Start of a new inning

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by LRZ

At what point does the game begin, that is, at what point does the time begin to run?

I umpire baseball, not softball, and although I tried to find an answer on line, I perhaps missed it.

The ASA book used to say at the first pitch, which I would never actually do unless there was a separate person keeping the time... I have more important things to concentrate on at the time of the first pitch; they've now changed it to the first warm-up pitch, which is what I would have typically used anyway. Now that I use my watch, and not a countdown timer, I make it a habit to announce the start time so there is no mystery with the coaches.

Some umpires will start it at the end of the plate meeting as a technique to limit dawdling by the home team taking the field (I've even seen that specified in the tournament rules).