WhoopN06 said:

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Luke The Drifter said:

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Bondag said:

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Earley said in post game that he got an email from the SEC. Why wouldn't Kentucky call him up before the series and say that they have a 4:30 curfew and ask if the game can start at 11:00 or 12:00?

0 respect for UK's coach.

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There's more to it than that. You also have to make sure the grounds crew can have the field ready for an 11:00 a.m. game...and make sure the stat crew, scoreboard operators, and radio announcers can be there at that time. Oh, and there's the concession stand workers, custodial staff, ushers, ticket takers, parking lot attendants, traffic control, and other support staff. You can't guarantee all of those things can all be available on short notice.

So that's why you set all Sunday games between teams requiring a flight to start at 12:00 noon. I get that you don't have to do so in an A&M-Texas or an Ole Miss-MSU game, but if you know the visitors have to get on a flight that evening, just decide in January that the Sunday game will start at 11:00 or 12:00. That way you avoid the last-minute SEC mandated scrambling around.

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But they do seem to manage this when weather is a problem...

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Very good point. When thunderstorms roll in, everyone adjusts on the fly. With that in mind, seems like by Tuesday or so of last week, they could have made the decision to move the game to at least noon.

Has to be approved. I have no idea if the SEC office would let us move a game just because of a travel curfew.

This is the first time I have ever heard of a travel curfew-imposed game, and it is unacceptable for an SEC series. If the 9th inning had been played, it probably would have lasted 30 more minutes until 5:00 PM and made the game about 4 hours long. To allocate enough time for a 4-hour game to end by 4:00 PM, the game could have started at noon.

Luke The Drifter said:

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Bondag said:

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Earley said in post game that he got an email from the SEC. Why wouldn't Kentucky call him up before the series and say that they have a 4:30 curfew and ask if the game can start at 11:00 or 12:00?

0 respect for UK's coach.

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There's more to it than that. You also have to make sure the grounds crew can have the field ready for an 11:00 a.m. game...and make sure the stat crew, scoreboard operators, and radio announcers can be there at that time. Oh, and there's the concession stand workers, custodial staff, ushers, ticket takers, parking lot attendants, traffic control, and other support staff. You can't guarantee all of those things can all be available on short notice.

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Yes, it does take some scheduling among many different people... but they do it often. They've done it twice this year (changed game times a day before the game). If our side had known about this a little earlier, maybe we could have changed the start time. Who knows.

Two years ago, Alabama was in town when the Sunday game looked like a wash. Game was canceled but then re-engaged to start at 7:00 (?) because Bama wanted to play the game. At 7:00 on a Sunday! They had no travel issue. Grounds crew had to scramble to get the field ready, and they did a great job. There was a skeleton usher crew and they let people sit wherever they wanted. Things worked out OK.

Personally, I think the SEC shouldn't allow this. When they force that Alabama game and turn around and say we can't play past 4:30 for this one, that means there's no standard. There should be some sort of penalty for the visiting team because they scheduled poorly and then didn't inform the host school. (They had to know they had that flight time weeks in advance. They could have told Coach any time.) Maybe the SEC should just pay for or approve everyone's travel to ensure this doesn't happen and enforce a standard.

Bobcats said:

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Iraq2xVeteran said:

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This is the first time I have ever heard of a travel curfew-imposed game, and it is unacceptable for an SEC series. If the 9th inning had been played, it probably would have lasted 30 more minutes until 5:00 PM and made the game about 4 hours long. To allocate enough time for a 4-hour game to end by 4:00 PM, the game could have started at noon.

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Here are the SEC rules.

Home team establishes start times and all Sunday games must start NO LATER than 1pm if the visiting is utilizing air travel.

The visiting team must take the last scheduled flight if travelling by commercial air.

The visiting team must notify the home team PRIOR TO THE BEGINNING OF THE WEEKEND SERIES of its travel departure restrictions, if any.

So someone in our athletic department (hopefully the coaching staff), should have known well before the weekend that KY had a cutoff time 3 1/2 hours after the scheduled 1pm start and if concerned about that amount of time should have scheduled or adjusted the game to earlier than 1pm. I would assume that is a standard thing to know well before any home weekend series and that a visiting team flying commercial is going to book air travel well before the weekend.

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Agree.

I'd be much more inspired by our coaches' heated display if he had shown some fire at any other point this season.

If our athletic department didn't want a shortened game, we shouldn't have scheduled for 1 o clock. Besides that, it only becomes an issue if you are the one losing when the clock runs out. It seems we have been doing a lot of that lately

Luke The Drifter said:

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Maybe start games at 11:00 am to avoid this problem?

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THIS

Bobcats said:

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So someone in our athletic department (hopefully the coaching staff), should have known well before the weekend that KY had a cutoff time 3 1/2 hours after the scheduled 1pm start and if concerned about that amount of time should have scheduled or adjusted the game to earlier than 1pm. I would assume that is a standard thing to know well before any home weekend series and that a visiting team flying commercial is going to book air travel well before the weekend.

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So either:

1. Earley was lying about not knowing until Saturday (I don't think he was lying, he seemed to genuinely not know about it)
2. Kentucky did inform A&M but whoever got the message did not inform Earley (in which case there should be some internal action taken there)
3. Kentucky did not inform A&M before the weekend and therefore broke the rules and should be penalized by the SEC somehow

Does the ESPN tv deal have any say in start times?

I would imagine they would if they are on the big channels (ESPN/ESPN2/SECN/etc) but I would imagine not if on ESPN+.....but not sure

Only if it's actually on TV not streaming through SECN+

nereus said:

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To me they are two separate issues.

Yes, we lost the game and I don't think the travel curfew had anything to do with our loss in this particular game.

But I do think the SEC should have a policy that games need to start at least 4 1/2 hours before the travel curfew in general. The only times the travel curfew should come into play should be due to extra inning games and weather delays.

I don't care so much about it for this particular game, but as a general SEC policy they shouldn't allow a situation where a 9 inning game that starts on time with no weather delays ends up hitting the travel curfew time.

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I get that but both teams play by the same rules so I will never complain that something was not fair when both teams played by this same rule. DHs have shortened games all the time, and no one complains because it is 7 vs 9 innings.

It looks like the home team decides play time and if A&M wanted to complete the game then start at 11am.

Jet blue

Thank you. I thought the strikes HBP were my old eyes deceiving me.

They have to go back to the rule that if you do not try to avoid getting hit it is a strike.

jkag89 said:

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Quote:

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Isn't this the equivalent of running the clock out in football or basketball?

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No. This was not a situation where you are trying to wind down a game clock but trying to stall to an absolute time. Even with basketball and football there is the shot clock and play clock that limits the amount of time you can run off with a possession or play. IMO it goes against the spirit of the game but understand why Kentucky did what they did even if I think it is bush league. The bottom line for them was to secure the W. The Aggies really have nobody to blame but themselves.

As for fiery coaches. Not every coach has that temperament and it does not necessarily make them a poor coach. Mark Johnson was an excellent college baseball coach that was very slow to get to a boiling point, this was why it was nice to have a fiery assistant with Bill Hickey.

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SIAP, but it looks like Earley was willing to engage in something that otherwise would be against the spirit of the game if it would have played to his advantage in getting the last inning in. Both coaches were trying to get the W.

I asked Texas A&M HC Michael Earley about potential strategy when facing a travel-curfew end of game situation:

“It’s like even embarrassing to talk about, but I told Royo if Kaeden got out, strikeout on purpose…”

Full answer below: pic.twitter.com/PisOScV36L

— Tony Catalina (@Tony_Catalina) March 30, 2025

While I see your point and yes this seems to be against the Spirt of the Game, to me this was simply a way for Earley to counteract Mingione's stall tactic. In other words, Kentucky put this whole thing into motion forcing Earley to attempt this tactic in order to extend the game to the 9th inning.. As stated before, while it rubbed me the wrong way, I do not fault Kentucky using the travel curfew in order to nail down the W since they have not gotten off to the best start in SEC play either.

trouble said:

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I don't mind the current rule. It's the umps that are at fault.

You don't have to try to avoid it if you are in the batter's box. Broussard COULD have declined to award them first when they started that standing on the plate bull**** Saturday.

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Disagree as you can stand in the box and extend your arms over the plate and get hit if you do not move. And get awarded first base. So you can conceivably throw a strike and hit the batter.

You have to make them attempt to avoid the pitch or it will be used like Mingione is doing. Kentucky has twice the number of hbps as the other SEC teams do.

What will happen is everybody will do this so each team will get 3-4 hbps a game. That is a lot of free bases.

I just posted this in the other thread about this so I am just copying it here, but it isn't if the batter is in the box or not. It is if the ball is in the box when it hits the batter.

Quote:

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Where the feet are matters for the batter being in a legal batting position in general. But for hit by a pitch, the ball location of inside or outside the box when it hits a batter can also matters. Here is the relevant NCAA rule:

7-4 A Strike

Quote:

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A Strike is
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i. Awarded if the batter is judged to intentionally make a movement to be hit by a pitch, regardless of where the pitch is located; or allows themself to be intentionally hit by a pitch that is not thrown within the boundaries of the batter's box unless it was not possible to avoid being hit

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If the batter is crowding the plate (even with their feet on the line in the batters box) with their elbow/arm/hand leaning outside of the box, the umpire can award a strike on the batter for a hit by the pitch if they think the batter could have avoided being hit.

If the ball is in the box they don't have to get out of the way, but if it is outside the box they have to try and get out of the way if possible.

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Agree. AND If it's a strike not a HBP.

Agdad081216 said:

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Agree. AND If it's a strike not a HBP.

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Umps won't call it. I don't get it. They have to know what is going on and look for it.