Drop Dead question

[eddieq]

When I've umpired tournaments with "drop dead finish the batter", I always let the batter finish any apparent attempt to run bases, etc. and all playing action to be completed before I called the game. Barring any specific direction from the TD or UIC, that's how I would handle it. As noted above, these are always tournament specific rules and while somewhat common sense, leave things open to interpretation. We had a long discussion about "batting the lineup - batter gets injured during at bat and cannot continue - what do you do?" a while back. TD's and leagues make up rules and modifications for whatever reason and never consider the downstream effects.

 

[MoJo]

Seems like the batter already failed by walking.

It would be the pitcher that failed. Batter got on base.

Drop dead is really bad. Drop dead, score at the end of the last full inning is at least better and some fairness.

The ump in the OPs game seems pretty average/lazy by calling the game immediately instead of waiting for all play to be worked out.

 

[CoachCeetar]

I'm curious how that first runner got to third. Feel like you'd have to know drop dead was coming and there's no way you're getting another chance to score. There's no reason to throw strikes. You could even game clock it at that point right? If you've got 5 minutes, just throw a pitch to the backstop every 30 seconds and you've thrown 2 walks and an 0-2 count, drop dead, walk them, done?


yeah, this drop dead stuff seems terrible.

 

[CatchersPaPa]

I'm curious how that first runner got to third. Feel like you'd have to know drop dead was coming and there's no way you're getting another chance to score. There's no reason to throw strikes. You could even game clock it at that point right? If you've got 5 minutes, just throw a pitch to the backstop every 30 seconds and you've thrown 2 walks and an 0-2 count, drop dead, walk them, done?


yeah, this drop dead stuff seems terrible.

The first runner hit an outside pitch for a single, then stole around to third.

 

[marriard]

Don't play 'drop dead' tournaments unless it is a showcase.

 

[canyonjoe]

Don't play 'drop dead' tournaments unless it is a showcase.

I agree with you. Timed games are bad enough but if you at least play an equal number of innings it's a "real" game.

 

[CatchersPaPa]

We try to play revert back or finish the inning. Sometimes pool play gets funky.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Drop dead is really bad. Drop dead, score at the end of the last full inning is at least better and some fairness.

I'll play the odd duck. Drop dead is not inherently unfair. It is just a different game. You have to play it differently. Both teams may not get an equal number of at bats, but that is not the game being played. No timed sport guarantees an equal number of possessions. Drop dead is a timed sport. Both teams received the same 90 minutes (or however long).

To me, unfair is telling the team currently leading that you are taking their runs away because they lost a coin toss 90 minutes ago and the other team couldn't figure out how a clock worked.

 

[earlg3]

I'll play the odd duck. Drop dead is not inherently unfair. It is just a different game. You have to play it differently. Both teams may not get an equal number of at bats, but that is not the game being played. No timed sport guarantees an equal number of possessions. Drop dead is a timed sport. Both teams received the same 90 minutes (or however long).

To me, unfair is telling the team currently leading that you are taking their runs away because they lost a coin toss 90 minutes ago and the other team couldn't figure out how a clock worked.

How many other sports allow a coach to do random stuff to waste time to run the game clock like softball does in these drop deads, though? There would need to be some sort of way to fix that (i.e. soccer's bonus time) to fix that.

 

[The Man In Blue]

How many other sports allow a coach to do random stuff to waste time to run the game clock like softball does in these drop deads, though? There would need to be some sort of way to fix that (i.e. soccer's bonus time) to fix that.

There are play clocks. I could run around in the backfield or run a triangle offense to run the clock out. Granted, those sports do stop the clock during time outs. If we want to do the same, OK. If you want to put in your rules that a timeout only lasts X amount of time, OK. Heck, do away with time outs if you want. Like I said, the clock makes it a different game.

I am not knowledgeable about soccer, but I believe their stoppage time is about penalties and injuries (and is kind of wishy washy). I could totally be wrong about that.