intentional swing and miss in SP

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Originally posted by chuck chopper
I have had games nearing curfew or darkness that had not gone the necessary 5 innings to be official. The team winning by a ton got up & swung intentionally missing just to get the inning over with. Players are not required to try to hit the ball.

As I noted above, in hindsight I probably should handled the situation that I posed by just calling the strike, as the player simply wanted to hit instead of walk. There was no issue of rain, darkness, or time limit.

However, the situation you pose -- intentionally hastening the end of the game -- is actually not legal and eventually could be grounds for a forfeit (the same goes for stalling). Having said that, I probably would let it go in an isolated instance in a rec league both teams were ok with it (e.g. a terrible blowout where the losing team wants to be put out of its misery as soon as possible). But it would make a farce of the game to let, say, 5 or 6 players in a row intentionally strike out or otherwise make an out on purpose for strategic reasons. Certainly there are gray areas, and some games indeed deserve to end ASAP (and, as umpires, we certainly want them to be official games when they end), but as umpires we also need to set limits. I would not condone a team making many outs on purpose to beat the rain, nor would I condone the defense in that situation intentionally making misplays. I would warn both teams.