Pitcher's Shot Clock

The SEC started the "shot" clock last year for pitchers in order to speed up the game and the NCAA adopted it this season.  It gives the pitcher a minute and a half between innings and 20 seconds between each pitch but only when the bases are empty.  Pitchers tend to slow down the game when runners are on not when the bases are empty so I don't think the pitch clock makes a difference in the first place.  For guys that work fast it doesn't really matter.  I'll be the first to admit it is annoying when pitchers walk around the mound after every pitch.  I understand that college baseball fans think games are too long and speeding up the game is a good idea but it's trying to reinvent the game.  The new bats have lowered final scores which speeds up the game.  What about hitters that take 30 practice swings, check their batting gloves, touch their toes, take another 10 practice swings and slowly walk to the batter's box?  What's next? No National Anthem? No warm-up pitches?  Play the game the way it's supposed to be played.

Pre-game Skits

The past few years our hitters had to line up in two lines (Lefties and Righties)  in the outfield and "visualize" a sac bunt, hit and run, driving the ball the other way, etc as our coach would wind up and would pretend to throw a fastball, curveball, slider, or change up.    It was comical for the pitchers to watch.  Our hitters hated it and would wait in the outfield to "visualize".  What started out as a joke for the hitters became a pre-game ritual for our whole team.  Fans would watch and scouts would even come up to our other coaches and tell them they thought the skit was great.  Our coach's walk to the outfield was annoyingly slow so we had plenty of time.  The first skit started out of sure hate for this coach.  As he was walking to the outfield the hitters took their bats and "visualized" using them as guns.  It looked like an 18th century war re-enactment.  Guys were crawling on the ground pretending to fill their gun like a musket.  Someone actually got it on tape and it was featured on the video at the conference tournament banquet.  Needless to say it was an instant hit on our team and a lot of thought went into these skits.  Some of them had to do with the team we were playing, some had to do with current events, and some were just because.