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No matter how you try to cook this goose, the fact remains that the rules, such as they are, on timed games in ASA are so vague and the penalty so severe that you aren't going to find too many umpires who will enforce the penalty of a forfeit.
If ASA really wants umpires to stop the stalling and/or hastening tactics, they should add some words to make it clear when the forfeit should be enforced and when it should not, and provde a more rational way of officiating the rule than the pile driver to crack a nut penalty.
I don't know where you get from the rule on forfeits that only illegal acts are covered. It just says "tactics." Yet, in an ASA national tournament, the UIC allowed a team to change pitchers several times in a row, complete with warm up pitches, with none throwing an actual pitch.
That, to me, is more blatent and more "heinous" & "obvious" (to use David's words) than a mere leaving early violation. I'm sorry, but killing 3-4 minutes with successive pitcher warmups, while legal, is more abusive of the timed game rules than forcing the 3rd out. In the first case, no play can happen - it is a pure stall - while in the second case, at least the players still determine the outcome.
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Tom
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