Respect for the game

Ken Krause said:

This is one of the many problems with time limits in a sport that wasn't designed for them. Unfortunately they're a reality.

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Yes they are and I understand why.

This is the reason that I absolutely HATE drop dead games - the BS stall tactics.

newsoftballdad said:

Maybe if your goal isn't to get as many girls up to bat as possible, you shouldn't be in a showcase. Go find a "competitive" 18U tournament. I don't know who these guys were, or what their motivation was, I just know it isn't how I was taught, or how I have taught my daughter to play. I am not "coaching" your team, but asking you to hustle between innings enough to get a decent well paced game in on time. Seems reasonable to me.

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Disrespecting the game and unwritten rules drive me crazy. Either you are violating an official rule or you aren't. I certainly don't fault opposing coaches. Take it up with tournament directors, sanctioning bodies, and umpires.

CoachJD said:

If they're going to have drop dead time limits, they should have strictly-enforced time limits between innings. Watch how fast she gets that gear on if the umpire starts calling an automatic ball every 10 seconds after the allotted minute (or whatever) for warmups has elapsed.

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I would love to see that!

I get tired of hearing all this whining about timed games and managing the clock. When there are rules put into place, such as a time limit, coaches will do whatever they have to do for the betterment of their team. That might mean different things to different coaches. Some coaches play at the highest level and it is about winning at all costs (if they don't win, they could lose their affiliation with the org they play for). Other coaches might have the chance to beat the team they have never beaten before and they will incorporate stall tactics and in doing so, gives the team so much confidence that they finish out the season on an unbelievable winning streak. Another coach may choose to teach his players his philosophy about hustle on/hustle off and let the chips fall where they may.

All I'm saying is no one knows why the other coach is doing what they're doing, but it could be for a very good reason. You may not agree with the reason, but let them coach their team and you coach yours.

Now, I will say this...If this is a showcase tournament, the coach should only be there to showcase the girls. If you play for a coach that stalls, just to win a showcase game, leave that team as soon as that game is over!! They don't have your daughter's best interest at hand.

The OP said the 4th game of a "showcase" with no college coaches there.....only a guess but this coach and team wasn't purposely stalling but was probably ready to be done with the game as it was the last of the day with no college coaches watching so they were not giving it their "A" game, especially up 6-2 going into the last inning. Again I could be wrong but it doesn't seem like they were trophy hunting as it's basically a glorified scrimmage.

CoachJD said:

Where that argument fails for me, as a coach, is the utter lack of respect it demonstrates for your own players. You're telling your players you don't believe in them. You're telling them that without playing silly games with the time limit, you don't think they can win. You're telling your players you didn't do a good enough job preparing them to win the game on the field, so now you have to resort to clock games to try to eke out a win.

I'm not really sure how a coach could face his/her players after pulling stunts like that, and I know as a player I'd lose all respect for a coach who played these kinds of games.

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Hmmm. Maybe that coach is actually showing an unwavering amount of respect for his players by using the rules provided to him to limit the amount of innings his pitchers, catchers, and other players have to play in a day when they are going to have to play 20+ already. Travel softball is the only place they will have to do that....and they do it every weekend. And he does that despite having to hear from those high and mighty folks that he is disrespecting his kids.

CJ D said:

Hmmm. Maybe that coach is actually showing an unwavering amount of respect for his players by using the rules provided to him to limit the amount of innings his pitchers, catchers, and other players have to play in a day when they are going to have to play 20+ already. Travel softball is the only place they will have to do that....and they do it every weekend. And he does that despite having to hear from those high and mighty folks that he is disrespecting his kids.

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Yeah, no.

I'll cut off my own damn head with a sharpened spoon if any coach ever in the history of this sport has even once, for a fraction of a section, pulled one of these moves out of consideration for how many innings his left fielder is standing in the outfield on a particular weekend.

It's entirely about the coach winning a game by any means necessary, and I can listen to arguments for why that's OK, but let's not pretend it's about anything other than that.

Left fielder? Probably not. But you can bet coaches do it all the time to limit innings on their pitchers and catchers. Just because you assume what another coach is thinking doesn't mean that is actually what they are thinking.

Last game of the day, only 4 games all weekend, limited innings due to the strict drop dead at 80 minutes, I think we played 23 total innings over 2 days. True there were no college coaches there, but we operate under the assumption that someone is always watching. For all we know one of the umpires could be a part time college assistant coach somewhere. To me, for the benefit of all the girls, play as many innings as you can in that 80 minute time span. I understand some don't agree and want to use the rules to their advantage, but what advantage does it give the girls?