Trying to milk the clock.

[The Man In Blue]

Since this seems to be the current catch-all thread for time limit issues ...

Championship game, same rules apply that applied all weekend, including the time limit (1:45), still apply. Nothing is different. Nothing has changed. This was confirmed in advance and re-iterated at the plate meeting.

Home team was up 6-3. We go into the 5th inning with less than 10 minutes on the clock. Coaches were informed it would probably be the last inning.

Home team is playing a bit slow, but nothing egregious, as the visiting team was not hustling at all either. They were playing as they should have: this is the last inning, focus and don't worry about the clock.

The clock expiring was announced. Visiting team mounts a bit of a comeback. They load the bases, end up with two outs, and the home team makes a pitching change as the clock expires. All told, we played 20 minutes past the clock expiration as the visiting team scores 2, making it a 6-5 ballgame, before they pop one up on the infield for the final out (leaving the bases loaded).

It was one heck of a game!

As we are exiting the field, what do we hear from the parents? "That is ----ing bull----!" "That's terrible!" "We only got to play five innings!" "This is ----ing stupid!" "WE WERE CHEATED!"



Want to play more than 5 innings in 2 hours? That pace starts at the beginning of the game and continues all the way through ... not after you start to make a comeback after laying down for 4 innings. Was it anything to actually do with the time or the amount of the game that was played? No. It was about the fact that they wasted opportunities and were mad about it because they started to get a taste of winning. That's our fault.

 

[RADcatcher]

Since this seems to be the current catch-all thread for time limit issues ...

Championship game, same rules apply that applied all weekend, including the time limit (1:45), still apply. Nothing is different. Nothing has changed. This was confirmed in advance and re-iterated at the plate meeting.

Home team was up 6-3. We go into the 5th inning with less than 10 minutes on the clock. Coaches were informed it would probably be the last inning.

Home team is playing a bit slow, but nothing egregious, as the visiting team was not hustling at all either. They were playing as they should have: this is the last inning, focus and don't worry about the clock.

The clock expiring was announced. Visiting team mounts a bit of a comeback. They load the bases, end up with two outs, and the home team makes a pitching change as the clock expires. All told, we played 20 minutes past the clock expiration as the visiting team scores 2, making it a 6-5 ballgame, before they pop one up on the infield for the final out (leaving the bases loaded).

It was one heck of a game!

As we are exiting the field, what do we hear from the parents? "That is ----ing bull----!" "That's terrible!" "We only got to play five innings!" "This is ----ing stupid!" "WE WERE CHEATED!"



Want to play more than 5 innings in 2 hours? That pace starts at the beginning of the game and continues all the way through ... not after you start to make a comeback after laying down for 4 innings. Was it anything to actually do with the time or the amount of the game that was played? No. It was about the fact that they wasted opportunities and were mad about it because they started to get a taste of winning. That's our fault.

Complaining needs a time limit...
about 5 Seconds....
But thats it!

 

[_MIA_]

Since this seems to be the current catch-all thread for time limit issues ...

Championship game, same rules apply that applied all weekend, including the time limit (1:45), still apply. Nothing is different. Nothing has changed. This was confirmed in advance and re-iterated at the plate meeting.

Home team was up 6-3. We go into the 5th inning with less than 10 minutes on the clock. Coaches were informed it would probably be the last inning.

Home team is playing a bit slow, but nothing egregious, as the visiting team was not hustling at all either. They were playing as they should have: this is the last inning, don't worry about the clock.

The clock expiring was announced. Visiting team mounts a bit of a comeback. They load the bases with two outs and the home team makes a pitching change after the clock expires. All told, we played 20 minutes past the clock expiration as the visiting team scores 2, making it a 6-5 ballgame, before they pop one up on the infield for the final out (leaving the bases loaded).

It was one heck of a game!

As we are exiting the field, what do we hear from the parents? "That is ----ing bull----!" "That's terrible!" "We only got to play five innings!" "This is ----ing stupid!" "WE WERE CHEATED!"



Want to play more than 5 innings in 2 hours? That pace starts at the beginning of the game and continues all the way through ... not after you start to make a comeback after laying down for 4 innings. Was it anything to actually do with the time or the amount of the game that was played? No. It was about the fact that they wasted opportunities and were mad about it because they started to get a taste of winning. That's our fault.

5 innings in two hours with only 11 total runs scored is SLOW..like pre-pitch clock MLB slow..

 

[The Man In Blue]

Just for fun ... here's another clock experience from this week ...

Drop dead at 80 minutes, finish the batter. Pool play, so it can end in a tie.

First batter of the inning is the last batter, as the clock expires after a few pitches. I'm thinking, "no matter what, you just keep running to see what happens."

Earlier in the day another field told us they had a coach put the batter on since an intentional walk is a dead ball and there is no risk. Not a bad thought to kill it.

Anyway, our batter walks on a 3-2 count. She trots down to first base and shows no inclination of doing anything unusual. The catcher rolls the ball out to the mound and the pitcher is already almost to the foul line. Both teams are coming out to shake hands and the ball is laying in the circle. My partner and I are holding our positions waiting ... the runner peels off and joins the line.

... and that was it. They shook hands so we left the field.

Anticlimactic. But we were ready for the fun!

Did not hear a single word about the clock over the two days. At the first set of fields, they had a clock on the scoreboard and I think that is immensely helpful. Or it could have just been so hot that people could not wait for the clock to expire.