FED Rulebook Change

[Jimurray]

While perusing my NFHS rules app to help inform on another thread I discovered my 2023 Baseball Rules and Casebooks were gone and no books of any type were available. Reading the fine print I see that a subscription is for 1 year and mine expired. But searching the app for other possible purchase drew a blank. It turns out that that app will not be used for 2024 and NFHS has a new one called "AllAccess". Next year baseball is not available yet and it appears that you can't buy on the app. You have to buy on the AllAccess website when it becomes available. Yes I'm of like mind with those of you who will post a rant about paying for their rulebook.

[MadMax]

If NFHS wants to abandon (or significantly reduce) the dependence on the paper copy, I’m all for it. An app? That I can index and keyword search? Take my money! 

Heck, what they should do is conjoin the test with the e-rulebook. I know, I know, it turns into a 🐓 chicken-&-egg 🥚 argument, but an e-rulebook would incentivize the taking –and passing! – of the NFHS test. 

Of course, I’ll throw gobs of money at any NFHS Rules modification that eliminates: A) the deification of the PU, and B) the navy shirt as the default, compulsory uniform. 

“Balks are Live” is a bit further down the list, for me 🫣, but ya gotta start somewhere. 

[Jimurray]

50 minutes ago, MadMax said:

If NFHS wants to abandon (or significantly reduce) the dependence on the paper copy, I’m all for it. An app? That I can index and keyword search? Take my money! 

“Balks are Live” is a bit further down the list, for me 🫣, but ya gotta start somewhere. 

OBR, NCAA, Liga Mexicana de Beisball, American Legion, PONY, LL give you searchable PDFs for free.

NFHS put out a trial balloon some years ago to make a balk live and give the coach a choice. While I would prefer umpires learn the actual balk implementation, I thought the FED idea was worthwhile, given my exposure to some umpires reading comprehension skills at the FED level. It went nowhere however.

[MadMax]

7 minutes ago, Jimurray said:

NFHS put out a trial balloon some years ago to make a balk live and give the coach a choice.

Well, who shot the balloon 🎈 down? 

The reason “they” (the NFHS) won’t change / implement it is because they believe we (the umpires) can’t properly administer it. 🤨 ??? 
Point me out a quantity of umpires who will concede that, “Yes, Fed, we’re simpletons and confused easily by how to implement a rule change.” Point them out! I’d like to think that the majority of umpires would “rise to the challenge”! 

Naw, I suspect someone on da’ Fed is either projecting undue anxiety about making the change, or has some swelling of… pride(?)… that NFHS is different / hasn’t caved yet to OBR. 

It’s like that petty 🤡 at Wisconsin – “As long as I’m in this chair, Wisconsin umpires will never wear black.” 
“Happy Retirement!” 
New guy – “We will now be using black.” 🥳 

[Jimurray]

7 minutes ago, MadMax said:

Well, who shot the balloon 🎈 down? 

 Point them out! I’d like to think that the majority of umpires would “rise to the challenge”! 

The balloon was a preseason survey question. @lawump might have a recollection of the results and how the board decided if he was involved at that point in time.

The problem is not the majority. It's the minority. But, I've experienced a while ago on another board an umpire espousing the change to OBR totally kick the rule with a sit that someone asked about. I've also had a PONY umpire group president tell me his group which included HS umps uses "coach choice" because the OBR rule is too complicated.

[kylehutson]

1 hour ago, MadMax said:

If NFHS wants to abandon (or significantly reduce) the dependence on the paper copy, I’m all for it. An app? That I can index and keyword search? Take my money! 

I agree wholeheartedly with this. But...

AllAccess ain't it. I have it for volleyball rules and it sucks.

It's not an app, it's a website that uses what looks like(?) an embedded PDF viewer. Except the PDF viewer they use doesn't work on my phone screen because my phone screen is too small (note: my phone is not small). The DRM they use prevents me from copying to the clipboard. Just yesterday, I was trying to forward a rule reference and had to re-type it, despite being able to see it on my screen.

Searching - yes, it works for that, as long as you're on a desktop computer

Mobile - nope

Reading - It's slow and clunky. Possible, yes. Convenient, no.

An improvement over the "NFHS Rules" app - not even close.

I hope it gets better.

[Richvee]

11 hours ago, Jimurray said:

While perusing my NFHS rules app to help inform on another thread I discovered my 2023 Baseball Rules and Casebooks were gone and no books of any type were available. Reading the fine print I see that a subscription is for 1 year and mine expired. But searching the app for other possible purchase drew a blank. It turns out that that app will not be used for 2024 and NFHS has a new one called "AllAccess". Next year baseball is not available yet and it appears that you can't buy on the app. You have to buy on the AllAccess website when it becomes available. Yes I'm of like mind with those of you who will post a rant about paying for their rulebook.

Very timely, as yesterday I went on to the app, and low and behold, my rulebook and case book are gone. It sure isn't going to break the bank, but I just renewed the rulebook in July, and the case book in June. So they're gone and I donated to NFHS?  Like I said, it's not gonna break the bank, but that doesn't mean it isn't BS. I actually enjoyed the two books on their app. Very searchable, and a great quick reference. 

[JonnyCat]

11 hours ago, MadMax said:

If NFHS wants to abandon (or significantly reduce) the dependence on the paper copy, I’m all for it.

I may be in the minority, but I prefer a paper copy for my rule books. I can't stand trying to read a rule book on my phone. Give me a paper copy any day.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit on my porch in my coveralls, with my glass of lemonade, and yell at the kids to stay the F*#K off my lawn. 

 

[Jimurray]

5 hours ago, JonnyCat said:

I may be in the minority, but I prefer a paper copy for my rule books. I can't stand trying to read a rule book on my phone. Give me a paper copy any day.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit on my porch in my coveralls, with my glass of lemonade, and yell at the kids to stay the F*#K off my lawn. 

 

I’ve said elsewhere, you study the hard copy, you look up cites on the e-version. At least one read thru the hard copy. 

[noumpere]

2 hours ago, Jimurray said:

I’ve said elsewhere, you study the hard copy, you look up cites on the e-version. At least one read thru the hard copy. 

When you look it up in the hard copy, you find the answer to other questions you didn't even know you had.

 

Some sort of e-version is good to c-n-p into websites such as this.

 

And -- that should be at least one read *every couple of months per rules code* through the hard copy.

[834k3r]

My association buys hard copies of the rules and case play books, and the state athletic association bought the umpires' subscription to the NFHS Rules app. It worked out fantastically--like @Jimurray said, the hard copy was great to study and it was really helpful to use the app as a post- (or in-between-) game sanity check.

[Richvee]

4 hours ago, noumpere said:

When you look it up in the hard copy, you find the answer to other questions you didn't even know you had.

 

This happens with e- rule books too. You search a key word or two and you can fall into the rabbit hole while reading through  multiple hits. 

[SeeingEyeDog]

I've stopped killing the play on a HS balk because it screws me up mechanically for OBR games. I just point and say, "That's a balk!". On the 3 occasions where the batter put the pitch in play, I just remind anyone asking if they can take the result of the hit that, "We're under NFHS rules. By rule, a balk is a dead ball." and the game resumes. God help us all if I'm in an OBR game and say, "Time! That's a balk!" and the batter puts it in play...

~Dawg

[JonnyCat]

6 hours ago, Jimurray said:

I’ve said elsewhere, you study the hard copy, you look up cites on the e-version. At least one read thru the hard copy. 

That works, too. However, I read through the rule-book quite often on a regular basis, so I know pretty much where a rule might be located.

One of the things I've found with looking up cites on the various apps, is that people, (not you or anyone here, it's just happened to me a number of times when discussing rules or situations with my colleagues) tend to only focus on sometimes a narrow sentence or phrase that comes up on the search, and don't fully read the entirety of the rule. Nor will they seek out additional information in the case book or other rule interpretation publications.

When I'm asked about rules or interpretations, I will look up the exact rule, and any interpretations I can find, and then present all that information so they can better understand the situation.

I find that some younger umpires that have grown up with electronic means of reading often don't want to delve further into researching a rule or interpretation. They just rely on short bursts of information, without much comprehension. Probably because the electronic age has, IMO, diminished reading skills and more importantly, reading comprehension.

Surprisingly, I prefer to use my phone for what it was intended for, making phone calls.  Oh, that and watching porn. 

[Jimurray]

1 hour ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

 "Time! That's a balk!" and the batter puts it in play...

~Dawg

FED changed that verbiage to the OBR version some years ago for that reason of umpires calling FED and other codes. The only difference in FED as that you can always say "time" right away after "that's a balk". OBR you might have to wait to say "time" in certain situations.

[HokieUmp]

15 hours ago, JonnyCat said:

I may be in the minority, but I prefer a paper copy for my rule books. I can't stand trying to read a rule book on my phone. Give me a paper copy any day.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit on my porch in my coveralls, with my glass of lemonade, and yell at the kids to stay the F*#K off my lawn. 

 

<Raises glass in toast from the other ocean>

[The Man in Blue]

A Rebuttal With the Help of Ron Swanson

So ... let me get this straight ...

I used to get a paper rule book and case book from my state every year.  Then I only got them every other year.  Now I only get the rule book every other year.  (I know ... state, not NFHS.)

 

I used to buy a rule book and casebook from NFHS on Kindle on those off years.  Then they did away with the Kindle version to replace it with their own app ...

 

I looked into the app and noticed that we could not actually BUY the rule book and case book, that we were really only just RENTING them for the same price.

 

So, now, NFHS is replacing that crappy system with another crappy system ...

 

Why does the NFHS want so badly for people to NOT have access to the rules to the game?  I'll just start using this ...

 

 

I didn't rent the books on the app, and I won't be doing this either.

 

And by government, I mean NFHS, the governing body.  We are being taxed.

 

It's the end of a long season and I'm grumpy.

 

[SeeingEyeDog]

On 9/15/2023 at 1:50 PM, Jimurray said:

FED changed that verbiage to the OBR version some years ago for that reason of umpires calling FED and other codes. The only difference in FED as that you can always say "time" right away after "that's a balk". OBR you might have to wait to say "time" in certain situations.

Do you have the citation on this? I'm not challenging you in any way on this...I am simply genuinely curious about what the almighty NFHS had to say on this and how they said it.

~Dawg

[Jimurray]

2 hours ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

Do you have the citation on this? I'm not challenging you in any way on this...I am simply genuinely curious about what the almighty NFHS had to say on this and how they said it.

~Dawg

Change happened in 2015. I'm assuming the reason. Most multi code umpires never used the FED wording even before that;

 

[MadMax]

14 hours ago, Jimurray said:

I'm assuming the reason. Most multi code umpires never used the FED wording even before that;

Curious. You (Fed) accommodate multi-level umpires to change how a Balk is called… 🤔 

… but still don’t trust them enough to implement the penalty of a (Live) Balk (ie. OBR & NCAA). 

[Thunderheads]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again ....

99.9999999% of the time, when you call;  "THAT'S A BALK!"  Everything stops regardless ....

YMMV

[kylehutson]

12 minutes ago, Thunderheads said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again ....

99.9999999% of the time, when you call;  "THAT'S A BALK!"  Everything stops regardless ....

YMMV

The number you give is 1 in (counting) a billion. I think it's probably closer to 95% (1 in 20) to 98% (1 in 50)

[Thunderheads]

4 minutes ago, kylehutson said:

The number you give is 1 in (counting) a billion. I think it's probably closer to 95% (1 in 20) to 98% (1 in 50)

Yeah, maybe one too many .9's, but .....you get my drift.  I've been calling HS rulebook games since 2010, and I've never had a pitch delivered.

[kylehutson]

8 minutes ago, Thunderheads said:

Yeah, maybe one too many .9's, but .....you get my drift.  I've been calling HS rulebook games since 2010, and I've never had a pitch delivered.

I must be above average, I've had it multiple times, including one hit off the left field fence.

[Thunderheads]

3 minutes ago, kylehutson said:

I must be above average, I've had it multiple times, including one hit off the left field fence.

ouch, I bet that one was fun.  Of course, the coach knew the rules, obviously!