[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by His High Holiness


Over at eteamz, there is a long article (OBR board, "Called on account of darkness") about a college wood bat league that it is about 100 miles from me in central Pennsylvania. (The funny thing is that the writer does not say what kind of league that it is and some of the respondents seem to think that it is some kind of Little League.) Anyway, the pitcher is giving an intentional walk to the batter and one team is attempting to delay the game in order to get it called on account of darkness. The batter decides to swing during the intentional walk so the pitcher drills him on the next pitch. Chaos broke out and the umpire ended the game.

Peter IMO umpires are trying to be too nice when it comes to darkness and that's why sometimes a sh******e arises. My mentor once told me, we know when it's going to get dark and when you get to a certain point and KNOW for a fact that you will not be able to get a WHOLE inning before it's gets dark - kill it

In addition, this is why umpires need to show up early for a game, especially on fields with no lights. Sometimes you can start early. An assignor doesn't want to hear "Hey your umpires showed up late and the reason we didn't get the game in is because we didn't start on time"

If an umpire has good game management skills concerning darkness, the "methods" which you discussed do not have to be followed. Also, do not let the teams dilly dally Once F1 only gets one pitch in which to warm up - They get the message and yes this works even in adult leagues.

Also, if you do see one team trying to make a travesty by constantly stalling, then kill the game at that point. I did such a thing in a collegiate wood bat league last year. The coach asked for time and changed F1 which is perfectly in his right, however, after one pitch he asked for time again except this time he wanted to change both F1 / F2. Then he instructed F2 to call time and talk to F1 etc. After, I saw this nonsense develop and you could tell the other team was getting mad and yes a potential sh******e could develop I simply called the game.

The bottom line here is: As umpires show up early, keep the game moving and if you feel that you can only get so many innings in, when you reach that point kill the game IMO you do not need to resort to such tactics as you outlined in a previous thread just to prevent potential problems.

Pete Booth