Desert (Lab) Rats

[The Man in Blue]

Baseball players are soft.  Give me those softball pitchers who walk out and say "I only need one for my catcher to throw down."  Love you, pitcher!

 

😉

[johnnyg08]

On 3/11/2024 at 10:52 AM, concertman1971 said:

80-90 between innings for HS should be MORE than enough to get ready, throw 5 + one to 2nd. Personally, I would LOVE to see FED introduce the visit rule. That is the one that slows the HS game down IMO. F2 walks 10' in front of plate after a GB to F6 and turns around and asks for 'time' as he walks to the mound. Limit the number of times he can do that and we probably save 15 min per game.

Yes...we can tell him "no" too. 

But yes, I understand your point. 

[MadMax]

On 3/11/2024 at 7:30 PM, johnnyg08 said:

Back when I was working a heavy NCAA schedule...we rarely got close to 90 in between innings. 

Honestly asking....why the additional 30 seconds?

You’ve got a point… our League is streamcast, and we require 120 seconds (minimum), and we’ve given an additional 15 seconds buffer. I have to remind my CC’s that we need the 120 seconds, otherwise we’re either cutting commercials short, or missing game action. However, rarely (if ever) are we waiting on the (college) players… they’re usually rarin’ to go in 1 minute, maybe 1 minute 20 seconds, tops. 

High school players are morons, though (or maybe their coaches are 🤔 ). I swear, I see these same teams in time-limited tourneys (TLTs) at 1:50, then at 2:00… and then USA Baseball rolls into town, and they do 2:30… and these teams – again, these same kids – use allllllll 2:30. The entire pace of play grinds to a halt. 

[The Man in Blue]

20 hours ago, MadMax said:

You’ve got a point… our League is streamcast, and we require 120 seconds (minimum), and we’ve given an additional 15 seconds buffer. I have to remind my CC’s that we need the 120 seconds, otherwise we’re either cutting commercials short, or missing game action. However, rarely (if ever) are we waiting on the (college) players… they’re usually rarin’ to go in 1 minute, maybe 1 minute 20 seconds, tops. 

High school players are morons, though (or maybe their coaches are 🤔 ). I swear, I see these same teams in time-limited tourneys (TLTs) at 1:50, then at 2:00… and then USA Baseball rolls into town, and they do 2:30… and these teams – again, these same kids – use allllllll 2:30. The entire pace of play grinds to a halt. 

 

I've said this for years . . . it is a culture thing.  If you give a girls' softball time a time limit, they will try to play as much as they can in that time limit.  If you give a boys' baseball team a time limit, they will try to play as long as they can (and then complain that you only played 4 innings in 2 hours).

I generally don't come out hard on time enforcements, but that can change in a hurry.  Nothing gets my ire up faster than lollygaggers. 

 

[BigBlue4u]

On 3/7/2024 at 10:45 AM, MadMax said:

Our RI brought our 2023 results to the Fed board… who got all up in arms about how we didn’t do 60 seconds as codified, but instead 90 seconds. We defended it as 60 being wholly inadequate (and it is), and that college and pro ball is 120 seconds. 

In California, umpires are told to loosely enforce the 60 seconds between innings.  The instructions are to be sure the pitcher gets out to the mound promptly and that someone is available to warm up the pitcher if the catcher was on base or hitting at the third out.  Thus far, this season, this seems to be working well.

[Velho]

11 hours ago, BigBlue4u said:

In California, umpires are told to loosely enforce the 60 seconds between innings.

That's because California knows how to party.

 

Where you at in CA @BigBlue4u?

[umpstu]

2 hours ago, Velho said:

That's because California knows how to party.

 

Where you at in CA @BigBlue4u?

I'm in SoCal and have always given some leeway when it comes to warmups. But that depends on the catcher. If he's taking his sweet ass time getting dressed the pitcher might not get any warmup tosses. If the catcher is hustling then I'll help him out. Helps if somebody is warming up the pitcher as well.

[BigBlue4u]

1 hour ago, umpstu said:

That's because California knows how to party.

You've got that RIGHT  🙂   Southern California

[BigBlue4u]

4 hours ago, Velho said:

That's because California knows how to party.

You've got that RIGHT  🙂  Southern California

[johnnyg08]

19 hours ago, BigBlue4u said:

In California, umpires are told to loosely enforce the 60 seconds between innings.  The instructions are to be sure the pitcher gets out to the mound promptly and that someone is available to warm up the pitcher if the catcher was on base or hitting at the third out.  Thus far, this season, this seems to be working well.

This has been how we've handled it in our area and generally it goes pretty well.  

[mw94]

On 3/11/2024 at 9:17 AM, MadMax said:

As mentioned above, we’re doing that here in Arizona, too. We’ve got most youths conditioned upon, while on offense, not asking for time on every base hit, or advancing a base. Similarly, on defense, we’ve got them fairly well conditioned on not asking for time to throw the ball back in from middle INF to F1. The key component? Umpires with the fortitude to say, “No.” 

Now, that next hurdle is to make these visits count, or cost something. Then they’ll stop doing it. 
F6 – “Time, please?” 
U – “For?” *** 
F6 – “I wanna talk to him (F1)” 

U – “Sure, but it will cost a visit.” 
F6 – “It will? How many do we get?” 
U – “Six. Your team has already used four.” 
F6 – “Oh. Eh, that’s okay. Don’t need it.” <throws ball to F1> “C’mon baby! Deep breath****, you got this!” 

Communication has a “U” in it, fellas. 

*** – The most important thing to say instead of “Time!”. Keep the ball Live as much as possible. 

**** – One of the lamest bits of “motivational advice” I hear in amateur baseball. 

The problem Max stems from the Pro Level, because in MLB they do call time after every play. Because the current baseball rulers have determined that any baseball touching a bat or the ground is now unusable. Last time I checked the rule book you can't change baseballs with the ball alive?  

[The Man in Blue]

5 hours ago, umpstu said:

I'm in SoCal and have always given some leeway when it comes to warmups. But that depends on the catcher. If he's taking his sweet ass time getting dressed the pitcher might not get any warmup tosses. If the catcher is hustling then I'll help him out. Helps if somebody is warming up the pitcher as well.

Trade secret: The catcher is not needed for the pitcher to warm-up.  I do not understand why coaches don't get that.

[johnnyg08]

17 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Trade secret: The catcher is not needed for the pitcher to warm-up.  I do not understand why coaches don't get that.

That's our biggest POE for our umpires. 

Get a catcher out there! Most teams do a pretty good job of it as long as we stay on them.