I was somewhat disappointed that an idea I had projected to the director of one of the numerous local baseball tournaments was rebuffed.

“That’s bush,” I was told. “It sounds like something they’d do in softball.”

The idea, though, has merit, particularly given that coaches’ objectives for in-season tournaments have changed rather drastically.

The thought — not even a suggestion, mind you — was to have five-inning games rather than the traditional seven. Most tournaments already have time limits in place, anywhere from 2 hours and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 50 minutes. Even with a time limit, games often drag over either because they are high-scoring or the home team is behind in the fifth or sixth innings with just a couple of minutes left before the time limit kicks in.

It’s unlikely — I’m sure it hasn’t been discussed — that tournament hosts might get a break on the $130 split between two umpires for each game, but over the course of a Friday night an inventive tournament director might get in three games instead of two. He might get at least two extra games played at each site over the course of a Saturday. One could also revert to seven-inning games for semifinals and the championship, but those advancing teams might even be looking at just a championship game Sunday. And those out-of-town teams might be on the road by 4 rather than getting done with a semifinal and then preparing for a title game at 4.

It appears that the coaching mindset has changed over the last decade. When they play in tournaments, winning that weekend championship is a byproduct more than the ultimate purpose. With most playing district games on Mondays and Tuesdays or Mondays and Wednesdays, few want to play extra games on Sunday and even less are going to use their top two pitchers. (I know one coach who had district games coming up and held four pitchers for the pending two-day series.) Most coaches, it appears to me, are more about getting hitters extra at-bats and developing younger or less experienced pitchers against quality competition.

It might even cut down on the number of teams ducking out of Sunday semifinals and heading for home early, a troubling trend that seems to have developed over the last couple of years.

At least some, though, are courteous enough beforehand to tell tournament directors that they won’t be playing Sunday games. That was the case this past weekend. Although he lost his semifinals and championship to rain, Marion County coach Steven Roberts knew before his tournament started that three of the participants would not be playing on Sunday. Some coaches have more class than others.

That’s a pet peeve, by the way and I was appalled a couple of years ago when teams on back-to-back weekends pulled up stakes on Saturday night without having previously informed the tournament director. Maybe I’m too old school or maybe I’m out of touch with reality, but I have always believed that if you commit, then you should have enough character to follow through. Whatever happened to your word being as good as gold? A lot of teams meet their budgets with what they raise by hosting tournaments and those Sunday gates can be invaluable.

But speaking of gates, there is such a thing as gouging, which happened earlier this season. Yes, umpires are getting $65 apiece per game and some tournaments furnish new baseballs, which are running somewhere around $65 per dozen. But there was one tournament where fans were being charged $8, and we’re talking about a regular season high school tournament game. Of course they were pushing $20 tournament passes, but, shoot, the prices aren’t that high at the state tournament, or at least they haven’t been. And coaches wonder why their student support is so limited? How many kids in this day of gas prices running $3.45 per gallon can afford it? Even with parental support, they do well to have enough gas in the tank to make it to school Monday through Friday or back and forth from a part-time job.

I understand teams making as much money as they can, especially with the Hamilton County schools superintendent and his numerous advisors trimming left and right to try and meet a shortfall somewhere around $11 million. The county school board provides little for sports beyond most of the coaching supplements and teams in all sports are fending for themselves for everything from uniforms to facilities and their upkeep to travel.

But $8 per parent to watch a child play baseball is certainly much more ludicrous than playing five-inning tournament games, don’t you think?