Nothing!

Why does everyone think that the official has to interject him/herself into every facet of the game?

ozzy,

If a pitcher is taking an actual 30 to 45 seconds between pitches, I would be going INSANE!!! I mean, like ALL the time?!!?

I'd HAVE to do SOMETHING.

JM

I agree...no level of baseball should be or is played that way. At that level of baseball, I'm telling the coach to get his pitcher to speed it up...that being said, I don't think I will ever work that level of baseball ever again...not that I'm too good for it, but there's plenty of other ball in my area to keep me as busy as I want to be.

Betcha it was his first ever game where he had to deal with leadoffs.

Well, if this bothers you (taking so long to pitch), then I suggest that you do not accept games where the age group is 12 - 13 yrs old. You have no right to tell a coach to speed his pitcher up nor do you have a duty to "push the game along". There are too many of you out there thinking that baseball is a timed game...... it is not.

I will occasionally do a youngster game such as this and I accept that the skills of the players is not to the caliber of older ones. In most cases, it is just a leisurely afternoon off with pay for me.

I agree with you if it is truly untimed. Most of our local leagues, however, are timed. I think that if we can move things along (usually via the coach, not the player) in situations like that, we are helping the kids by letting them get more game in. Usually a casual comment between innings along the lines of, "Coach, if you can get him to speed up a little we'll get more innings in." is enough. I agree we should never coach or try to force anything that's not within the rules.

Ozzy,

I disagree. It's a rule.

FED - 6-2-2c (with or without runners)
OBR - 8.04 (no runners)
8.05(h) (with runners)
NCAA - 9-2c (no runners)
9-3e (with runners)

And it's the umpires job to enforce.

JM

Uhh, you carrying a stop watch on you at the plate there pal?

You can quote all the rules that you want, none of you have the gonads to actually call a pitcher on this at age 12 - 13. I can see in HS ball and older youth ball but not this age group. And I can just about guarantee you that if you say anything to the coach, he's going to tell you to go $hit in your hat.

Well, if UmpJM tells them with the same attitude you told UmpJM, I can just about guarantee you, you should have plenty of new hats because you're going to need them.........:rolleyes: