Mound visits

[FleasOf1000Camels]

15u tournament, FED rules.  Elimination game, top of 7th, home team leads 7-4.  Home team had burned their 3 defensive conferences earlier in the game as starting pitcher struggled in early innings, but now they have their ace on the mound.  Pitcher takes line drive off the ankle, putting runner on base with one out.  Manager asks permission to visit pitcher to check his injury.  As manager and I walk to mound, I tell him "this won't count as a conference so long as all you do is check him for injury."  Coach looks at his ankle, we let him take a couple of throws, pitcher says he's OK, coach heads back to bench.  I turn to offensive head coach (in 3rd base box) and say "this was NOT a charged conference." He nods.

Next 2 pitches are wild, one way high, the next in the dirt. (NOTE: prior to being hit, this kid had hit every spot).  Runner advances to 2nd, then 3rd.  Pitcher is grimacing in obvious pain with each landing.  Defensive coach asks me for time, and approaches me at plate.  "It's clear he's still hurting, can I go check on him again, or would another visit require me to pull him?"  I feel as if I'm on the horns of a dilemma.  I'm running rule books, case books, opinions, etc through my mind.  The kid's obviously hurt, but how many times can I allow coach to visit before he decides, or I require him to change pitchers?  I decide to error on the side of caution/player safety and allow the visit.  Opposing coach has come close to us, and is eavesdropping on our conversation...I say "OK, Skip.  I'm going to allow ONE more trip without charge, but there can't be any talk about anything other than the injury."  He says "Thanks" and opposing coach shrugs his shoulders in mild disapproval.

Here's my question to the group.  Do you think I was right or wrong to allow that visit?

As Paul Harvey used to say "now for the REST of the story":

Ast coach/trainer joins visit.  They flex his ankle around and spray it with freeze.  He takes a couple more tosses, and says he feels fine.  Coaches now head back to dugout, but just before they cross foul line F5 asks "Coach, do you want corners in?"  Coach turns, takes 2 steps back toward infield and says "No, stay back and get the out at 1st, this run means nothing."  I can see offensive coach with his arms outstretched gesturing at his opposing coach, and I'm in complete agreement..."Hold on, Skip.  Now you're discussing strategy, that makes this a charged conference.  We're gonna need a pitching change."  After a minute or two of passionate, but civil argument, coach swaps pitcher with F3.  He takes his warm-ups, I announce the ball back in play, then coach says "Blue, we're gonna put this guy on."  After the intentional walk, first pitch is one hopper back to the mound; 1-6-3, game over.

[noumpere]

You were right to allow the second (injury) visit.  You were wrong to charge a conference for the "play back" instructions, imo (given how / when they happened).

[stkjock]

Fo1000 - would you have charged the conference if he walks back to the dugout without comment and then shouts his response???

[Richvee]

I agree with the 2nd injury visit. I don't think I would have gone with the conference penalty for infielder placement instructions. Those instructions were yelled back to the fielders and could have been barked out from the dugout just the same. Now if he told his pitcher something like "keep the ball low and away from this next batter", or the infield strategy was being discussed quietly on the mound,  now we're changing pitchers. 

That said, the fact that you were on it, and took a pro active approach explaining to the OC you're allowing the injury conferences, listened to the conversation on the mound, and then made a decisive decision on the infielder instructions, probably kept relative civility in a situation where standing back and waiting for the OC to object, or not explaining to the DC ahead of time what can be discussed in the injury conference,  could have resulted in a $h*t show.  

[JamesC]

On 8/1/2016 at 2:45 PM, JamesC said:

I had this very same thing happen by an assistant coach a couple of years ago. Gave them ample time on the mound and walked out there to break it up. Told them let's go. No response or acknowledgement from the assistant. At first, I didn't think anything about it because usually they don't really say much anyway and will turn and walk off about the time you tell them to wrap it up. Well, I started to walk away because I thought the catcher was headed back too, and realized he wasn't and the coach wasn't moving. Told him again, "Let's go!" and he didn't do anything. I said, "Coach, we're finished here. Get back to the dugout." He told me something along the lines he wasn't done yet and would head back when he was finished. I was so caught off guard I wasn't thinking straight I guess. Normally I would have dumped him immediately (assistant coach telling me what he is/isn't going to do). Oh well, I stepped in the middle and broke them up. There was much more excitement to this story that I will not divulge, but the advice I was given was to eject an assistant after their second refusal not to leave. A little more rope for the head chief, but not for assistants I'd say.

I'm sorry, I don't know how this post got under this thread. I was reading the other thread about mound visits not breaking up and tried to login. After logging in, somehow it brought me back to this post and I didn't read back over it. Didn't mean to hijack your thread!

[VolUmp]

On 7/14/2016 at 10:30 AM, FleasOf1000Camels said:

The kid's obviously hurt, but how many times can I allow coach to visit before he decides, or I require him to change pitchers?

ONCE

[JaxRolo]

ONCE

Is that in the rules?

[VolUmp]

9.01.c

[Stk004]

8 hours ago, WildFlyer said:

9.01.c

If I had a dollar for every time this rule was referenced....

[noumpere]

9 minutes ago, Stk004 said:

If I had a dollar for every time this rule was referenced....

... you'd have 9.01 C notes?