What a weekend

[vcblue]

Worked an All-Star tournament this weekend. The league had enough fields for 54 teams but schedule 75. 1 hour and 20 minuets no new with start time 1 hour 30 minutes apart. Needless to say by the end of the 3rd game on Saturday most field were at least 20 minutes behind. One was over an hour. My last game should have started at 6:30 did not start until 7:20 and I had to call the game at 8:00 (no lights). Sunday the 14U championship started scheduled to start at 5 did not start until 7:30.

I should have asked for an additional game fee, but didn't because this is just the way things happen at times.

[LIUmp]

Originally Posted by vcblue

Worked an All-Star tournament this weekend. The league had enough fields for 54 teams but schedule 75. 1 hour and 20 minuets no new with start time 1 hour 30 minutes apart. Needless to say by the end of the 3rd game on Saturday most field were at least 20 minutes behind. One was over an hour. My last game should have started at 6:30 did not start until 7:20 and I had to call the game at 8:00 (no lights). Sunday the 14U championship started scheduled to start at 5 did not start until 7:30.

I should have asked for an additional game fee, but didn't because this is just the way things happen at times.

They should have seen that one coming.

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by vcblue

...1 hour and 20 minuets no new with start time 1 hour 30 minutes apart....this is just the way things happen at times.

Well, yeah, with TD's who are either incompetent, or complete newbies at this. No one who has done this more than once would expect games to start on time with a 1:20 time limit and a new game scheduled every 1:30. A competent TD would have shortened the time limit to no more than 1:10.

[CajunNewBlue]

50 minutes... finish the batter! .. love it love it love it.

[3SPORT]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Well, yeah, with TD's who are either incompetent, or complete newbies at this. No one who has done this more than once would expect games to start on time with a 1:20 time limit and a new game scheduled every 1:30.

Then on top of that there is not any time allowed for umpires to switch out if your field is not crewed to have a plate umpire ready to go.

If you have limited bodies to work, the field can even get further behind.

[vcblue]

There was no umpire rotation going on here. 4 tournament going on in our local area plus ASA. They went to drop dead later in the day on Saturday. That did not sit well with the team. Should have gone to 1 hour 10 minutes.

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by vcblue

...They went to drop dead later in the day on Saturday....

Do you mean the clock or the umpires?

[vcblue]

Thank God it was a nice cool almost rainy day here in Socal. I worked 12 games in two days. But I'm known to be a game _____.

[SRW]

Originally Posted by vcblue

Worked an All-Star tournament this weekend. The league had enough fields for 54 teams but schedule 75. 1 hour and 20 minuets no new with start time 1 hour 30 minutes apart. Needless to say by the end of the 3rd game on Saturday most field were at least 20 minutes behind. One was over an hour. My last game should have started at 6:30 did not start until 7:20 and I had to call the game at 8:00 (no lights). Sunday the 14U championship started scheduled to start at 5 did not start until 7:30.

I should have asked for an additional game fee, but didn't because this is just the way things happen at times.

1:20 no new with 1:30 game times is a common thing for us here for our Saturday pool play games. We schedule the typical plate-base-off rotation on the field crews. The keys to this working is:

- The plate umpire has to be ready by 10-till game time,
- When you're the base umpire and you just completed your game, you have to start the next one and work until the plate umpire from your previous game goes and changes into his base uniform and comes to relieve you.

The other trick is having your TD schedule a 30-minute field prep every 3rd round of games.