Mechanic Question

[Rich]

Originally Posted by ozzy6900

Uhh.... NO!
1st inning, both pitchers get 8 pitches, returning pitchers get 5 pitches. The PU controls this and should hold the teams to it. Leave your stop watch in your bag and stay in short right until you hear F2 call "2nd base" or "coming down", then move to "A".

Also, tell whoever told you this to stick the stop watch where the sun doesn't shine!

I think the proper advice is to do what your association or local practice is. In HS games I don't have a watch and in college games I do. I wouldn't dream of having a watch out there for a HS game and I would expect a call from the assignor if I *didn't* have one for my college games.

[jkumpire]

Originally Posted by GROUPthink

I think the proper advice is to do what your association or local practice is. In HS games I don't have a watch and in college games I do. I wouldn't dream of having a watch out there for a HS game and I would expect a call from the assignor if I *didn't* have one for my college games.

Ozzy,

Rarely do I disagree with you, but this is a marvelous thing to use. Where I do college ball we never had a problem with slow play. But some parts of the country supposedly did. Well, now it isn't a problem at all as several posters have stated.

But if you are going to do this, because of the Fed rule and interp., you need to have the PU control the time. As you know it's one minute from the last out of the previous half inning, with allowances made if F1 or F2 was on base or the last out of the previous inning at the discretion of the umpire.

In my HS games as the PU I use the same mechanics as I do in college; After 3 warmups, step to the line and announce "2 men" and flash 2 fingers to F1 and F2. They now know they throw the 2nd pitch down. When the last pitch is about to be thrown, I turn around and tell the on-deck hitter to get ready to hit as soon as F2 throws through.

If the F2 or F1 is lazy, or there is no sub to warm the pitcher, I tell them "two left" as soon as the first pitch is thrown. It's amazing how fast a team gets the message if the F1 only gets two or three warmups.

One minute can be a long time or a short time if you as the PU do not control it. If you set a quick pace to the game teams will adjust, and your stopwatch never needs to come out of the PU's pocket or ball bag, unless it needs to be seen to make a point.

[jicecone]

Kind of sounds like what I have been doing for 25 years. "Two more pitch, two more catch. "Batter!" "lets go guys".

The problem in HS is the different levels of play, even at Varsity, sometimes its difficult without looking like a nitpicking ahole. The good teams are never the problem and the bad teams well!!!. I have seen some Varsity ball this year that you had to end in two hours because they weren't going to make it to the 4th inning.

Its great to be consistent from game to game in the enforcemnet of rules but sometimes you just have to umpire. Did about 28 Var. games ths year and maybe half were decent baseball. To try to enforce time penalties consistently would be next to impossible.

I understand it has worked good at the College level which I think has more reasonable allowances. Too bad some officials let it get out of hand.

[David B]

Originally Posted by jicecone

Kind of sounds like what I have been doing for 25 years. "Two more pitch, two more catch. "Batter!" "lets go guys".

The problem in HS is the different levels of play, even at Varsity, sometimes its difficult without looking like a nitpicking ahole. The good teams are never the problem and the bad teams well!!!. I have seen some Varsity ball this year that you had to end in two hours because they weren't going to make it to the 4th inning.

Its great to be consistent from game to game in the enforcemnet of rules but sometimes you just have to umpire. Did about 28 Var. games ths year and maybe half were decent baseball. To try to enforce time penalties consistently would be next to impossible.

I understand it has worked good at the College level which I think has more reasonable allowances. Too bad some officials let it get out of hand.

Done college ball, done HS ball and they are completely different games. So much more organization in college ball. And, they have pitchers who can actually throw strikes.

Now we have good HS ball here and the players usually are always ready to go quickly as they should; however, you get a runaway game or two HS teams that can't throw a strike, its going to be a long night no matter what you do between innings.

But, I agree its a big problem. Baseball is a slow game and much of that is magnified due to the lack of diligence by the umpires on the field.

Thanks
David

[mbyron]

Saw this recently:

If you play 7 full innings, that's 14 half innings and 13 changes in a game. If you're allowing 1 minute for warmups, that's 13 minutes.

If you allow 4 minutes instead — just 3 more minutes per change — you're adding 40 minutes to the length of the game!

If you allow 2 minutes, you're still adding nearly a quarter of an hour. Your 2 hour game should take just 1:47 to play.

Enforcing this rule (and it IS a rule, at every level, 60 or 90 seconds) will make your game much faster without seeming to rush it.

[PABlue]

What kills me is this pompous jerk trying to tell us these mechanics that no one else has heard of and no one else in our area does!!!! He constantly is trying to interject NCAA mechanics into NFHS ball.
I really like to learn and am always striving to get better I just want to make sure what I'm learning is actually right!!!!!

[thumpferee]

Originally Posted by PABlue

What kills me is this pompous jerk trying to tell us these mechanics that no one else has heard of and no one else in our area does!!!! He constantly is trying to interject NCAA mechanics into NFHS ball.
I really like to learn and am always striving to get better I just want to make sure what I'm learning is actually right!!!!!

Where in PA?

I am also a PIAA official in western PA. We don't use, nor ever discussed a stopwatch. I can give you the name of a PIAA official and interpreter for District 10 so you can get the ammo you need.

PM me.

[Justme561]

Originally Posted by mbyron

Saw this recently:

If you play 7 full innings, that's 14 half innings and 13 changes in a game. If you're allowing 1 minute for warmups, that's 13 minutes.

If you allow 4 minutes instead — just 3 more minutes per change — you're adding 40 minutes to the length of the game!

If you allow 2 minutes, you're still adding nearly a quarter of an hour. Your 2 hour game should take just 1:47 to play.

Enforcing this rule (and it IS a rule, at every level, 60 or 90 seconds) will make your game much faster without seeming to rush it.

High School or College (or lower levels) I keep the game moving.

I have one of my partners (or partner) give me a signal when we are 50 seconds into the warm-up pitches so that I can get things 'wrapped up'. If the pitcher is warming up quickly I always indicate to the batter when there are 2 pitches left and then I indicate when there is 1 pitch left because I want him to get into the batters box ASAP.

While I love to be on the field officiating I am a 'stickler' for keeping the game moving. If you don't keep the game moving it makes for a sloppy looking game.