Pre-Game Meeting: Warm-up pitches

[Steve M]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

Actually, they know they haven't sped up the game. Instead, they now claim the 10 second/5 second rule is to eliminate the "gamesmanship" being played. And, holy moley, when you invoke that rule, you would think you were the only umpire in the US who actually enforces it. IMO, they helped a lot of pitchers, who were losing any sense of rhythm waiting for their coaches to give 20 signals per pitch.

Last fall, they asked teams to experiment with speed up rules; time limits between innings being one. I worked at three different sites (one was a tournament run by a coach whose pet peeve is making sure the umpires turn around fast enough between games), and not one would even consider that experiment. This is simply the NCAA coaches' way of insisting they dictate how to run the games, not the umpires.

Almost every televised NCAA game I have seen that is a delayed broadcast has some part cut to fit into the very reasonable 2:00 time slot.

Ain't that the truth, Steve! I've made that call and gotten all sorts of grief 'cuz "how can you be the only umpire calling that in this conference.....
Do you think.........." You'd have thought I'd have killed somebody.

We had one site where the head coach agreed to the experimental rules. She has also agreed to allow us to try new mechanics. But only in the fall. And she was pretty clear that she didn't want to see those experimental rules used in the spring.

addidtion - nothing like posting something and seeing just how fat the fingers were