Shameful!

wheresmycar said:

Out coached. Clock management is an important part of softball, at least until you advance to full games.

Your team's parents need to be educated that "going ballistic" towards the umps, NEVER HELPS, and usually hurts the team. Maybe the ump would have added time for the blatant stalling, had it not been for your team's bleachers telling him how to umpire a game.

End of the day, both teams had equal number of "at bats" and your team came up 1 short.

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After game we actually talked with the ump. When asked why she didn't do anything about the stalling she just apologized and said she shouldn't have let it happen and she was extremely remorseful. The other field ump just said it was a chicken bleep move to win a game that way. I think she removed herself from the remaining games we played including the championship game. So now you have the ump's perspective. Cheater!

Relax - timed games are normally pool play NOT finals. This tactic has been done before and will continue. It's 10u.

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Cannonball said:

Control what you can control! If your dd and/or her team played well and lost then compliment them on how well they did. Life has so many disappointments in store for your dd already. Don't make this something more than it is. As mentioned already, they are 10U. Be glad your dd doesn't play on that team, praise her for her game, and go get an ice cream together and enjoy it.

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Words of wisdom here.

my $0.02

my opinion on whether a coaching strategy is cheap or not (cheating is strong word) boils down to this....

will it carry over for the girls in the long term, at higher levels, etc..... so I think stalling is a bit cheap, since as they move on (say college) it will not be available to them. kinda like continuation, unlimited stealing/walks/runs, etc. at lower ages where Pitching and catching is very hit and miss; after a point these tactics do not teach the girls a whole lot, certainly not hitting and fielding.

not saying a team who would prefer the game to end has to push the game pace to extend it, but they should not be taking excessive time outs, retieing shoes etc., redoing gloves excessively, calling on the mound conferences excessively. umps can control to a certain extent (ie tell batter to get in the box and tell pitcher to proceed, if batter is not in the box pitcher gets a free strike, do not grant time when requested, etc.)

In the end a lot of coaches are going to try and run out the clock. I hear the argument that they do it in football and basketball,etc, but these sports while timed
do not allow you to take a time out and have the clock run. Most techniques involve using the legit rules of the game to run it down. Taking all 24 on the clock or 35 in football. Running instead of passing in football,etc. In softball you can take some pitches or throw some balls. If you choose to resort to conferences or untying shoes or stepping out and taking 5 practice swings that's fine if that how you want to win it. The problem I have are the coaches that when they get called on it act like they aren't doing it or even worse like they are somehow smarter than the other coach. Trust me, if first year 10U parents can figure out what your are doing you aren't some sort of coaching genius.

I tried the stalling tactics once in my coaching career and it ended up backfiring on me. Probably because I wasn't really committed to them. From then on, I figured if we weren't good enough to win playing at a normal pace then we didn't deserve to win. Can't say it worked every time but it did most of the time. And I felt better about myself as a coach and the team as a whole.

Here's one for you. I'm at my DD's baseball game right now. They're playing like crap. We're down 23 to 1 and it's the 2nd inning. Not even kidding. So we change innings, the other team takes the field. Our first batter goes out, they throw one pitch (foul ball). Their coach called time to change catchers. I guess something about the one whole pitch they threw made them decide to change catchers?

Most teams wouldn't have enough decent pitching to do a complete tournament if each game was 7 innings, especially at 10U.

I do agree that slowing down a little is not an unreasonable tactic, but it's another entirely to have fake untied shoes or ask girls to do things that are blatant time wasting techniques.

Ksphenom said:

After game we actually talked with the ump. When asked why she didn't do anything about the stalling she just apologized and said she shouldn't have let it happen and she was extremely remorseful. The other field ump just said it was a chicken bleep move to win a game that way. I think she removed herself from the remaining games we played including the championship game. So now you have the ump's perspective. Cheater!

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Maybe she "removed" herself, so she didn't have to listen to your bleachers for another hour?

One who casually throws around the term "cheater" is obviously not perfect model of sportsmanship himself... Peace out.