[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally posted by Dakota


Let's take your first situation. Suppose the defense decided to intentionally walk every batter. Given the situation, would you invoke the rule? The pitcher made it easier for you by throwing illegal pitches and intentionally disregarding your instructions. Suppose he hadn't done that, but just intentionally walked the batter?

I didn't stop it for the illegal pitches. I stopped it for the pitcher intentionally stalling by making a travesty of the game. In my judgement, that is just what he was doing. After all, throwing the game balls out of play is going to cause a delay in retrieving or replacing them.

And, again, in the game called on account of darkness, what would you have done if one team had been innocent? Suppose the defense just "muffs" every play, never allowing the inning to end, but the other team just continues to play normally? Would you invoke the rule against the defensive team once it became clear they were just stalling? Or what would you have done if you hadn't heard the offensive players talking about getting an intentional out by stepping on the plate?

If it were one sided, I would have offered the team whose actions were blatent a warning to play straight up or I would forfeit the game. A short story about that at the bottom.

And, finally, what about changing pitchers 3 times in succession, as was (supposedly) done at an ASA JO FP Nationals?

Since the clock does not come into play in anything other than pool play over 10U, I would think this was somewhat of a bush league move by a Gene Mauch wannabe. If it were obvious the intention was to run out a clock, I don't see where the umpires and TD could not suspend the clock to permit this abnormal need to change pitchers. A TD has a lot more authority than many people realize.

Short story. Team A had Team B down by 14 runs going into the bottom of the 5th inning. First pitch was popped up behind the SS only to have him take a few steps toward the pitcher to say something. Next ball was hit to F4 who turn to 2B for the force out. F6 wasn't there, but talking to F5. When he turned to throw to 1B, F3 was watching the game on the other field. Team A was decidedly a superior team, but they wanted to bat again.

My partner and I got together and both agreed something was strange. The next ball rolled past F3 and halfway into RF as F10 walked over to the ball. The batter ended up with a triple.

At this point, my partner and I told the coach that his team was making a travesty of the game and if they didn't start to play the game properly, it would be forfeited to their opponent and we really didn't care what the score was.

Well, much to our surprise, Team B made a comeback and got to within 2 runs by the end of that half inning. We moved to the bottom of the 6th after Team A went scoreless in the top and it started to rain lightly. Team B got a couple of runners on base and you should have heard the whining by Team A that we need to call the game. When the coach called time to confer with me about the weather, I told him lightning would have to strike 2B for me to stop this game. He told me that wasn't right and I reminded him that his team could have been in the comfort of their homes or local pub if they hadn't screwed around earlier. He had a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face when he returned to his position at 1B.

Team A ended up winning the complete game by 4 runs as the rain never became a safety factor. Had they continued to play in a manner my partner and I believed was intentionally dragging the game on, it never would have gone past the fifth inning.