Jump to content

Anti-Climatic Championship Game


Umpire in Chief
Umpire-Empire locks topics which have not been active in the last year. The thread you are viewing hasn't been active in 2435 days so you will not be able to post. We do recommend you starting a new topic to find out what's new in the world of umpiring.

Recommended Posts

So I was CC for our a championship game last night. The good thing is it was 3 man and a good time with good partners. Through the tournament they have been playing 9 innings. My game was scheduled for 7:30. The Semi final before my game didn't finish until nearly 8:30. Then they had a half hour break between games. We did the plate conference where both coaches "kid" with each other that they have no pitching left. Then they did all the rigmarole of announcing the lineups, the pledge, the national anthem. We finally get started about 9:20. 

For better or worse they weren't kidding about not having any pitching. Neither starting pitcher made it through the first. So what to massive pitching changes do to the game, well it doesn't make the game any shorter. 

The final score was something around 18-12. And we ended up at about 12:30 am. I then had about an hour drive home. 

As a baseball fan I feel it is unfair and anti-climatic that the players work so hard to get to the championship and then can't give themselves a good game. Maybe have a day's break between the semis and the championship. It was hot as a dog yesterday. The team that played in the first semi had the disadvantage of playing in the peak  of the heat (nearly 100 degrees and high humidity, but they got a 4 hr rest in between). The other got to play a little later and it was a bit cooler, but they only got under an hour rest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My experience was just slightly the opposite of yours last weekend...

I am the plate guy for the RBI Juniors Championship game being played at Santa Ana Valley High School in, you guessed it: Santa Ana.

4 man, 7 inning 9:30am start.

Game is moving along ok... 2 hour mark and we are hitting the 7th with the visiting LA Dodgers trailing the AZ team 3-4. Bases loaded and the home team walks in the tying run but the Dodgers can't get over the hump to take the lead... Home team goes down in the 7th and we move on to extra innings... Pretty exciting for a Championship so far.

Bottom of 10 and we are still going and getting close to hitting the 3 hour mark. U2 has to leave due to being the plate guy on another field for a 1pm game start so we go to 3 man.

Seniors game on the adjacent field ends and now we have a BIG crowd... both of the other teams have moved over to watch plus the majority of their fans as well... that game ended in a 1-0 score in an hour 15-30 so not a lot of drama. Other than getting noisy the fans are actually being supportive of both teams which was refreshing.

12th inning my buddy who worked the Seniors game jumps into our game as U2 (pretty senior Varsity guy in our HS association) so we are back to 4 man. He makes the most brilliant suggestion that if we end the 12th with no winner we take a 5 minute siesta (got to go man!) Home team gets bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of 12... All I am thinking is... hit the ball! Batter hits an amazing dribbler to F1 who throws home for out 1. F2 then fires to F3 for out two... not looking good here! Batter comes to the plate I ring him up for strike 3 on nice breaking ball over the inner half of the plate. Time for the 13th!

Come back to the field after a 5 minute restroom break... start the 13th... nothing.

14th inning and we are at the 3:45 mark... visitors go down 1/2/3. Home team gets up... first batter gets out. Batter 2 is HBP. R1 steals 2nd. Batter drills one to left center... watch R2 round 3rd... here he comes. Here comes the ball. There goes the ball up the line. R2 touches home. 

14 full innings... 4 hours.

Damn... that was a Championship game. 

 

Nice part was a couple days later we received an email from the Angels RBI organization who hosted the tournament... they offered 2 tickets to all of the umpires who worked games... the wife and I took the seats and got to watch Trout hit one out on Wednesday against the Nationals. 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/21/2017 at 9:11 AM, Umpire in Chief said:

So I was CC for our a championship game last night. The good thing is it was 3 man and a good time with good partners. Through the tournament they have been playing 9 innings. My game was scheduled for 7:30. The Semi final before my game didn't finish until nearly 8:30. Then they had a half hour break between games. We did the plate conference where both coaches "kid" with each other that they have no pitching left. Then they did all the rigmarole of announcing the lineups, the pledge, the national anthem. We finally get started about 9:20. 

For better or worse they weren't kidding about not having any pitching. Neither starting pitcher made it through the first. So what to massive pitching changes do to the game, well it doesn't make the game any shorter. 

The final score was something around 18-12. And we ended up at about 12:30 am. I then had about an hour drive home. 

As a baseball fan I feel it is unfair and anti-climatic that the players work so hard to get to the championship and then can't give themselves a good game. Maybe have a day's break between the semis and the championship. It was hot as a dog yesterday. The team that played in the first semi had the disadvantage of playing in the peak  of the heat (nearly 100 degrees and high humidity, but they got a 4 hr rest in between). The other got to play a little later and it was a bit cooler, but they only got under an hour rest.

Had a very similar experience last Thursday. Had two 9 inning Legion district tourney games. First one went 6.5 innings on the mercy rule. This was the 4th game in 5 days for the winning team, who had to turn right back around and play another elimination game 45 minutes later. That one ended with 37 runs scored on 42 hits, and 12 errors. Both teams were obviously out of pitching, but it was also 100 degrees out, so like yours, it was a recipe for disaster. The only positive was that I felt pretty good about getting it done in 3 hours.

I would like to see a few more days added to Legion playoff tournaments, especially with the pitch count rules now. The quality would be so much better, because the way it was this year was dreadful. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...