Wrong Balls

[KrazyRay]

Here's one I would have never thought could happen! Little League baseball 12 year old and under majors.  The game starts with the home team pitcher being given the Safe-T balls that the Tee ball kids use. The pitcher walks the first 2 batters then complains that the balls are wrong. Would the game continue using the correct balls or does the game need to start over? It was a new umpire in his 3rd game and the home team manager asked to restart the game from the beginning.

[Mister B]

Umpire should have known, pitcher should have known and the coaches should have known. I would guess that the balls were provided by the Home team, so no, his pitcher walked 2, no do overs. 

[Rich Ives]

9 hours ago, Mister B said:

Umpire should have known, pitcher should have known and the coaches should have known. I would guess that the balls were provided by the Home team, so no, his pitcher walked 2, no do overs. 

In most LL's around here the league provides the balls, not the teams. 

If the teams supplied the balls in this situation ask why the teams even had the tee-ball balls.

I suspect the umpire grabbed the wrong ones on his way out to the game.

And yes, the pitcher and/or catcher should have noticed. 

 

[Mudisfun]

Also... this is LL - do you suddenly reset the pitch count? 

Sorry coach... put in the correct baseballs and let's go.

[Senor Azul]

Little League rule 3.01:  Before the game begins the umpires shall—

(c) receive from the league a supply of baseballs which meet Little League specifications and standards. The umpire shall be the sole judge of the fitness of the balls to be used in the game;

(d) be assured by the league that additional balls are immediately available for use if required;

Why does the home team pitcher have to use the unfit baseballs and not the visiting team’s pitcher? Isn’t that a huge disadvantage to the home team? Why wouldn’t you complete the inning with the illegal balls and then change out? Since the game was only two batters in (and no outs recorded) why not just re-start the game because it was not yet a regulation game (rule 4.10d)?

[Rich Ives]

19 minutes ago, Senor Azul said:

Little League rule 3.01:  Before the game begins the umpires shall—

(c) receive from the league a supply of baseballs which meet Little League specifications and standards. The umpire shall be the sole judge of the fitness of the balls to be used in the game;

(d) be assured by the league that additional balls are immediately available for use if required;

Why does the home team pitcher have to use the unfit baseballs and not the visiting team’s pitcher? Isn’t that a huge disadvantage to the home team? Why wouldn’t you complete the inning with the illegal balls and then change out? Since the game was only two batters in (and no outs recorded) why not just re-start the game because it was not yet a regulation game (rule 4.10d)?

Why didn't anyone notice sooner?  Pitcher? Catcher? Umpire?  Why?  Fix it and move on.  Unless you think the HT did it on purpose which is a whole different thing.

[Mister B]

Our league gives each coach Game ball and practice balls at the beginning of the season. The Game balls usually have a big sticker on the box say, "Game Balls! Not for practice!"

It works our pretty good, but I'll still get the occasional coach who will hand me a couple vinyl balls, or the coach who used his game balls for practice and will hand me 2 new $2 practice balls. It's a sure sign that they never read the rule book, because they can't read. 

[UmpCast_Wes]

I wouldn't restart the game.  As others have said, just put the correct ball in play and go from there.  However, with this only being the umpire's third game, I wouldn't fault him for restarting.  Honestly at two batters into the game, I wouldn't fault anyone for restarting.

[KrazyRay]

Well, the game was restarted much to the chagrin of the visiting manager, but the pitcher's pitch count was not reset because the pitch count is a safety issue not allowing a 12 year old to exceed 85 pitches in a game. 

[JSam21]

On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 9:55 PM, Ump-Cast said:

I wouldn't restart the game.  As others have said, just put the correct ball in play and go from there.  However, with this only being the umpire's third game, I wouldn't fault him for restarting.  Honestly at two batters into the game, I wouldn't fault anyone for restarting.

Especially since no hits or runs were recorded.  There has been no advantage gained by anyone.