In an effort to speed play, the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee has approved a 20-second limit between pitches with no runners on and a 90-second limit between innings for non-TV games (108 seconds for televised).
Implemented in tournament play last year, and now required for the 2011 regular season:
- Pitchers who go over this time limit with no runners on base risk having a ball added to the count after a warning for a first offense,
- Hitters who step out within 5 seconds of the clock expiring risk a strike after a warning for a first offense and;
- The offending team of the between-innings limit risk having a ball or strike added as well.
Where in-field or on-stadium pitch clocks are not available, what's the lucky base umpire to do who has this responsibility? When 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, etc won't do, would you consider one of these items?
Champion Jumbo Timer
Clips to belt or can be worn around wrist
Countup or Countdown
Audible beep confirmation
$24.99
Robic StopwatchHand-held
Countup or countdown
Can be used silently or with audible beep confirmation
Will reset to any preset time at completion
$14.99
What do you think of this new rule?
3 comments:
I don't know what the data suggests from previous years. It sounds like a pain in an effort to speed up the game. What they should do to speed up the game is get rid of aluminum bats, but big aluminum has the D1 coaches in their back pocket.
It takes 4-5 wood bats to equal the cost of a good metal bat. Umpires have enough to worry about without babysitting a shot clock. Completely asinine on the part of the Ncaa. The new composite bats which are worse than wood will do more to speed up the game than a shot clock.
Thanks guys for your comments. It will be interesting to see how the enforcement of this rule evolves and whether or not changes in other areas as you have mentioned may or may not make this rule unnecessary in the future.
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