Warm up pitches

First, I don't understand what you mean by festivities/marketing. If you are talking about some of the stuff they do at pro parks then that should never occur on the field, always in foul so warm-ups may proceed. If for some wierd reason it doesn't I certainly woulsn't allow the home team to benefit from it. There are times that the time limit/pitch count is exceeded because of the PU making changes or F2 is somewhat slow getting out because of being the last batter or runner. Just let it go. The rule is there to speed the game along but sometimes it just isn't possible.

A smart ump knows what's going on ....

... all he has to say is that HE wasn't ready, was moving around trying to adjust his cup, swallow his gum, clear his sinuses or anything else. There isn't any penalty. The pitcher just has to end his between-inning pitches when the ump says it's time to start.

If a smart visiting coach notices something going on, like the pitcher needing to groom the mound or other distractions that is slowing up his pitcher getting ready, he can engage the ump in a conversation, buying time.

It won't fool the ump, he'll understand and as long as it only an occasional thing, he'll normally go along with it. This is another rule that everyone will give a wink and a nod to, particularly in cold weather. The umps don't want to see a player hurt either. We routinely talked to the ump before the first inning during warmups as long as he would chat if the temperature was low.

obtw: If the home coach is protesting how many warm ups the guy is throwing, he can probably get another 8-10 tosses in while the ump decides on whether or not he should quit and informs the visiting coach what the home coach is protesting.

Seems like you have a smart coach on your hands or at least one who has a NCAA rule book or access to an advanced resource book. In this case the BRD

The only code to spell out a penalty for exceeding the number of warm up pitches is NCAA.

NCAA Rule 9-2i Pen
Penalty for warm up tosses in excess of five or eight to the catcher: For each toss the umpire will award a ball to the batter

In NFHS (per the 2005 BRD) an official interpretation from Brad Rumble in NFHS NEWS #4 3/91 states:

The pitcher may not:
(1) exceed the limit of five warm up throws or (2) take an extra toss after being warned .

Penalty:
In (1) a ball is awarded to the batter
In (2) Pitcher is ejected

IN OBR:
Point not covered.....however an offical interpretation from Mike Fitzpatrick is that an Umpire will eject any pitcher who ignores the regulations after being warned.....

Now lets get to application... I have never seen anyone award a ball to the batter for exceeding the number of throws (NCAA, NFHS or OBR). I certainly havent and I probably would not....

Unless you are a serious student of the rules and purchase the advanced resource materials, there is no real way an average working umpire would be aware of this.....

Someone has tipped him off to this grey area.....but Id advise not falling into the trap, as long as the game is moving along to my pace, Im not too interested in whether or not it has been 5 or 6 throws......

Thanks for the input: MST, the league is a collegiate summer league, they are playing OBR. I don't do NCAA nor NFHS and had never heard of a penalty being assesed in 20+ years working the OBR as PIAA states. So simply told the coach, "my partner had a count of 5 warm up throws when I cleared the festivities from the home plate area,(yes the home team does raffles, rolls dice, base races for the kids etc. at or near enough to home plate that I wouldn't allow the pitcher to throw towards home.)I then instructed the catcher to take 3 more, they complied, lets play". the home skipper wanted to protest, stating "we counted 12 pitches." (he is a college coach)"I told him "no coach, they are fine, lets play. We moved on. Thanks, again I ask these things as I don't work the other rule books, so it's great to have these "sanity checks" with you guys/gals that do, just wondering where they are coming from. Thanks again.

Conversation at the Ball Park:

Home Coach: "Hey Ump, the other team's pitcher is takin' too many warm up throws."

Ump (approaching home coach): "What's that you say coach? Sorry I didn't hear ya clearly, I was watchin' yer festivities here. I love watchin' the little tykes run around the bases backwards."

Home Coach: "I said that the other team's pitcher is takin' more warm up throws than he's allowed to. The rules say he can't do that. You gotta penalize him."

Ump: "Ya know Coach, I've been Umpin' a long time now but I'm just an average workin' Ump and I always thought the rule was just there, ya know, to keep things movin' along. I don't know about any real penalty for it."

Visiting Coach approaches: "Hey, what's goin' on over here?"

Ump: "Well, the home Coach here says yer pitcher is warmin' up too much and he wants me to penalize him for it."

Vis Coach: "Are you kiddn' me? He's got these people all over the field holdin' things up and he wants to penalize MY pitcher. He oughta be penalized for holdin' up the game.

Ump to Vis Coach: "Now wait a minute, Coach. Are you maybe talkin' about OBR Rule 4.15 that says a team can't employ tactics palpably designed to delay or shorten the game."

Vis Coach: "Uhh yeah, that's what I mean. He's bein' a palpable designer."

Ump to Home Coach: "Ya know Coach, I know you're a solid baseball guy and you don't think up these festivity things. You got clever marketing folks that do that. But the other Coach might have a point here. Now I'm not a highly educated man; just an average workin' Ump. Heck, I'm not even sure what palpably means. But I do know that if all these folks are on the field much longer I might easily peceive that you arranged to have them out there, you know, to maybe give yer pitcher a little more rest between innigs, or maybe work on yer lead-off hitters sore shoulder a little more before you send him to the plate." And I'm pretty sure there's a penalty for doin' that stuff."

Vis Coach: "Yeah, yeah, he could be doin' that stuff. What's the penalty for that Ump.

Ump to Vis Coach: "Well let me get my OBR thingy out here and open 'er up to the right page and...HOLY MACKERAL Coach! It says here that if he does any palpably designed (dang, there's that word again) stuff that he might hafta forfeit the game to you."

Home Coach turning toward field: "Hey, get these people off the field. We gotta get this game movin'."

Ump to himself: "Palpably. What a neat word. I gotta go look that up."

No, it didn't really happen. Just suggesting that sometimes when a coach is squeezing the Umpire for something the Umpire can sometimes squeeze back.
Sorry, sometimes a situation just makes this stuff jump into my head.

Well, I've called a ball twice, but it was for taking an extra one after being told not to. It was a summer woodbat college league.

I know that at school, Evans warned us that in pro ball it was a protestable offense to allow extra warmups and if you allowed extras and the game was protested, you would lose the protest and your job. Now I didn't get a pro contract so i don't know for sure how much truth there is there, but I take the 5/8 warm up rules seriously, I don't want to be accused of being partial to one pitcher or another and one way that I remain impartial is to enforce the rules as best i can, even ones like this.

Let me restate, that I have never called a ball in this instance.....but I enforce the 5/8 out of desire to keep my games moving. Now sometimes when F2 was the last batter or stranded on base, you do have to be extra vigilant that a coach or a back up will warm up the catcher and get more throws in......and when I see the F2 is going to be slow in getting on the field, I will tell the coach to "save one for your catcher"........

Guess Im just lucky no coach has ever called me on it..........