Stepping on the Plate

[tmielke]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Well, unfortunately, the job of the umpire is regulate the game under the rules the teams agreed upon.

Absolutely

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

In every other "clocked" games, there are also rules which manage the manner in which a team can "use" the clock as a strategy.

However, like it or not, IMO, one of the main causes for a clock to be involved in the game of softball is because of the coaches.

My experience is that the clock is there to keep lower level play from going on forever and to keep tournaments on schedule.

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

When I was growing up we had this thing called "practice" and subsequently took part in "scrimmages". This is where the coaches taught players how to play the game. When we played the game, the coach coached the team through the game.


Nowadays, some coaches seem to want to coach the players throughout every step of the game, from during warm-ups to each at-bat. An umpire tries to enforce the time limitations between innings or call a strike because the batter is having a hard time reading the 20-gesture signal from the Gene Mauch wannabe at 3B and all you hear is the "let the girls play".

I am with you here as well. Enforce the rules and keep game moving at the pace it is supposed to be played. If Gene doesn't like it, too bad.

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

But I lean towards Steve's way of looking at things. The teams agreed to play with a clock, unfortunately, the umpire is saddled with the task of managing the game situations.

I don't have any problem with the umpire managing the game. If managing the game means counting the warm up pitches, keeping the time between innings to a minute, getting the batter back in the box, etc. I also don't have any problem with a coach working within the rules to give his girls the best chance to win. If the coach thinks that getting to the next inning before the game times out will give the team the best chance to win, I don't care. I do have a problem with an umpire that thinks he/she can decide when the game should be over and delay it to fit their definition of when enough is enough. Once the timer is going, why would the umpire pay any attention to it until the beeper goes off? Let the coaches worry about how much time is left!

I have coached on both sides of the clock. When my team was up, we take our full warm up time. When we are down and need the innings, no warm up. When I call a game I don't impose what I think is right or wrong on one of the teams, I just call the game and keep it moving. My objection to an umpire taking his time to run out the clock is that it helps a team.

Tom