Baseball Courtesy Runner Rule

[Guest Andy]

Team A has 9 players.  During an inning, Team A has a runner pull up injured but stays in the game.  A couple innings later, the injured player ends up at second base.  Team A inserts a Courtesy Runner for him.  He is neither the pitcher or catcher of the previous inning.  When Team A's coach is approached by Team B's coach about if he is being brought in to pitch or catch the next inning, they say yes.  The inning is then over and the injured player who was courtesy run for proceeds to take the position of right field.  Team B's coach approaches the home plate umpire and ask for an explanation and ruling.  After meeting with the field umpire, they decide to allow this move and assess no penalty.  What is Team B's course of action.  The rules are Ohio High School Baseball Rules or NFHS.

[noumpere]

FED does allow a team with nine players to have a substitute runner (not a courtesy runner) when a player is injured and cannot run the bases. The substitute must be the most recent batter not on base.

And, the injured player can return to the game if / when he has sufficiently recovered.

That sounds to me (perhaps) like what happened.

The cases are in rule 4 somewhere -- whatever rule deals with playing with 8 players.

[maven]

50 minutes ago, noumpere said:

The cases are in rule 4 somewhere -- whatever rule deals with playing with 8 players.

4-4-1f.

[Richvee]

First off, if a team only has 9 players, that means there's no players on the bench that haven't played in the game, which means there can be no courtesy runner. Second, if they did have a player on the bench to courtesy run, they can only run for either the pitcher or catcher of record....You cannot courtesy run for a player that was not the pitcher or catcher last time that team was on defense.  No "projected substitutions" allowed. 

As far as recourse for team B...Not sure there is any other than protest. 

[Jimurray]

3 hours ago, Guest Andy said:

Team A has 9 players.  During an inning, Team A has a runner pull up injured but stays in the game.  A couple innings later, the injured player ends up at second base.  Team A inserts a Courtesy Runner for him.  He is neither the pitcher or catcher of the previous inning.  When Team A's coach is approached by Team B's coach about if he is being brought in to pitch or catch the next inning, they say yes.  The inning is then over and the injured player who was courtesy run for proceeds to take the position of right field.  Team B's coach approaches the home plate umpire and ask for an explanation and ruling.  After meeting with the field umpire, they decide to allow this move and assess no penalty.  What is Team B's course of action.  The rules are Ohio High School Baseball Rules or NFHS.

When the PU announced the CR for a player who had not yet pitched or catched (aside from the first inning) the A coach should have "protested" / asked the PU why he was allowing a projected defensive sub on offense. Why the B coach would approach  the A coach indicates a low level of umpiring and baseball and you should live with that. That is not allowed whether it was a lie or not. Since the the umpire, and the B coach did not know the NFHS rule about CRs and the A coach might have or have not known there is only one course of action. Educate yourself, the umps and determine if the A coach knew what he was dealing with. Then deal with him. There is a minor gotcha if you get the umps to recognize what happened and a minor penalty involving burning a sub or starter. 

[ElkOil]

This situation contradicts the intent of the courtesy runner. CR's aren't to be used in place of an inured player. If someone gets hurt, they should be substituted for. However, starters can re-enter the game.

In this case, it sounds like the injured player was brought out of the game and replaced with a substitute, then re-entered in a different defensive position. So he may have illegally re-entered the game. Do you know how these two players were placed in the line up, and if the new catcher was removed when the injured player re-entered? My point being that coaches can't use players in a shell game. They're restricted as to how and where they can place players in the lineup. Players can only re-enter in their previous spot in the lineup, although they can play different defensive positions. So if the injured player re-entered, he'd have to be back in his original lineup spot and the new catcher removed from that spot. If the new catcher stayed in the game, and the injured player entered in a different spot, yet play continued, the coach would have to file a protest if your state allows it.

And @Richvee is right, with only nine players, you can't do any of this anyway.

[MadMax]

Need to hear what the context is. Tournament game? Summer league? Officially sanctioned high school game? According to the letter of the Rules (as stated, NFHS), this is a Rules Violation, and is Protestable. But, to what end?

Tournaments will frequently use NFHS Rules as their foundation, but will often modify them to suit time speed-ups, increased competition (continuous batting order), and to accommodate teams that only have 9-to-11 players and are pitching in a compressed timeframe. One of the provisions of Fed rules is that players can be added to the game (as substitutes) as they arrive; many tournaments prohibit this, and whoever is listed on the team roster card at the start of the game is who is allowed to participate, so if injuries occur, it gets very tense and challenging to maintain a team.

An underlying theme to amateur baseball (less than collegiate) is, and should be reinforced ad nauseum, participation over penalty. If an injury occurs that hinders participation, especially to the extent of forfeiture, that is not in the spirit of competition nor the game. So too, if a team (or their supporters / fans) seeks a penalty or forfeiture be placed upon an opposing team simply because of an injury, that's not very sporting, and not in the spirit of competition nor the game, either.

Tournaments cannot abide protests because of the brief window of time – any protests, and their resolutions, have to be dealt with immediately and effectively, as there is no time to spend discussing it in due process. TDs and their Field Marshals are empowered to make decisions on the fly so as to allow participation by as many of their teams as possible, yet still maintain as fair a level of competition as possible. Often, the umpires are given latitude to mitigate situations so as to keep a game going to a reasonable conclusion – and that includes dealing with injuries. So a team has 9 players, but has a kid roll an ankle such that he can barely stand, let alone run. Or, worse yet, on a pickoff attempt, a throw hits him in the knee, such that he's not very mobile for awhile. He is willing to continue as best as possible, because he doesn't want to let his team down and see them forfeit for only having 8 players. What's there to do?

I've had tournament games where a kid up to bat has been plunked in the head. With a continuous batting order, there isn't a means of bringing in a sub, and this player is not a F1 or F2. There is _no_ way, I as am umpire, am going to have a possible head trauma try to run the bases without being checked out by medical professionals (or his parents). So, I have declared and instituted a "special, one-time courtesy runner", and if an opposing coach is that much of a hardass, he can pick the player to be the runner.

Now, granted, it is shady and sucks that a coach pulled a shenanigan, and said that the injured / hampered player was going to be a pitcher or catcher forthcoming, only to reneg on that statement. It really does, and that coach is taking advantage of the umpires' latitude. However, the OP reads like sour grapes, looking to gain a win – by penalty, technicality or forfeiture – for an injury. I doubt that the "courtesy runner", however improperly implemented, made a decisive impact on the outcome of the game ("If it had been the limping kid, he wouldn't have scored from 2B on those two Wild Pitches we threw!").

[Richvee]

On 07/03/2017 at 8:11 AM, noumpere said:

FED does allow a team with nine players to have a substitute runner (not a courtesy runner) when a player is injured and cannot run the bases. The substitute must be the most recent batter not on base.

And, the injured player can return to the game if / when he has sufficiently recovered.

That sounds to me (perhaps) like what happened.

The cases are in rule 4 somewhere -- whatever rule deals with playing with 8 players.

Good point. As it pertains to the OP, we don't have all the info. If the injured runner was pinch ran for by the most recent batter not on base, this is legal. Furthermore,  that injured runner may return to the field the next inning IF he has re-entry illegibility (4.4.1 sit D).