So once again, rule book gets thrown out. Bases loaded 2 outs, illegal batter hits Home runs. Player is protested and ejected for being an illegal player and then they give them 3 runs. We lose by 2. ???? I won't even get into the illegal score card. ????
Sadly, along with everything else that went on there this past weekend nothing surprises me anymore. Some of the worse officiating I have ever seen especially when they had 2 umps per field.
John028.... In all of our years doing this, while not always liking an umpires judgement call, we've always accepted them because they are just that, a judgement call. But the one thing you and I have always been stickers about is the rules.... even when we went head to head for years. And while I agree with you, from our perspective, that there were some very bad umpires this weekend, we were fortunate to also have some good ones. Unfortunately it's part of the game. But the instances of rules being thrown out was just unexceptable. Illegal bats allowed to be used that weren't on the list. Game parameters being changed mid game. Score cards allowed to be modified mid game. Runs being given when scored by an illegal, ejected batter. Clearly, ISA has sunken to the level of SPA. Smh
Brotherhood,
I agree with all of that. When I was over by your park and playing with you yes, I agree that we did have good umps. Back at my park, they weren't good overall. I will never understand how someone is getting paid to umpire and can be so bad at not knowing how to call illegal pitches when they are in fact illegal. There were countless pitches that were thrown that never reached 5' let alone 6' that were let go and 14' pitches that weren't called either. But when you have balls that aren't even landing on the mat called for strikes and balls that land on the mat called balls is beyond me. It can't get any easier for an umpire with a mat being back there. When there is an entire ball mark 3" from the mat that are being called strikes and be told by umps it's a hitters game swing the bat is ridiculous. It was so bad when I was coaching 1st base on Sunday morning I was talking to the field ump between innings and he said between you and I, I hate working with this guy because he has no idea how to call balls and strikes that every game they work together is the same thing. Both teams complaining how bad he is that is starts to make him look bad and he's requested to never work with him again but it keeps happening. That right there speaks volumes on just how bad some of the umping was and we had that guy for 3 games and all 3 times he was behind the plate because he doesn't like to ump in the field because he doesn't want to get hit by the ball.
But when the rain came and the games were shortened to 40 minutes was a load of crap. They lost 1 time slot(a total of 4 games and we were back playing 1 hour later than the official time slot) and then shorted SOME games to 40 minutes while others were allowed to play full games.
Overall it was poorly run from the get go with divisons having 5 teams being made to play 3 days and then starting bracket play for those 5 teams on Friday night while divsions with 13 teams only 8 of 13 teams played bracket games on Friday. Could have easily made ours 2 days instead of 3 or at least started our bracket games on Saturday and used our 2 time slots for the 13 team division which would have given teams 2-13 each a bracket game and the #1 seed the Bye going into Saturday instead of having 8 of 13 teams play bracket games on Friday.
Bad calls are part of the game, best not to get wrapped around the axle on that because you get distracted from playing your best when you let the umpire beat you. They are human and generally try to do the best they can. When you start poking on them, they are likely to make it worse for you intentionally or subconsciously. I don't want to pile on, but I don't understand why we were playing shortened games all the way through the championship & IF game. They shortened the games because of the rain, which is understandable. However, once the time schedule was caught back up, they should revert back to normal games. 60 Major plus played shortened games to the end. We won, but some of us only got 2 ABs per game for no reason.
Brotherhood Manager,
Regarding the illegal batter did you protest that before the first pitch to the next batter?
Stick8, no, they did not. The umpire handled it correctly for the situation. There are a lot of details left out. You are more than welcome to the rest of the story if want to talk privately. I was hoping to catch up with you but was only in Columbus one day.
stick8 .... as a matter of fact, yes I did, regardless of what Nacy Allen says. So here's the FULL story. At the beginning of the game, team we are playing against turns in their lineup card to the umpire with only first names and nicknames. At which time I walked over and asked to talk to the on site director. I told him about the line up card and told him that I will be putting the game under protest. The director stated that by rule, it will be a forfeit. I go back over to my diamond which is underway. Batter comes up with bases loaded and 2 outs. He hits a homerun. Would have been their 5 for the inning. I call time, walk over to the umpire and tell him that I am protesting an illegal batter. At which time, he goes and gets the on site director. By this time, the tournament director has also come over. He rules that said batter, who is on the line up card as a nickname, is ejected. The 3 runs on base are counted and third out. End of the inning. So while I am debating the rules and about to protest the next player on the lineup card, the director stops me, hands the lineup card to the other team and tells them to go fill it out properly. So not only did the director throw out the rule regarding an illegal batter and runners not advancing, he gave them the 3 runs and he basically threw out the line up card and let the team edit it to make it legal. Then started the game back up. And wouldn't you know it, even though time was supposedly stopped due to being under protest, when play resumes, we are told next inning will be the open inning due to time limit. We lost by 2.
Brotherhood Management, I know are upset over this but are some details that omitted that won’t go into since is your dime. I am not here to disrespect you at all. What stick8 said is the proper way to handle an illegal batter, substitute, etc. I kept score for our teams for over 20 years and watched for things like this. I had a very similar situation in a NSA senior world series. Oddly also 12 instead of 13 batters listed. I did it correctly and got it taken care of correctly although that director had to think on it a little. I guess that my only question is why did you wait until the 6th inning to ask the umpire for anything? Yes, it has to be just like stick8 said for the situation.
So your goal was to win by forfeit? If you dont want to PLAY, why sign up for a tournament?
