Travesty of the game call

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

I should have mentioned in this last half inning the winning team's manager very slowly used 2 of his 3 mound conferences to stall for time (don't have to pull pitcher until 3rd visit).

USA and USSSA both have the same wording, that there can be three charged defensive conferences "without penalty".

USSSA reads "After three charged conferences...the pitcher shall be removed"
USA spells it out further, that "on the fourth and every subsequent conference the pitcher shall be removed"

I don't do any official USSSA, but I would think "three...without penalty" plus the "after three" would imply the same meaning as the USA explicit "on the fourth..."

 

[bmakj]

I should have mentioned in this last half inning the winning team's manager very slowly used 2 of his 3 mound conferences to stall for time (don't have to pull pitcher until 3rd visit).

gotta publicly shame coaches like this. My favorite way is to LOUDLY ask "are we playing softball or the game of clock?" gotten a couple of stares, I stare right back and smile.

 

[_MIA_]

If you want to see a travesty of the game, you should go watch my kid's MS games..

 

[HunterMO]

gotta publicly shame coaches like this. My favorite way is to LOUDLY ask "are we playing softball or the game of clock?" gotten a couple of stares, I stare right back and smile.

This and having a conference with each new batter to waist time drives me bonkers.

 

[CoachJD]

Playing USSSA this weekend, with 2 outs and our home team down 3 and the game timer about to go off within minutes, the base ump wouldn't let our baserunner at first step off for the 3rd out to start a new inning. Said it violated the travesty of the game rule.

Was he correct? This was 12U.

What does that mean he "wouldn't let" the runner do that? What if you told the runner to just steal second while the pitcher had the ball? He'd have to call something. He'd have to either let it go (steal third, too, then) or call her out.

 

[sluggers]

People fight so hard because the stakes are oh so low.

I got a great idea...why don't we teach the kids how to play softball? Including the concept that you win some and you lose some.

 

[chinamigarden]

Playing USSSA this weekend, with 2 outs and our home team down 3 and the game timer about to go off within minutes, the base ump wouldn't let our baserunner at first step off for the 3rd out to start a new inning. Said it violated the travesty of the game rule.

Was he correct? This was 12U.

So let me see if I get this right. Your team had base runners and the coach thought the best way to win this game was abandon the opportunity, give the other team an additional opportunity to score more and then start from scratch to score 3 or more necessary runs. Do I have that right?

 

[nixxy311]

We played a game once where we got on a roll and started getting runs with 2 outs. I guess we were taking too long so the ump asked our coach if one of our players would step off to end the inning. Coach said no - ump called it anyway. We still won but still shocked he did it. We weren't a team that won a lot so we wanted to continue just in case we had a bad inning defensively.

 

[marriard]

Playing USSSA this weekend, with 2 outs and our home team down 3 and the game timer about to go off within minutes, the base ump wouldn't let our baserunner at first step off for the 3rd out to start a new inning. Said it violated the travesty of the game rule.

Was he correct? This was 12U.

This is not acceptable. Totally MSU Rules (Making Stuff Up). Just plain laziness; not wanting to do his job for a few extra minutes. Call the out, play the next inning and suck it up. You don't get to make stuff up because you want to move on to the next game or go home or whatever.

They should be ashamed to call themselves an umpire. I am ashamed to be even remotely associated with this person.

Forget all the time-wasting and whatever or reasons or whatever.... runner steps off, you call the out. The end. Them the breaks.

I'd be over with the UIC and TD so quick it would make your head spin. It is so unacceptable that the words I am typing here don't even begin to show just how mad this makes me.

If a fellow umpire tried this as one of my partners, I would NEVER work with them again. Just unacceptable.

 

[BB875]

Like stated earlier - its a game designed not to have a time limit. Timed games open up all sorts of strategies like this. Umps should just call the game as the rules are written. I do prefer coaching HS where we play 7 innings. You get 21 outs. Each one is precious & getting down early doesn't mean you have to battle the clock too.