That time the home team didn't send a batter to the plate in the bottom of the inning

[teebob21]

So it's the offseason, and the forum is slow....time for a "I can't believe that happened" post.

An officiating friend and I were talking about the weirdest way we ever saw a game end, and this story came up. I don't remember exactly where I was working, or with who...or even what age group it was, but a few years ago at an ASA tournament, I had 3 minutes or so left in the game at the end of the top of the inning. The visitors were up by several runs, and instead of sending a batter to the plate, the home coach sent his team out to shake hands. I think it was a 6-1 ballgame at that point or something like that.

I was PU; I told him he could bat since the game wasn't over. He told me "You think we can score six runs in an inning? We haven't scored six runs in a whole game all weekend!" and smiled.

The teams shook hands, and left the field. I stood at parade-rest near home plate, waiting for time to expire. My partner, god bless him, did the same thing at first base without so much as a word between us. You literally can't pregame this, but he knew exactly what I was doing, and he followed along.

The teams had left the field, so it's just me and him out there in the summer sun, standing there. We stood there for a minute and a half. You don't really realize how long 90 seconds is until you stand like a dang statue and everyone behind the fence is saying "what's going on? What are they doing? Do they know the game is over?".

The timer went off, I called Ball Game, and we left the field. Weirdest way I've ever finished a ball game.