Mechanic Question

[Rich]

Originally Posted by jicecone

"I carry my stopwatch out on the field"

Say What??!!!!

Did 28 HS games this season and not one of them did I need to enforce a clock rule. Even the 3 -15 min game.

Sometimes you just have to umpire. And for God sakes please don't bring the watch on the field anymore. That is like reading the rulebook while in position, in between pitches. You are going to be skinned alive.

I would be *thrilled* if the NFHS went to a stopwatch like the NCAA has. I carry a stopwatch on the field for every NCAA game I work -- it's required equipment. If we hit 90 seconds before the pitcher starts his delivery on the first pitch, it's a ball. No warnings.

I haven't had to penalize this once this season. Because the pitcher and catcher HUSTLE to position and start warming up. And there's never, *never* a mound huddle after the ball gets thrown down because we'd have a violation every inning. I've taken to telling the catcher to feel free to go out and talk to the pitcher the first inning or if it's a new pitcher, but we don't need a huddle every inning -- they can talk in the dugout.

I don't see what's wrong with that, but an umpire can't be a lone wolf with stuff like this. An association, a state, or the NFHS must put such a protocol into place. But I do take pace of play seriously when I can.

[jicecone]

Originally Posted by GROUPthink

I would be *thrilled* if the NFHS went to a stopwatch like the NCAA has. I carry a stopwatch on the field for every NCAA game I work -- it's required equipment. If we hit 90 seconds before the pitcher starts his delivery on the first pitch, it's a ball. No warnings.

I haven't had to penalize this once this season.

Nothing personnal but, this is another rule put in by people that don't have a clue and think that the umpire is out there to babysit. Believe me if it gets enforced at the wrong time it will be changed.

Next thing you know , they will want to use aluminum bats!!!!

[kylejt]

No one said what type of ball this is.

I've worked tournaments where they want us to keep it to 60 seconds on the changeovers. I've got a pretty good clock in my head, and usually take that duty for my crew. If I'm on the bases, I'll just point to the PU, and he can tell the catcher to send it down. If I see the PU is doing paperwork, I'll wait until I can see he's about finished, then tell the closest defensive player to tell the catcher to throw it down. (I hate umpires who feel the need to bellow "BALLS IN!" Let the players take care of this).

I also factor in if teams are hustling or not, and if the catcher was on base.

I watched part of a game last night where changeovers were taking 5+ minutes. It was a three hour, 6 inning Little League game. Awful game management by all concerned. No reason for that. None.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by jicecone

Nothing personnal but, this is another rule put in by people that don't have a clue and think that the umpire is out there to babysit. Believe me if it gets enforced at the wrong time it will be changed.

Next thing you know , they will want to use aluminum bats!!!!

Do you work college baseball? I ask this with all seriousness, because I have first-hand account of the difference pre-stopwatch and post-stopwatch.

I only work D3 baseball, so no TV contracts, etc.

3-4 years ago, teams would slowly get back onto the field. It would take *forever* to get through the between innings stuff. You'd see teams huddle at the mound every half inning and some teams huddling at the dugout before going on defense. The only recourse for an umpire was to cut warmup pitches and that would start a different kind of craphouse and would have coaches calling assignors and complaining.

Now? They *run* onto the field, complete the 5 tosses in many times less than 45 seconds, and we start the next half-inning. It's like night and day. And I don't have to enforce this rule once. If the team takes a few extra seconds but it appears they're hustling, I use common sense and pretend the time hasn't expired. But the watch has made things so much nicer at the college level and it would be *easy* to put this in place at the HS level.

And notice that they give 90 seconds (measured from the last defender crossing the foul line) so the expectation isn't onerous.