Quote:
Originally posted by IRISHMAFIA
One instance when I used it was when the pitcher started throwing bullets against the backstop. I gave him an excessive speed warning. The next pitch was a slow arc, but high enough to easily clear the 12' backstop
...
Another time was when one team was trying to get the game legal while the other was trying to stall. We were on a field which loses it's light real early in August, and we were going to an "if". I checked with the league president warning him about the problem we were going to face with available light, but he wanted us to try and get it in. Church league championship game and the decided underdog was up by 16 runs in the 3rd and it was getting dark. If the team would just hit a small roller, the defense would let it roll through their legs.
We had about 15 minutes of light left when some kid (maybe 16) came to bat. With me less than 6 feet away, this kids older brother tells him to just step on the plate and hit the ball and I would have no choice but to rule him out. Well, I had enough and leaned forward while the batter's brother was still there and told both of them not to do it. The kid looked at his brother who just nodded. As the first pitch was coming, the kid looked down and put his foot in the middle of the plate and swung at a pitch 2 feet over his head, and just tipping it foul.
My ruling: I called dead ball and halt the game due to darkness.
...
Two different scenarios that could have gone either way and I handled them in two different manners. There are other umpires out there which might have just as successfully handled the same situations in a different manner. Neither one of us would be right or wrong.
This is the type of situation that anyone HTBT to understand any action taken. I think the powers that be are trusting the umpire to be intelligent enough to know how to handle situations without giving them guidelines which may point them toward an inevitable result which may have possibly been handled in a different and maybe better manner had he relied on his experience than a book. Damn, that was a long sentence.
JMHO,
|
OK, but a couple of questions.
What if the pitcher started throwing pitches way outside, but legal in terms of speed and arc - wouuld you have called anything?
In the second case, what if the defense had continued to intentionally misplay in order to extend the inning? Would you have called anything?
In other words, I notice that in both cases, you did not invoke the rule until someone did something illegal.
Finally, in your second example, the issue was darkness, not the clock. Sure, delay / hastening was still the issue, but clock management was not. My concern stems from timed games, not from other issues such as darkness. Every other sport that uses a clock has special rules governing acceptable behavior, etc., during the final minutes of the game. Since the rules of softball are not designed with a clock in mind, providing end-of-game (from a clock perspective) rules would be especially useful.
JMO - never JMHO, though
