2 Ejections(kinda) in a weekend, have I mentioned I HATE 10U?

[The Man in Blue]

2 hours ago, BigBlue4u said:

Times have changed.  Many years ago, when I was umpiring games with a time limit, I would tell both coaches at the pregame meeting, the time limit and would then tell them what time I had.  When that time limit arrived, the game was over.  I absolutely would not get into a pissing contest with a coach over time.

I guess I do need to add a bit of a caveat to my kvetching ... 

I am not one of those guys who needs those minutes back into my day.  When I umpire, I block that day out.  Even if the games don't go all day, I'm usually pretty well done for by the end of a long tournament day.

When I talk about managing the clock and complaining about it, I am talking about those $#!+ games that have no worthwhile reason to keep going on holding up the rest of the schedule.  If you are playing a competitive game and your players are hustling, let's play as much ball as we can.  Once it is evident there is nothing to be gained, let's move on.

Yesterday I had a varsity double header between two city schools.  One is awful and can barely field a team.  The first game was 21-2 and we were done in an hour.  The second game was 19-1 in the second inning when the awful team's catcher dove for a pop up and ended up with a concussion.  Now the team may not be able to finish the season.  Worth it?

[eddieq]

Regarding timed games/tournaments.  I'm a softball guy.  Most of the tournaments I have called are "80 minutes finish the inning" with some being, "finish the batter".  Most of the "80 minutes" ones are "drop dead at 90".  Gotta get those games in.

My favorite one was an October fundraiser tournament for breast cancer.  Tournament clock always ran.  Big air horn would sound to start the game and to end the game.  No choice of "finish the xxx".  Just done.  

 

[beerguy55]

On 4/25/2023 at 7:37 PM, The Man in Blue said:

Two things that NEED to be implemented in youth tournaments with time limits ... a true TIME LIMIT.  I am a fan of "drop dead."  If you want to do "no new inning after ..." that is fine, but you also need to have a finite cap.

I actually LOVE drop dead, especially in tournament play...especially if they keep the score (still top of the inning and visitor scored 8 runs to take the lead?  TFB...don't let them score 8 runs next time)

[BLWizzRanger]

On 4/25/2023 at 12:20 AM, BLWizzRanger said:

I am sure most of us know this, but in case someone new reads this....

NEVER NEVER give the exact time the clock started on yours or your partners watch. That gives you the leeway to say the clock expired with 10, 20, 120, etc seconds to go depending on how the game is going. Also, it stops the argument that when the coaches try to sync up their watches to yours, they cant use their time to argue there is still time left to play.

IMHO, use a countdown timer that can be adjusted discretly or set a few minutes less for these types of situations. Most times you can get away with it... but who is to say if the timer expired? Only you or your partner.

And do I have to say it? Like an indicator, only one countdown timer should be on the field at any time.

Sent from my SM-F721U1 using Tapatalk
 

Yes, I quoted myself. Deal with it.

In a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.....

I actually played it straight last weekend and had the last inning go over 3 minutes of the time limit - no new innings.  The coach knew I had the official clock, yet, still wanted to talk to us, or vent his frustration, that his clock says we had 4 more minutes on it. 'You cheated my team of another inning' was his words.

4 minutes?  Could he had saved 20 seconds every inning that his team took the field?  That would have been 2 minutes right there.  How about 20 seconds for each of the three mound visits? Or how about when you are down 3 and your first two batters in the last inning get out on a total of 5 pitches and you still have time on the clock?  Maybe you surrender the third out quickly so that you can get another inning and start anew?  Yeah, I can find the 4 minutes his team alone wasted...

He actually reported me to the TD because after taking 3 or 4 minutes of back and forth, I actually said 'I don't give a damn what your watch says'.  He apparently grew virgin ears from the 2 minutes before hand near his dugout where his players were dropping F-bombs.  Shame on me. I opened the door for him... lol