USA change 2 - time limits

[Andy]

Originally Posted by RKBUmp

I find it absolutely amazing the responses to the time limit change Im seeing on softball forums. The usual chatter about time limits is the cock game playing coaches do, trying to stall or hurry up and get an out so a new inning will start before the clock expires or the total disgust of drop dead time limits.

But what Im seeing now is everyone complaining about the new USA rule completely throwing tournament schedules out of whack and how late games are going to be.

Come on people, you cant have it both ways. Either you use drop dead time limits to keep games on schedule, or you remove the clock completely and games start when the previous game finally completes.

The real problem here...at least in the JO game, is the proliferation of teams due to "daddy ball" and everybody thinking their kid is going to have college paid for by softball. Too many teams, not enough talent to go around, especially pitching, leads to 15-14 games that take three plus hours. At the JO cup last year, bracket games were scheduled for seven innings at two hour intervals. I think we were at least an hour behind on one or more fields by the end of the day just about every day. If it is happening at that high of a level, then I can just imagine how its going to play out at lower levels.

This change will be used in championship play...I doubt that very many local tournaments will want to use this.