Illegal pitch... question

[ajaywill]

NCAA actually adopted this rule about five years ago....the reason given at the time was to eliminate the "cat and mouse" games between pitcher and batter.

I later heard that the real reason is that ESPN had some significant influence after a few games in the CWS took 2 - 3 hours to play. They implied to the NCAA softball people that if they didn't want their games televised on tape delay at 3 am Sunday morning, that something needed to be done to pick up the pace of the game. The timing rule between pitches is what they came up with.

But they still refuse to implement the one minute time limit between innings....

[AlwaysImprove]

NCAA actually adopted this rule about five years ago....the reason given at the time was to eliminate the "cat and mouse" games between pitcher and batter.

I later heard that the real reason is that ESPN had some significant influence after a few games in the CWS took 2 - 3 hours to play. They implied to the NCAA softball people that if they didn't want their games televised on tape delay at 3 am Sunday morning, that something needed to be done to pick up the pace of the game. The timing rule between pitches is what they came up with.

But they still refuse to implement the one minute time limit between innings....

Too bad espn was not around when Uberoth took MLB games from 2:20 to over 3 hours. Sure teams got an immediate spike in revenue cause they could show more commercials. But it has killed viewership long term. Immigrants and youth used to flock to the sport, now you just do not see the uptake. No one has that time investment to get introduced to a sport.

I know I fell in love with fastpitch when espn would come back to the game and we would already be in the second or third pitch of the inning.

[GIMNEPIWO]

The pitcher in question does work very slow, so IMO, the umpire was probably correct in making the call. I just hate the fact of the randomness of it, and the fact that all of the sudden in the 3rd inning with runners on base and with a full count on the pitcher, it was now for some reason called.

Could have been one of those thing this Blue had in his head ... Thinking : ' she is coming awful close to delay ' ... and started focusing more on it, maybe started counting seconds in the 3rd inning ... But yeah, I can see how it would appear random, like a gal who has been leaping the entire game and gets called in the 3rd or 4th inning ... Then again, sometimes she doesn't leap until the 3rd inning ...

[MTR]

The pitcher in question does work very slow, so IMO, the umpire was probably correct in making the call. I just hate the fact of the randomness of it, and the fact that all of the sudden in the 3rd inning with runners on base and with a full count on the pitcher, it was now for some reason called.

It could be because the umpire spent the first two innings telling the coach/pitcher/catcher to pick up the pace. Or maybe the umpire was allowing an extra few seconds and the delay went even longer.

I can tell you that umpires do not want to make calls like this if not necessary and WILL give the benefit of doubt when possible. Unfortunately, if the pitcher doesn't respond to this "break" it will eventually be called. If the pitcher still doesn't adjust, then it is going to be like the leaping calls a couple years ago. It will get called until the pitcher/coach get their act together and do it right.

It isn't a pretty thing, and again, the umpire does not look forward to this type of stuff.

[Anti-Clone]

The pitcher in question does work very slow, so IMO, the umpire was probably correct in making the call. I just hate the fact of the randomness of it, and the fact that all of the sudden in the 3rd inning with runners on base and with a full count on the pitcher, it was now for some reason called.

Seems like it might have been a more stressful time for the pitcher, who ended up taking a bit too much time.

[HugoTafurst]

But they still refuse to implement the one minute time limit between innings....

Advertising $$$