Why do FP games last so long

[Andy]

Nobody has hit on my first thought yet....so here it is.

I umpire FP only, but a few years ago, I did some volunteer work at a major co-ed slowpitch tournament helping out the umpire coordinator.

One of the first things I noticed was how quickly the games moved along. After thinking about it, I came up with three reasons:

1) No signals from the coach to the catcher, then the catcher to the pitcher. If the pitch was not hit, throw the ball back to the pitcher and pitch it again.

2) Since there was no stealing or bunting, there is no need for the base coach to go through a gyration of signals between each pitch.

3) Not a lot of at-bats that go much past three pitches.

Most of the games that I saw in that tournament were 7 inning complete games finished in less than 60 minutes.

[chicago11]

Andy hit it on the head. SP- most leagues the pitcher takes two warmup pitches between innings. You don't really need to warm up the old arm for SP. A lot less swing and miss opportunities which also results in a lot less passed balls. No stealing,etc

[tcblue13]

Originally Posted by chicago11

Andy hit it on the head. SP- most leagues the pitcher takes two warmup pitches between innings. You don't really need to warm up the old arm for SP. A lot less swing and miss opportunities which also results in a lot less passed balls. No stealing,etc

The same thing might be said from the FP perspective like this
There is the pitcher who has to groom the circle between every warmup and every pitch and the batter who has to step out and look at the 3B coach between every pitch. Also, there is the challenge to hit the ball. 3-2 and 2-2 counts are very common in FP because there is a duel between the F1 and the batter. Foul Balls are not outs on 3K. Sometimes there is no hustle on the FP diamond between innings (A situation which Umpires could fix)

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by tcblue13

The same thing might be said from the FP perspective like this
There is the pitcher who has to groom the circle between every warmup and every pitch and the batter who has to step out and look at the 3B coach between every pitch. Also, there is the challenge to hit the ball. 3-2 and 2-2 counts are very common in FP because there is a duel between the F1 and the batter. Foul Balls are not outs on 3K. Sometimes there is no hustle on the FP diamond between innings (A situation which Umpires could fix)

Is there an echo in here?

[CLBuffalo]

Another reason - SP catchers don't have to put equipment on. I've umped and seen many games where it takes the FP catcher several minutes to get her equipment on. Sometimes it is faulty equipment. Sometimes it is catcher inexperience and no coach is helping. Sometimes it is a player who doesn't want to be catcher and is stalling. I've also seen warm up pitches take a minute or 2. The catcher doesn't catch it and it rolls around the back stop while the catcher WALKS to get it. On the throw to the pitcher it goes into the outfield and no outfielder seems to notice. When they do and throw it back to the pitcher it is over her head and past the catcher. You can guess what occassionally happens next. Not much you can do about this.

[bkbjones]

Originally Posted by CLBuffalo

Another reason - SP catchers don't have to put equipment on. I've umped and seen many games where it takes the FP catcher several minutes to get her equipment on. Sometimes it is faulty equipment. Sometimes it is catcher inexperience and no coach is helping. Sometimes it is a player who doesn't want to be catcher and is stalling. I've also seen warm up pitches take a minute or 2. The catcher doesn't catch it and it rolls around the back stop while the catcher WALKS to get it. On the throw to the pitcher it goes into the outfield and no outfielder seems to notice. When they do and throw it back to the pitcher it is over her head and past the catcher. You can guess what occassionally happens next. Not much you can do about this.

Easy fix for part of this: toss the pitcher or catcher a new ball.

[tzme415]

I don't do FP, but I have watched quite a few. There are a few differences that may or may not slow or speed up each game:

1) Most SP games start with 1-1 count and foul balls are strikes (no batter gets more than 5 pitches), whereas FP there is a 0-0 count and foul balls are not strikes after 2 strikes(I have seen many times where a batter will foul off 5 or more pitches)

2) Most SP has no stealing or lead-offs (therefore no pick-off attempts or catchers throwing to bases)

3) As mentioned before - no waiting for the catcher to put gear on in SP

4) And also as mentioned before no waiting for signs to be given in SP

Some things that tend to slow down the SP game

1) More hits in a typical SP game

2) Most of the leagues I work only give one ball/game - so everytime a ball goes out of play, the game is stopped until the ball is retrieved

3) Adult players don't usually hustle in and out

A good pitching duel with experienced teams will be real fast FP, just like a high scoring hit-fest will be take a long time in SP. But if you have a similar
scoring game, the SP will tend to be faster.

At least that has been what I have observed.

[CecilOne]

They are different games. Football games take longer than basketball games (even NBA) but no one argues that point.