Time of game interpretation

[Guest Hawks]

I have a quick question for you regarding the one hour 45 minute game length interpretation.   
13 U AAA OBA sanctioned tournament  

Game time started at 7:17 pm.  According to the umpire’s call out after the first pitch.  

The team comes off the field and the umpire declares the time as 9:02pm.  

Elapsed time is exactly 1:45 minutes.  

The written tournament rule states that “no new inning should be started after 1 hour 45 minutes”.   

There is no mention of “dead ball” or other time limit terminology. 

In your opinion, should the next inning be started or is the game over.  

Thanks

[Jimurray]

1 hour ago, Guest Hawks said:

I have a quick question for you regarding the one hour 45 minute game length interpretation.   
13 U AAA OBA sanctioned tournament  

Game time started at 7:17 pm.  According to the umpire’s call out after the first pitch.  

The team comes off the field and the umpire declares the time as 9:02pm.  

Elapsed time is exactly 1:45 minutes.  

The written tournament rule states that “no new inning should be started after 1 hour 45 minutes”.   

There is no mention of “dead ball” or other time limit terminology. 

In your opinion, should the next inning be started or is the game over.  

Thanks

If it was 9:02 when the last out was made, assuming the team that left the field was the home team, the game is over. 

[Lou B]

If the last out was made at 9:02, game over.

If it was made at 9:01 and it was 9:02 when the players got off the field, you're playing another inning.

[noumpere]

1 hour ago, Lou B said:

If the last out was made at 9:02, game over.

If it was made at 9:01 and it was 9:02 when the players got off the field, you're playing another inning.

Agreed that's how it's usually interpreted.

 

A better writing would be "no new inning at 1:45 or after"

 

Maybe they need to start keeping time to the .001 of a second.

[maven]

Good call. Teenagers need their sleep.

[Lou B]

Most of the score boards around here have "countdown clocks" on them.

The time limit is put on the clock and the clock starts when the umpire calls Play Ball.

Makes it pretty easy since everyone is watching the clock as it gets down the last few minutes.

[Catch18]

Umpires, get a stopwatch. Stop with “calling out start times” of 9:02, 7:17, 10:01 bullSH*# battles on the field. I once got charged near the mound because I called time limit and the coach was trying to shove his phone in my face.

I told him, sorry, we’re on Verizon time for this one, your clock is slow. Since then, I’ve never had one time related issue. You can even get a fancy stopwatch with a countdown timer. I tell coaches I’m not calling out start times and we’re not going off your SK. When we hit 0:00, the game is done (obv not with extras, bracket games, etc). Feel free to check in any time during game with me. There’s a whole 60 seconds to bitch/fight/argue about if using your digital phones/iWatches/etc. That’s a big difference in the bottom of the 6th to see if we’re going 7.

[Guest Time is Up]

A few years ago, a midwest crank-out-the-tournaments company used a guideline of first fielder to step into fair territory as the guideline for the inning start, which led to no end to shenanigans by teams that would screw around to wait for time to expire.  This particular company also had a rather stupid "hard stop" rule that forced the game score back to the end of last inning if time expired without the inning being complete.  You can probably anticipate the sportsmanship problems - if the inning started and the visitors took the lead, then the home team just had to screw around for long enough to allow time to expire.  We saw things like one pitcher per batter, 15-in-a-row attempted pick-offs, etc. with home team still in field - then when they batted, of course, stepping out with every pitch.

Umpires didn't seem to care and just figured it was part of the game, coach got ejected for asking the umpire to "encourage" them to play.

I think this midwest crank-out-the-tourneys company has finally changed their approach - for a while, they were proud that it kept them on schedule, even if it did make a farce of the game.

[The Man in Blue]

Personal opinion ... I HATE "no new inning after" ... it does NOT keep tournaments on schedule.  It is the single biggest factor for tournaments being behind schedule.

You CANNOT schedule games to start 15 minutes after the time limit of the last game if you are using "no new inning."  Yet, almost every tournament does it.

If you are playing time limits, it should be a hard drop dead.  No reversion of scores or crap like that.  Time expires, game over.

At the bare minimum, invoke the run-rule as immediate when the clock runs out.  Visiting team is up 20-0, home team does NOT need one more at bat.  They can't manage to get out of the top of the inning to get there anyway.  We end up playing 45 minutes of garbage ball so the home team can give up 8 more runs and then go 3-up-3-down.

Sorry to admit this, but I have become a time shaver.  Scoreboard clocks would prevent me from doing this.  I'd just have to kill time myself.  If it ain't gonna' matter, we ain't gonna' play it.  If it is a competitive game and the teams have been hustling and still have the fire, then we will play on.  

This weekend has been 14 games (varsity baseball) Thursday-tomorrow and not one coach has complained and said "Let's play one more inning in this 100+ Louisiana heat."

[Richvee]

7 hours ago, Catch18 said:

Umpires, get a stopwatch. Stop with “calling out start times” of 9:02, 7:17, 10:01 bullSH*# battles on the field. I once got charged near the mound because I called time limit and the coach was trying to shove his phone in my face.

I told him, sorry, we’re on Verizon time for this one, your clock is slow. Since then, I’ve never had one time related issue. You can even get a fancy stopwatch with a countdown timer. I tell coaches I’m not calling out start times and we’re not going off your SK. When we hit 0:00, the game is done (obv not with extras, bracket games, etc). Feel free to check in any time during game with me. There’s a whole 60 seconds to bitch/fight/argue about if using your digital phones/iWatches/etc. That’s a big difference in the bottom of the 6th to see if we’re going 7.

This is one of the things I love about Perfect Game tournaments.  At least around here. There’s 2 hour no new inning, but the tournament administrators on sight take care of time, lineups, pitching, etc. We call the game, they do the rest.

[ErichKeane]

I keep a stopwatch on my wristwatch explicitly for this reason.just a $20 Casio, but my wrist is the only official time. I make it clear during plate meetings and it shuts down all arguments.