Quote:
Originally Posted by Dakota
Other than getting a new ball into play at the bottom of the 1st, why do we even HAVE a ball rotation procedure? IOW, what purpose does it serve? If avoiding delay is the reason, it is a silly one (IMO), since I am pretty sure most HS-age and lower pitchers have no clue that there even IS a ball rotation procedure, and yet, I am hardly EVER asked to exchange, unless the ball is wet. So, it would amount to avoiding a couple of seconds delay once every blue moon. Hardly worth having a rule over.
And, it is really hard to enforce this rule without appearing to be a hard-*** OOO.
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I find it fairly common, especially in tournaments where each team provides a ball, that the balls are dissimilar, and pitchers create a strong preference for one ball over the other. The Dudley Heat with its high seams is one people love or hate. Or one team will throw in a ball that is older and slicker, so the pitchers don't like it.
Swapping out when you have other balls available isn't a big issue of time or delay. But when partners have allowed pitchers their choice, and the ball they want is fouled out of play, then I have seen multiple instances of delay because the pitcher wants "her" ball back. And it becomes a bigger issue to refuse to wait when you have been swapping on request all game long than it is to establish you are following the ball rotation in the rules.
That said, when warming up a pitcher, if a ball goes back to the screen, I give my catcher a replacement ball, so we keep the one minute between innings as their warmup time, and not lose a pitch chasing a ball. If it is the nonpreferred ball, we can switch it back before the inning starts. But not during the inning; I follow the ball rotation rule, unless ball is wet, period.