What is this tendency for baseball games to never get started on time? I went to three different games last week and none of them started fewer than 15 minutes late. Now don't get me wrong, I love the laid-back aspect of baseball as opposed to football and basketball, but at least start the games on time, especially earlier in the season when your pitchers' control might not be as sharp as later in the season.

I don't know about the games you saw but I've witnessed many coaches duing the regular season take their sweet ol' time hitting in-field to their teams.

 

If you were to go to a Rockcastle County game at The Rock it will most certainly be on time. Coach Bussell likes to run a tight ship as all coaches should do.

One of my games this past week got started at 6 p.m. when it was supposed to start at 5:30. The visiting team was not late, and there is no excuse for it to start so late.

I've noticed the same thing Jim. Should the umpire make sure the game starts on time?

All games should start on time, if the visiting team arrives on time and the Umpires are ready.

 

Infield can last too long at times and to me, the biggest problem is allowing too much time between innings...minimize the warm-up pitches to 8 and allow only 1 minute, instead of 2-4 for each team.

Seems to be a problem everywhere you go. definitely not an isolated problem.

Due to budget concerns within many school districts, teams cannot get a bus for away games (no drivers) until said driver finishes his/her route. Many teams cannot leave until 4:30 to make 5:30 start times.

This past week, CovCath's opening game was supposed to start at 12, but started at 1. This was because of standing water on the field. Someone there told me that 8 of the 5 gallon buckets were filled. That's 40 gallons for those who don't like math.

There is no good excuse for it

I'm fine with legit excuses (visitors late, umps late, weather delay, Senior Night, etc.). But when everybody's there on time, and the delay is owed simply to the coaches taking their own sweet time to get started, that's a bit much. I rarely see this happen in softball, and you never see it in football, and the only time you see it in basketball is when the JV game runs long.

 

Somebody needs to rein this in, and I think it should be the umpires.

When I still played in H.s., it seemed like the Umps were always late coming to the field...

Due to budget concerns within many school districts, teams cannot get a bus for away games (no drivers) until said driver finishes his/her route. Many teams cannot leave until 4:30 to make 5:30 start times.

I think this is the biggest problem. Also, the home team should try to have pregame finished by the time the visiting gets there. That way once the visiting teams takes their pregame the game can start.