Mockery of the Game???

[TwoBits]

So would these be mockeries?

1) In a tournament with pitchers limited to innings pitched, offensive coach notices that opposing pitcher will go over his innings allowed if he records one more out (innings are recorded by thirds). Coach instructs batter to step way out in front of the batter's box and hit the ball in order to get the automatic out.

2) In a tournament with a time-limit, coach of losing home team with two outs and only one minute in time limit instucts batter to do as described above.

3) In a tournament in which the team winning by one run needed to beat their opponent by a certain number of runs in order to advance from pool play has a pitcher who intentionally walks the lead-off batter and balks 3 consecutive times so that he scores the tying run so the game can go into extra innings.

[Rich]

[QUOTE=PeteBooth]

Originally Posted by bossman72

Doing a game tonight, i was BU. It was getting late and the visiting team (who was batting) wanted to complete the extra inning before it got too dark. One batter comes to the plate and swings just as the ball leaves the pitcher's hand- obviously just swinging for a strike so he can be out and they can hurry up.

Originally Posted by bossman72

Your thread is typical when daylight is an issue.

You need to have game awareness. Are the teams hustling in between innings. Is it good calibur ball.

If the game is so/so and you have 6 completed innings and there is approx 15 -20 minutes of daylight left then I recommend you call the game at that point. Simply tell the coaches (who cares if they do not like it) that in your judgement it's too dark to finish the game.

More often than not, if you start the top of the seventh you will encounter more problems and hear more grief then if you called the game to begin with.

For the most part daylight becomes an issue when the game is not very good to begin with. In my experience, when you have two good teams that are well coached the daylight issue is moot unless the game goes into extra innings.

IMO, swinging at pitches not in the zone is not cause for a travesty and is not supported by rule.

The game can become a pharse and at that point should be stopped. By pharse I mean a player purposely off the bag so he can be tagged out or a player hitting a single and not running so that the outfielder has time to throw him out. Purpsosely abandoning the base path to be called out or allowing your teammate to pass you to get an out.

Once the game does not resemble a game anymore, then it's time to stop and simply let the league president handle it from that point on.

In Summary: Stop the game before it's get ugly or rediculous. As mentioned if the game is not good, players are not hustling on/off the field and you have a regulation game (6 full innings for example) with minimal daylight left call the game.

Pete Booth

I don't require anyone to play faster in the fifth inning with the sun going down than I would at any time in the midday sun.

[WhatWuzThatBlue]

Originally Posted by CoachJM

WWTB,

Perhaps you'll find Jim Evans more persuasive:



30 seconds for a coach to give signals?!?!?! 15 Seconds?!?!? YGTBSM! How long do your games last?

JM

It seems that others concur with me Coach. While Mr. Evans speaks for those who work professional ball, his opinion of this matter means little to those who don't play without the benefit of lights and tarps.

In the real world, coaches applaud strategy and umpires acknowledge it. While I would certainly encourage the contestants to hustle, in both of my examples, they have done nothing illegal. In the original post, the coach has told his players to swing - isn't that one of the things they have direct control over? While it may be poor sportsmanship, would it be any different than having the batter square, bunt and then purposely slow to a trot for the out. How about this, the opposing (defensive) coach realizes that the game will never be official as the storm clouds are rolling in. This is a huge conference game and he knows that they will have to start it over. He directs his pitcher to just start walking everybody. Who cares if they walk in forty runs, the game won't count and it'll be raining soon? Are you telling me that the umpire should interject himself into this situation?

Yes, coach, my games take longer than yours do. I typically work nine inning games with multiple partners. We allow time for signals and respect that while our job is demanding, the stress a big time NCAA coach feels is pretty severe. I don't make my job tougher than it has to be. I don't expect him to make it easier either. Maybe we agree to disagree here, but as a coach I would think you'd understand.

[briancurtin]

Originally Posted by TwoBits

So would these be mockeries?

1) In a tournament with pitchers limited to innings pitched, offensive coach notices that opposing pitcher will go over his innings allowed if he records one more out (innings are recorded by thirds). Coach instructs batter to step way out in front of the batter's box and hit the ball in order to get the automatic out.

2) In a tournament with a time-limit, coach of losing home team with two outs and only one minute in time limit instucts batter to do as described above.

3) In a tournament in which the team winning by one run needed to beat their opponent by a certain number of runs in order to advance from pool play has a pitcher who intentionally walks the lead-off batter and balks 3 consecutive times so that he scores the tying run so the game can go into extra innings.

did these situations actually happen?

i havent worked time limited games since my days in LL, but its not like a buzzer goes off and everyone grabs a towel and heads to the parking lot. if a game was like that, id be kind of shocked. arent time limited games "no inning can start after X:XX" or "no inning can start after the game has gone X:XX"?

[WhatWuzThatBlue]

I worked an American Legion tourney last year that featured six games in one day. They had a two hour and fifteen minute time limit, mercy rule and free substitution as adnendums to the standard Legion rules. In one of those games, the visiting team needed to score three runs to win. With the game right at two hours, the home team coach (now on defense) did all he legally could to slow the game down. He did the slow walk, changed pitchers after the first batter, second batter and then asked for an injury time out for his catcher, another long delay for a substitute that had to come in from right field. The other coach was going bananas and as the Legion Color Guard sat watching, proceeded to be ejected for harassing one of the crew. I was working third base and was clearly the closest to the coach, but he decided to turn his wrath on the younger guy on the dish. The problem was that the younger guy also works D1 regularly and knows how to deal with coaches like this.

In another game, the home team needed to get their half of the fourth in the books so that the game would be official. Since they were up by eight or nine and needed three outs in a hurry, they took 'pepper' cuts and then stayed in the box as they were thrown out. When the coach complained after the inning, I offered that if his kid would have thrown the ball into the stands, they would have had a runner on second and the inning would have continued. He smiles and told me that I should have coached his team.

Strategy means knowing the rules and how to take advantage of the ones that matter. They didn't cheat and despite others protestations, swinging at a pitch that bounces or is just released is not prohibited. Do you expect us to penalize a kid who just stands there with the bat glued to his shoulder? He too is just trying to strike out.

[TwoBits]

Originally Posted by briancurtin

did these situations actually happen?

i havent worked time limited games since my days in LL, but its not like a buzzer goes off and everyone grabs a towel and heads to the parking lot. if a game was like that, id be kind of shocked. arent time limited games "no inning can start after X:XX" or "no inning can start after the game has gone X:XX"?

Yes, every single one of them.