Ok,

[Tim C]

In the Cleveland game Mark Wegner, with stop watch, called TWO balls for Bettincourt taking more than 20 seconds to pitch:

Comments?

Regards,

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by Tim C

In the Cleveland game Mark Wegner, with stop watch, called TWO balls for Bettincourt taking more than 20 seconds to pitch:

Comments?

Regards,

Yes.

The new revised rule says 12 seconds so he blew it by a lot.

[TussAgee11]

good to know the 2nd base ump is looking at a stopwatch and not at other potential happenings (balks, pickoffs, etc). Although unlikely to get caught not looking at the ball in a MLB game.

Perhaps MLB notfied the crew that the Indians were averaging the longest time of games in the league, or close to it (can't find stats anywhere, just speculating on why Wegner would do this).

Editted 2 seconds later:

I realize that the 12 second rule is only in effect when no runners are on. So scratch off the pickoff part of my arguement. Still, licking the hand is called more than 12 seconds rule is.

[Rcichon]

Another use of the stopwatch. I guess it's not just used for TV Commercial timing.

[fitump56]

Originally Posted by Tim C

In the Cleveland game Mark Wegner, with stop watch, called TWO balls for Bettincourt taking more than 20 seconds to pitch:

Comments?

Regards,

MLB wants to shorten games, this is one way they do it.

[mrm21711]

Originally Posted by Tim C

In the Cleveland game Mark Wegner, with stop watch, called TWO balls for Bettincourt taking more than 20 seconds to pitch:

Comments?

Regards,

Doesnt matter but it was Eddings

[Tim C]

Thanks for the TWO corrections.

12 Seconds
Eddings

Got it.

And I wasn't even drinkin'.

Hopefully the "King of Blather" will not add yet another group of endless posts to this thread.

Regards,

[waltjp]

Football officials use a timer attached to their belt to time the durations of timeouts and play-clock violations. The box vibrates when time has expired. Maybe it's time for baseball to look into a similar device. Call it the BalkBox®

The BalkBox® is a registered trademark of ME.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by Tim C

In the Cleveland game Mark Wegner, with stop watch, called TWO balls for Bettincourt taking more than 20 seconds to pitch:

Comments?

Regards,

It would be nice if this were called more frequently so players at "our level" would be more aware of it and then we could call it without receiving a rasher of s*** and games would move faster.

Applies also to the batter's box rule (and I know MiLB umps have been instructed to enforce this)

[mbyron]

1. I have never seen this rule enforced in MLB, whether 20 seconds or 12.
2. Betancourt is sloooooow. Even this Indians fan can admit that.

The Indians' announcers have learned how to wait until he's actually set before announcing "the set, and the pitch," or there's an ungainly pause in the middle!

[greymule]

I love baseball, but the pace of MLB games today is murderous. I find myself working in my office while the TV plays the living room. If things start happening, I go watch.

MLB needs a lot more than a 12-second clock. How they're filling the parks, I don't know. And it's not just MLB: last Saturday, my partner complained to me about the 3-hour, 40-minute regulation Legion game he had endured the night before.

I know you can't really compare baseball today with baseball 100 years ago, but . . .

In the 29 games of the first 5 World Series (1903, 1905-1908), the average time of game was 1:52. A half inning—time between third outs—took on average 6 minutes and 17 seconds. (Seems like it takes that long between innings today.) The 29 games saw a total of 15 relief pitchers.

The 4 games of the 2005 World Series averaged 3:51. A half inning took on average 11 minutes, 25 seconds. Game 3 (14 innings) took 5 hours, 41 minutes. The White Sox and Astros used 15 relief pitchers in game 3, and 31 in the 4 games.

[mbyron]

Fans think they want a lot of scoring, without realizing that base runners lengthen the game. Baseball is a business, so the customer is always right...

[Jim Porter]

Here's video of the two incidents. The umpires had issued a warning about the pitcher taking too much time during Magglio Ordonez's at-bat just prior to the first incident. The warning was explained to manager Eric Wedge.

http://menotomyjournal.com/mlbvids/eddings1.wmv
http://menotomyjournal.com/mlbvids/eddings2.wmv

[fitump56]

Originally Posted by greymule

I love baseball, but the pace of MLB games today is murderous. I find myself working in my office while the TV plays the living room. If things start happening, I go watch.

MLB needs a lot more than a 12-second clock. How they're filling the parks, I don't know..

Disneyland. most MLB parks are entertainment venues with basball as a side show.

[Jurassic Referee]

Apparently MLB issues a list to their umpiring staff on what pitchers, hitters, etc. are delaying the game. Makes sense.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...707050386/1048