Scoring question - OBR

[johnnyg08]

Here's an email I received...so the "I" is not me. Just looking for confirmation with either official interpretation or real experience as to how this is handled from a scoring perspective. I know as umpires we simply care that the game is over, but that is not why I am bringing the question to this forum. Thanks.

I happened to be at a League game Friday night as a fan. Team A was leading Team B 8-4 heading to the top of 7^th . There was a delay, and then Managers and Umpires conferenced. Team A's Manager knew I was there, so I was called out onto the field since I'm Pres of the league. Team B had 9 players at the game, and their CF’er was quite ill and was going to leave the game, leaving them with only 8 players (no one else on the bench – slim team numbers). Managers and Umpires wanted to fully confirm whether the game could continue. We all quickly agreed the game could not continue, and Team B had to forfeit.

Now the question I have is what should the final score be (as runs are a tie-breaker in our League). While the game was 8-4 in favor of Team A at the time of forfeit, I’m reading some things saying any forfeit should be 9-0, regardless of the status of the game at time of forfeit.

Specifically: “All forfeits are officially listed as 9-0 victories for the team that benefits from the forfeit, regardless of the actual status of the game”

[Rich Ives]

Final score is 9-0  (7-0 in a seven inning game, 6-0 in a six inning game).  By rule as you can see in the rules.

 

If you want to have a league rule that it should be 8-4 (or whatever the actual was) you can. But it should have been in place before the season started. Otherwise you'll get a favoritism accusation.

[beerguy55]

Look at it this way.

What if it was Team A that had to forfeit?   You wouldn't leave the score 8-4 in their favor.

The "punishment" or outcome for a forfeit is absolute, whether it occurs before the first pitch, or with two out in the last inning with the forfeiting team up by 27 runs.

One run per inning to zero.

This is also one reason why a lot of tournaments (and any that don't, should) maximize the per game differential to whatever a forfeit would be.  (ie, if you win 16-2 you get a +9 - otherwise, there's incentive for the losing team to forfeit to reduce their differential).   For the same reason (among others), many tournaments use runs against as a second tie breaker, rather than runs for.