I'm sure a great majority of you work varsity games but I was wondering how much time you allow between innings? I have only worked freshmen and Jv games and have found that too much time is being wasted between innings. The infield takes grounders from F3 and F1 takes her 5 tosses and then they have a little pow-wow. With the POE this year about team meetings and such, does one minute between innings seem reasonable? How much time is reasonable?

We give the pitcher 5 pitches the first inning and 3 pitches the rest of the way.They all know that is expected of them at the Varsity level and the games move along nicely.

Jeff
NCAA Umpire
NFHS Umpire
ASA Umpire

One minute is not a long time when it comes to between innings. I am somewhat lax in enforcing this, unfortuneately. I have a buddy who is very rigid...if the pitcher isn't out there within about 10-15 seconds after the third out, he starts subtracting warm-up pitches. If you do this, you will be perceived as a hard-a**, but your games will move quicker and it won't take long for the tems to realize that if they want warm-up pitches, they will hustle on and off the field.

I enforce it if the game begins to lag. If the defense lollygags about before the pitcher begins warming up, then I will "swag" a generous 1 minute and cut off the warmup pitches.

I use the 5 pitch warm-up guideline for the 1st inning then 3 between innings after that. The delay I find is usually that F1 is waiting for someone to catch the warm-up pitches especially if F2 has been involved late in an inning. I usually ask the coach to try and have someone ready but that's about the extent of it.

Down here a lot of time was wated between
innings with all the "rah rah" stuff and team
huddles in front of the dugouts.
Our association agreed to be strict from game
#1 on this--- not pulling out a stop watch or
anything. If I'm the plate umpire, I'll mention this
in our pre-game conference with captains and
coaches.
So far the games seem to be moving along a lot better !!

I umpire mostly Men's Rec ASA SP games, where the rule is 3 warmup pitches or 1 minute, max, whichever comes first. None of the teams is ever aware of this rule, which I do enforce (so I'm not there all night).

During the pregame meeting, I ask what deviations the league has from the ASA SP rules. (no stealing, courtesy runners, HR-limit rules, etc.) After we've covered all of those, I make it clear that other than those deviations, the game will be played under the ASA rules, which includes that they get the 3 pitches or 1 minute, whichever comes first, for each half inning. I'm pretty sure that I am the only SP umpire in the area who enforces it, 'cause both teams always complain about it to me. ("other umps give us 5 each inning" or " isn't it 5 for the first inning, then 3 afterwards", etc.)

(Last year, a coach, who is my UIC for one board I work for, challenged me on the 3-pitch-only rule. He had his wife/scorekeepper look it up in the rule book, and apologized to me during the next inning.)

I also make a point of telling both teams "No thrown bats" (you'd be surprised how many times they forget and it still happens). In New Haven, CT a few years ago a fan with his face pressed up against the chain-link backstop was hit by the handle end of a bat, after the bat was thrown very hard, and happened to go right through the hole, and into the fan's skull, sending him into a coma. It was a very sad event and became a big lawsuit. Now, if you throw a bat, you're done for the season.

I also inform the SP teams to keep equipment off the field, and behind their bench, since this is something they are lax about also.

Some may think that these points are unnecesary to cover, but I consider it preventative umpiring.

Works well, except NCAA - they don't have a hurry up program. :D

That's it, stop right there. This should be the end of the meeting.

Quote:

After we've covered all of those, I make it clear that other than those deviations, the game will be played under the ASA rules, which includes that they get the 3 pitches or 1 minute, whichever comes first, for each half inning. I'm pretty sure that I am the only SP umpire in the area who enforces it, 'cause both teams always complain about it to me. ("other umps give us 5 each inning" or " isn't it 5 for the first inning, then 3 afterwards", etc.) (Last year, a coach, who is my UIC for one board I work for, challenged me on the 3-pitch-only rule. He had his wife/scorekeepper look it up in the rule book, and apologized to me during the next inning.) I also make a point of telling both teams "No thrown bats" (you'd be surprised how many times they forget and it still happens). In New Haven, CT a few years ago a fan with his face pressed up against the chain-link backstop was hit by the handle end of a bat, after the bat was thrown very hard, and happened to go right through the hole, and into the fan's skull, sending him into a coma. It was a very sad event and became a big lawsuit. Now, if you throw a bat, you're done for the season. I also inform the SP teams to keep equipment off the field, and behind their bench, since this is something they are lax about also. Some may think that these points are unnecesary to cover, but I consider it preventative umpiring.

Some, including myself, would call that a clinic as they have nothing to do with "ground rules."

I just go "about a minute" .. quick warm up (usually 5), take it down on 5th, then little mound pow wow and were off..

Any lag time, like say catcher putting on equip and I subtract pitches.. if coach warms up pitcher, I give 1 to the catcher to take it down.. at times though I've even taken that due to length of time getting ready.

Im not a hard *** on this and I think at Rec league or Varsity level, its all the same and they know what is expected or they get told by me. "two pitches" or whatever... never had a prob with this.

Quote:

That's it, stop right there. This should be the end of the meeting.

Ye, Mike I do agree with you, that should be the end of the meeting. I wish that the teams would know and follow the rules, but most of the Men's Rec leagues that I work don't take game/rules/umpires/etc. enough to go by the book, and the leagues and UIC's here don't care. Also, many of the leagues I work are beer leagues, so I'm dealing with various levels of sobriety, too. Until I'm able to work HS FP, that's what I have to deal with.

Unfortunately most teams and most umpires here don't know and/or don't enforce these three particular rules/guidelines. If the teams are not advised of, or reminded about them, then they invariably will occur during the game. I find that the ten seconds it takes me to say, "Three warmup pitches, or one minute between innings, no thrown bats, and keep all of your euqipment and players behind your bench" during pregame saves me alot of time and hassle that would otherwise happen later. I've tried it both ways, and it's clearly much easier to umpire and prevent problems by stating those three up front.