Partner, WTF?
 

I am BU in ASA 12A State Championship, L-bracket game with 4 teams left.
Home team is down by 3, and batting with 2 outs and nobody on.

1B coach indicated to 3B coach that time was about to expire and to work quick, so they could try to get another inning.
D-coach requests and gets Time to go talk with P, obviously to slow her down and not to throw strikes.
3B coach tells B to swing at anything and get out of the inning before time expires.
I counted about 15 seconds, and B swung at the first pitch way high and way away.

Okay, here is where it gets real interesting.............

Again, I am BU and mentally counting seconds (just for my own purposes), and at around 6 seconds, and although P has not taken the PP yet, B swings. What to my surprise, PU calls it Strike 2. Less than 5 seconds later, B swings again, and PU calls Strike 3 -- Batter Out.

And on to one more inning and home team lost anyway.

After the game, I said, "Partner, WTF?" :confused:
He said, "Well, the first one was just a screw up; and on the second one, B had stepped on the plate as she swung, so I loosely applied the rule that she was trying to change batter's boxes during a pitch and called her out on that...and i repeat, loosely applied as he grinned from ear to ear."

I didn't really know what to say, because this is an umpire with a lot more years than me. So, I just smiled. :(

Bottom line we had 2 strikes called in a span of 10 seconds without a pitch being thrown!!!! :eek:

Wow....WTF!:confused::eek:

Hmm. We have one team employing tactics designed to hasten the game and the other team using tactics designed to delay the game. Ergo, double forfeit. :D

Yes, but the question is: Which team was doing which? :confused:

The rules about hastening or delaying the game were written long before time limits came into vogue. They were designed to cover situations where bad weather or darkness threatened to cause an early end to play.

A team with the lead and bad weather approaching just before the game can become regulation might purposely make outs to get another inning completed just to make the game regulation. Or, in the bottom of the last inning with darkness coming on, a team might stall to prevent the home team from making a comeback.

The origin of these rules dates back to the early days of professional baseball. These were common tactics employed by teams to gain an advantage. While this might fly in casual amateur game between to town teams, once paying fans became involved the expectations changed. It didn't sit well with fans in the early days to pay good money to watch professional ballplayers purposely mess up or to not try their hardest. So rules were written to combat the hijinks.

In those situations it's easy to see which team is "hastening or delaying the game". The use of a clock distorts those distinctions. In fact, it can outright flip them around!

Take the example in the first post. Is a team purposely swinging at everything to quickly end the inning hastening the game? If their tactic succeeds, the game will go longer than it would if they kept playing at a normal pace and the clock ran out on them, because another inning will be played.

If the team that is stalling to sit on the lead is successful, then the game will be shorter because another inning won't be played!

Just one more reason to hate timed games...

Don't forget the umpire played a part in this. What is his penalty? :rolleyes:

No beer?

Never having any of us for a partner! :eek:

He said PENALTY.