[Andy]

The issue is that softball is a game that is designed NOT to have a clock.

Time limits were introduced to keep tournaments on time. How many of you have been to an ASA national tournament where a time limit was used? Granted the level of play is much different than your average local weekend tournament, so the length of the game (timewise) is not usually an issue.

My opinion is that ASA, as a national governing body, resists introducing rules concerning a time clock since the game is not supposed to have one in the first place. The only thing covered in the book is when a the clock is supposed to start on a timed game. I think (my opinion) that rule was put in the book with great reluctance under some pressure.

Just from this post, we can see that there are different ideas of when the clock is to be stopped, just as there are to when it should be started, etc....

Trying to standardize this could be quite an undertaking...