Mechanic Question

[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.