIME and get the game moving again, especially in an 8 yr. old division.
If you do not call time, the game will drag on. Give the offense their shot at scoring, but once F1 has the ball and F2 is ready to receive and R3 starts the shenanigans, call TIME and put an end to the non-sense.
As the kids get older, they will learn how to defend against this.
Pete Booth
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Peter M. Booth
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