Mockery of the Game???

[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.