Oh, what a night

[mcrowder]

And I wasn't even there.

I get to have unpleasant conversations with one of my umpires, and the league president this morning. Yeah me.

Background - 2 weeks ago, League President (LP) was at a game where one of my umpires was working plate. Our rules state that if at any point, one team is not able to catch up (either not enough time or not enough remaining innings), the game is over. PU did not notice that as time expired, the visiting team was behing by more runs than our run rule allows. LP called out "Ballgame!!!" from behind the fence at home plate. Of course - no one brought this to my attention... I'm learning of it now.

1) Scorekeeper should have notified PU of the sitch.
2) Failing that, I really don't have a problem with LP notifying PU that the game was out of reach, but PU should have been the one to call the game over.

Neither of these happened, and no one explained to my PU (who, incidentally, is not a novice) why he was calling the game over. Apparently, PU assumed that we had some bizarre rule that when time expired, game was over. Period. Since this was never brought to my attention - I never had the chance to discuss it with either party.

Now - last night
Same PU, LP not in attendance. Visitor winning 6-5, home team about to bat as time expires. PU calls "BALLGAME!"

Great. Yes - he screwed up. Home team coach (not normally a hothead) goes ballistic for several minutes before PU ejects him, and for several minutes afterward. This is the second instance in 8 days where I was not at a game and a coach went off on an umpire after a game ended.

So now... the fun conversation with my PU about the rules, and an equally fun conversation with LP about 1) let the umpires call the games and 2) get your coaches under control.

Yuck.

[chuck chopper]

I don't think I understand why when the mentioned time limit went into effect on the 2nd game, & he called the game..that was screwing up?
.
It sounds like a version of a "drop dead" time limit.

[TwoBits]

Originally posted by chuck chopper
I don't think I understand why when the mentioned time limit went into effect on the 2nd game, & he called the game..that was screwing up?
.
It sounds like a version of a "drop dead" time limit.

Drop dead times limits are a screw up at any level.

[FUBLUE]

Originally posted by TwoBits

Drop dead times limits are a screw up at any level.

We play indoors in the winter (kind of hard to use a diamond with two feet of snow on it) and use a drop dead time limit for our pool play games. It brings in some interesting strategy things, but overall, I don't like it. I understand that it keeps us on schedule, but I'd like to finish the inning...that being said, it's nice to know that I'll get done on time after doing 5, 6, or 7 games in a row.

[chuck chopper]

Softball used to be a simple 7 inning game. We started putting limits on how many batters can bat in an inning. Then we said, lets start with a 1 & 1 count, with one foul to hit after 2 strikes. Then that became no fouls after two strikes allowed. Then it became no inning starts after 70 minutes. Then that wasn't good enough so drop dead games started. Trouble is no one knew if that was the game ending score or do we go back to the score at the last full inning. Then teams wanted to take the run or batter limit off when the "proclaimed" last inning of the game was happening.
Life used to be so much easier. Everything is so time sensitive now..time..time..time.

[mcrowder]

Well... we don't have a drop-dead time limit - so that's what he did wrong.

[Dakota]

Drop dead time limits have their place... but it is not in "real" games. Heck, IMO, time limits have no place in "real" games. Neither do per inning run limits, mercy rules, tie breaker rules, ... (but, I'm wandering off into old fuddy-duddy-isms...)

Drop dead clocks are good for scrimmages and are OK pure rec games where won-loss has no real meaning for anything.

It does change game strategy, though, especially when coupled with a "no revert" rule - i.e. the score when the clock expires is the final score - no reverting to the previous full inning.