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Online now: 4 members: JohnO28, Omrosoftball, TABLE SETTER 11, bbigham2; 140 anonymousDiscussion: Verbal Interference and Obstruction
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| June 18, 2018 Steve in Tucson Men's 70 22 posts | Verbal Interference and Obstruction From time to time I have heard offensive and defensive players making a loud call of "high pitch" or "low pitch" while the pitched ball is in the air and before an umpire has had a chance to call the pitch illegal. Being a judgment call, that call may or may not be made by the umpire. I take the defensive call as verbal interference which should be penalized just as any other interference call. I.e.,the batter is awarded first base and any forced runner advances to the next base. If such a loud call is made by a member of the offensive team, that seems to me to be obstruction which carries a penalty just as any other offensive obstruction call. I.e., the batter is out and the ball is dead. By the letter of the SSUSA rules, is this the case? And, if so, which rules(s) apply to these cases? We play in a recreation "house league" in a retirement community with four skill level based leagues using SSUSA Rules as our baseline. I feel I need to give my umpiring crew (with wide variations in experience)guidance on how to handle these situations. Thank you for your thoughts . . . Steve Garceau, Chief Umpire, Saddlebrooke Senior Softball Association, Tucson, AZ |
| June 19, 2018 B.J. 1106 posts | steve.. first, you have interference and obstruction mixed up INT is on offense and OBS is on defense.. I have never seen either called for a player commenting on a pitch during the flight of the ball.. I rarely here the defense say anything besides the catcher sometimes saying nice pitch.. if this bothers the batter then he should ask the umpire to tell him to stop.. if it's the offense doing it then the batter should tell them to shut up... If this is about trying to influence an umpires ball, strike or illegal call then the umpire should call time and tell both managers that this is a rec league and if they or there players wish to make them calls sign up to umpire.. that will usually shut them up.. and if it continues put it in your local rules that this violation would be terms for ejection.. I always tell managers that it's amazing how good they can see the game from the shady dugout and ask if there is room for me...lol hope this helps |
| June 19, 2018 k man Men's 65 326 posts | Steve, we play in a recreational league where the illegal pitch isn't called while the ball is in the air. It's called after the ball hit's the ground. It eliminates the verbal interference while the ball is in the air but the barking then starts once it hits the ground. LOL Really puts the pressure on the batter to guesstimate what the umpires limits are and it's up to the umpire to monitor the barking from both sides as to legal/illegal height. What doesn't happen is that there is no late call for illegal pitch while the batter has already begun his swing and you know guys always bark about that one. The batters in our league want it called while it's in the air while ,most pitchers don't. Oh well... |
| June 21, 2018 Nancy Allen Men's 55 1438 posts | Steve in Tucson, I have heard annoying things over the years, but an umpire can get in enough trouble without adding things that really don't effect play. The umpire should be calling "illegal" in associations that identify pitch height as being above or below the arch limits; anything else is not the right call. Now you need to remember that I am a girl, and most of the players' voices do not sound like mine. I personally am not a fan of cow bells or rocks in a can, but I have never thought that they actually interfered with play in my games. I may have issued a warning or two over the years, but I have never had an actual verbal interference call. If this bothers you, never officiate a youth game. Fans and the dugouts are both very noisy. In my experience, seniors are more quiet than most age groups. ...except for that one noisy scorekeeper in Indiana. |
| June 21, 2018 softball4b Men's 70 1248 posts | I try to handle the situation completely different. Before I get in the batter's box I turned to the catcher and let him know that I catch for the other team. So I ask him, if the pitcher throws a cookie let me know so I can try and hit it. Now most of the time after I let that pitch go, I chastise the catcher for not helping. I then focus on the umpire and try get him to help. I mean most of the time they are amendable because when I walk up to the plate, they hear my wife yelling. Don't suck! Man I will be glad when my hearing completely goes. Mike Adair aka Nancy |
