Larry in TN

"That was a wicked googly!"

Exactly why I'm asking. I'll be the official scorer for three games this weekend at a LL tournament and want to make sure that I do it correctly. I tend to me rather assertive with these things so I want to make sure that I'm assertive about the correct procedure!

I haven't seen anyone write about enjoying the injury. Nobody who was there to see it enjoyed it. I don't see how an injury should result in the rules of baseball being disregarded, though. It is the umpires' job to get the call right injury or no injury. The injured player was already in his mother's car en-route to the hospital when the umpires allowed a pinch runner to take his place on 1B. That blown call didn't help the injured player at all.

My league (LL) doesn't exchange official lineups at the plate meeting as the rules specify. The managers/coaches/scorers exchange the lineups unofficially whenever they have them ready. Since the PU does not have a copy of the lineups he would consult with the official scorer (home team's scorer) if the batting order is appealed. When it is done correctly, how and when does the official scorer receive a copy of the lineups?

Okay, so in that situation, how close does the ball have to be to F2 before it is no longer OBS?

Why is it Type A if F2 didn't have the ball? Was the ball on the way to F2 but not yet close enough to him for him to be in the process of fielding it? I've never been clear on that distinction.

My son's team wasn't involved. I was keeping score for the other team as their scorer wasn't there and I know that coach well. Nobody even questioned the injured player being awarded 1B. I mentioned it to the manager of the team for which I was scoring but that was it. FWIW, the pinch-runner did eventually score. The injury was serious so I have no problem with them stopping play but they would be stopping play to allow aid to reach the injured player sooner so I don't understand why he would be protected. I'd think that if you stopped play in that situation then the injured player must be out as he had no way to ever get to a base. It's not like a case where the BR becomes injured with a HR out of play as the ball was still in play and there would be nothing to prevent the DT from making the put-out. AFAIK, there is only one umpire from our league who participates here and he wasn't working that game. You just don't see much commitment from most of them.

It was not a clumsy hard tag, it was clearly intentional. This kid has a history of overly aggressive behavior like that. He was on our team last Fall and that coach kept a tight leash on him. His coach this Spring didn't. He looked for any opportunity to physically punish the other teams players. He'd play SS when not pitching and several times tried to trip a baserunner when he didn't have the ball. He'd mock players on the other team when he put them out. He laughed out loud at one who he put out after a dumb baserunning mistake. My son's been in this leage since T-Ball, he's now 13, and I've been a scorekeeper for almost as long. I've never seen MC called at the park. It's just not something our umpires seem to be looking for. Karma eventually caught up with him. Later in the season he pops-up to 1B and is clearly frustrated both in his body language and some exclamations he made (no profanity). F3 backs up to make the catch but muffs it sending the ball to the side-fence. By this time the BR is getting close to the 1B bag in his dejected jog. Seeing the ball muffed he takes off and as he's rounding 1B he trips and falls hard 5' - 10' from 1B on the 1B-2B baseline. He never got up. Ankle broken in three places. If he had just run out the play, like he was suppose to, he would have been safe at first with no injury. So, this BR is injured while running between 1B and 2B going down at least 5' away from 1B. Please tell me why the umpires, who immediately called 'time' when he went down, called him safe at 1B and allowed a pinch runner to take his place? How can somebody be safe when he went down between bases with a ball still in play about 30' away from him? That team was in first place when this player was injured. Without him, they dropped to third place, out of six teams, in the remaining games.

We had a situation this Spring that I thought should have been called MC. LL Juniors (13-15). BR bounces a weak hit to F1 who takes the ball and heads to the first-base line to make the play unassisted. He reaches the BR just slightly behind him and instead of making the tag he pushes hard with both arms throwing the BR to the ground (where he remained for several minutes). F1 was a big 15 yr old, BR was a 14 yr old. The only call from the umpires was the out.

I scored 7/10 and I'm just a scorekeeper. Okay, would have been 6/10 if I hadn't read this thread first...

How do you determine if there was interference if the running got an early enough break that the batter didn't have time to get out of the way after his swing?

That's "tribal knowledge". It's passed down from generation to generation without anyone actually going back and making sure that it is (still) correct. When we teach the game to others it is important to teach them where to find the rules so that they know how to look them up (and that it is 'normal' to have to look them up!) instead of just taking our word for it. The rules of baseball are extensive and complicated. It takes a lot of effort to learn them and understand how they are applied in different situations. Few people will put in the required effort. I just spent (what seemed like) the entire Spring LL season trying to teach the kids (Juniors, 13-15) the difference between a foul ball and a foul tip. At the end of the season I still had kids getting it wrong and these were kids who were trying to get it right. Bad coaching (and umpiring) had conditioned them to think that if the bat tipped the ball it was a foul tip and it was very hard for them to unlearn that. Half the umpires in the league still signaled/verbalized "Tip" as the ball was bouncing off the backstop. Doesn't help that our LL doesn't distribute the rule books it receives from LL to the teams each season. (Though that means I get a free copy every year because they have a big box full of them in the league office) My 13yr old has read the complete LL rule book three times and is half-way through on his fourth. His goal is to start umpiring pee-wee next Spring when he turns 14. ...and don't forget, "a tie goes to the runner" and "the hand is part of the bat"! <-- Tribal knowledge

Does FED have a rule that a batter is out if he steps out of the batter's box? In OBR/LL isn't it only if he hits the ball with a foot completely out of the box?

We have a few umpires (LL, Minor/Major/Junior) who don't seem to understand that one. They're constantly signaling the "tip" as the ball is bouncing off the back-stop fence! I'm my son's team's scorekeeper. The coaches definitely don't know 10.00! Every time we get a coach for the first time I have to educate him on what the stats that I provide to him mean and why plays are scored the way they are.

That's the interesting part. Looking at how it is formatted in the LL rule book, I'm not sure if the penalty applies only to paragraph (a) or if it applies to everything above it which includes the introductory sentence stating that all fielders other than the catcher shall be in fair territory? 4.03 - When the ball is put in play at the start of, or during a game, all fielders other than the catcher shall be in fair territory. (a) the catcher shall be stationed in the catcher's box. The catcher may leave that position at any time to catch a pitch or make a play except that when the batter is being given an intentional base on balls, the catcher must stand with both feet within the lines of the catcher's box until the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. PENALTY: Illegal pitch - ball called on the batter (see Rule 8.05). (Junior/Senior/Big League penalty: Balk with runner or runners on base.)