House Rules Say...

[moblue]

I recently called a 9 y/o game in a league with a few house rules. I wasn't informed of them prior to gametime, but I know coaches will not hesitate to inform me when I miss one. For this particular game I figured I'd need my big strike zone, giving some outside and up high. Well, the first batter comes up and takes four balls. After ball four he just stands in the box. I stood up and took a step towards him and said "That's ball four." He turned and looked at me and I said "Ball four." He chucked the bat towards the dugout and took off for first.

About halfway down the line his coach stopped him. He looked at me and said, "We give them six balls in this league. This is their first year pitching to each other." I felt like this: Six balls to walk. I think I called the biggest strike zone I've ever called that night. The coaches wanted it even bigger, but I refused to give them the head high strikes (There is no way a kid should ever swing at something level with his head IMHO.).

It felt so weird giving counts like 4-2, and, my favorite, "Full count! 5-2!" I had to say that a few times just because I don't know if I'll ever have that chance again.

[Astrosdawg07]

That had to be hell keeping up with the count, what did you do roll your indicator to 1 on ball #5?

[moblue]

I lived on the edge and rolled it to zero for ball five. It almost messed me up once, but after you've hit ball four and roll it on over to zero, your next pitch is either a strike or a walk anyways.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they weren't allowed to steal home either. That made for a fairly uneventful night at the plate.

[willv28]

I guess that's where a 4 wheel indicator would come in handy....

But yeah. We've had HUGE issues with "house rules" or as they've become the "make it up as you go rules". What I do with these minors game is talk to the coaches before the game. Now obviously I know the rules in my local league and which I'm responsible for (they ALLEGEDLY share rules with the other towns they play and vice-versa). I make sure they're clear if it's not in the approved rule set it's not being used. If they question something or appear to put something "special" for the game make them show it to you in writing that's it's a league "house rule" if further question is warranted make them show you paperwork that says they could waive or modify such a rule. You can't make changes willy nilly. If they can't show the paperwork, it doesn't exist.

Yeah, we've had coaches go "oh they weren't hurt they need the swings, leave them in" after THEIR batter got hit. That was the incident where I first had someone removed from a game and EXPLODED, maybe a little strong, lol, but I didn't waste any time showing who was controlling the game and how big a safety issue it was. Needless to say their pitcher suddenly had control after that.

I get less "oh we do this" or "yeah we like to make them throw it down if it's a terrible throw we put them back". I don't deal with it. Play and move on.

This is all for LL Minors btw I'm talking about.

[moblue]

My hometown used to umpire in an unchartered league that was definitely "make it up as we go." I clamped down on the rules with them and what do you know, the next year there were rules to overrule me. I got a good laugh out of the way they worded some of them. My favorite said something like "There is no limit to the diameter of bat that can be used. If they can swing it, they can use it."

I refused to allow the kids to say "hey batter, hey batter, swing!" under the pretense they were attempting to distract the batter, which is expressly forbidden in the rules. House league, so I created my own penalty for infraction: batter awarded first base. Coaches that asked if they thought I was going overboard I informed them the rulebook said to eject the offending player. I told them I thought that was taking it to far. They usually left me alone after that. The next year, whattaya know? They had a rule that said players were allowed to chatter.

I don't know why, but I kind of miss those days. It was always great at the beginning of the year to see what new rules I had caused the league to create.

[willv28]

Yeah, I don't take it too far. I just call the normal rules. The only point is to expose the kids to all the rules and situations they will see in the majors. Everyone has seemed happy so far with the way I've done things.

I still think LL needs to clamp down on this house rules nonsense I don't care if a level is "instructional".

[blindumpire99]

What I always do before working an "unfamiliar" league, tourney, whathaveyou, is to always go to the TD or UIC or both coaches before the game if it's a regular youth league game to find out just what the "house rules" are for this particular division, tourney, ect.

It helps eliminate any problems while on the field and prevents you from looking like an incompetent idiot umpire who doesn't "know the rules" whenever one of the rule problems crops up and you have to have a timeout to huddle and confer to sort the problem out. It's a version of having to pull a rule book out to read it as I see it and we KNOW no one pulls a rule book out without "going to the house" afterwards, right??.

I can be my own incompetent idiot who don't know the rules just fine without any unfamiliar house rule sitches exacerbating the problem!:banghead: