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The 2010 SEC Tournament introduced a Pitch Clock for games. The SEC had a 108 second clock between innings and when there was no runners on base, pitchers were forced to throw a pitch every 20 seconds or they would be called for a ball. There was no pitch clock when runners were on the basepaths. The games during the tournament ended up being 15 minutes shorter then the previous year.
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7 comments
Does that shortening take into account the 7 inning games in the bracket finals? I’m a huge opponent to 7-inning games that count as much as that. You aren’t playing a full game, allowing pitchers to go the whole game easier.
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I was at the SEC Tournament and never once did the clock get below 5 seconds. I really don’t think it sped up the tournament as much as the new start times for games. For example, instead of a usual 10 AM start on Wednesday and Saturday, games began at 9:30 AM. I really think the 15 extra minutes was a combination of better pitching (pitching to contact) and dumb luck. Some games are shorter than others. The clock really had nothing to do with it. Pitchers and hitters were not rushed into their delivery or to the plate.
I thought it helped a lot and even carried over when runners were on base. There were no batters stepping out to adjust batting gloves, helmets, no pitchers walking around the mound or pitcher/catcher conferences every inning. I watched several SEC games as well as ACC, Big 10 and Big 12 over the weekend and the SEC games did move much faster.
The amazing thing to me was that the TV networks agreed to 1:48 between innings. That’s where the real time savings were — probably at least 52 seconds per half-inning. I attended three games at the tournament and never thought that anyone looked rushed by the clock.
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