It's amazing how bureaucrats can complicate such a simple game.

These constant attempts to produce a 'fairness' to the game will lead to removal of keeping score in favor of 'just letting the kids run around and tire themselves out'.

The need to address academics at the university level is ridiculous. Students play baseball while in college. College is not just another venue for the game.

It seems that the Almighty Dollar is taking charge of the game as usual. Talk of game limits to accomodate television time will lead to more and more rules until the televised games are scripted.

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from the article...

"As coaches, we have to make a great attempt to try and speed up our game. Basically, I think it's for the good of the game, for the good of the player, and especially for the good of the fan." Keilitz said.



.........Rodney "The Snail" King.........

"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older fans and the young kids?...It’s just not right. It’s not right to quicken the pace. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our nine innings worth...in time. Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while...'til the last out. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out."

I don't get not supporting the idea of speeding up the game.

11 pm your son is just getting done with a game that took 4 hours, the ride home may take a few hours, your son has a test in the morning.

It's supposed to be all about the student athlete.

Obviously coaches don't prefer the compressed schedule or 27 limit scholly either.

Forcing the umpires to speed the games up via arbitrary rules like counting seconds between pitches seems ludicrous. Here are some ways to speed the games up imho:

1) Switch to wood bats. Amazing how much quicker the college summer leagues play This would also increase safety of the game imho.

2) Let catchers call the pitches.

How about fewer innings.

Or at bats with only three balls and two strikes.

Or limiting the number of runs a team can score in an inning.

Maintaining a strict time limit.

Ending games in ties.

After a predetermined point, the game would go into "Sudden Death" where the first team that scores wins.

Would speed up the game, but it wouldn't be baseball.

I would love to see them speed things up. We have a high school tournament is South Jersey that enforces "speed up" rules. You would be surprised how much a difference it makes without causing the flow of the game to change.

If a pitcher doesn't throw the next pitch within the alloted time a ball is called. If the batter is not in the box within the time a strike is called. It didn't take the boys long to make the adjustment and the game did seem to go faster. How many times does a batter need to adjust his batting gloves anyway?

As for switching to wood, my kids a pitcher so that would be fine with me!

I did find that in the cape, early season games moved quicker because pitchers had an advantage over hitters, once the hitters adjusted to wood the games became longer, same with lower level of pro ball.

In college you have the situation where a team has to get back on the bus and school in the morning or make curfew, or most of the fans have cleared out to go home for work the next day. Many really long college games, have found that the umpire has such a tight zone every pitcher has to go deep in the count. He also has a responsibility to make sure the game doesn't drag. Also after a very long inning with runs scored, the coach has the ability to give up the rest of the inning, how many coaches do that? There could be way to speed up without actual speed up rules.

The catcher calling the game speeds things up, but not all college catchers have that skill. There definetly is the game within the game, where a batter will take his time to throw off the pitchers timing, as JD suggests, adjusting gloves numerous times.

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:
I don't get not supporting the idea of speeding up the game.

11 pm your son is just getting done with a game that took 4 hours, the ride home may take a few hours, your son has a test in the morning.

It's supposed to be about the student athlete .

Obviously coaches don't prefer the compressed schedule or 27 limit scholly either.

I think in some cases it's about the athlete student.

Speed the game up???

Pitchers throw strikes
Pitchers get on the mound and pitch
Hitters get in the box and hit
Umpires call a bigger strike zone

Baseball is a race between two teams to get 27 outs (21 in high school obviously). The team that wins is the one who scores the most runs.

my first question is ,who slowed the game up? baseball by it's nature is a slow game,that's the way the game has been forever. will they have a running clock in football if your down by 30?

quote:

Originally posted by ClevelandDad:
…1) Switch to wood bats.

2) Let catchers call the pitches.

Leave it to someone from Ohio to get it right in 2 sentences. LOL!

Its too bad money and egos won’t allow either one to happen.