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Old Fri Oct 10, 2003, 05:52am
IRISHMAFIA IRISHMAFIA is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: USA
Posts: 14,565
Quote:
Originally posted by Dakota
I understand your points on this, and am generally of a similar mindset, but I also call games according to my local leadership. Let me say that the way I have outlined handling this is well within local leadership guidelines.

For the coming year, ASA has declared all bats to be banned until they are retested. Most of the JO teams around here are not high-zoot travel teams, and have bat bags that are stocked with well-used $80 bats of the Louisville burgundy variety. I seriously doubt Louisville, Easton, et al will be submitting anything but current production models for re-testing. I also expect 3-1A(3) to go the way of the DoDo bird.

What will my local leadership do? BFOM. If they ask for letter-of-the-rule enforcement, I'll do it. I'll think it is silly to tell teams they can no longer use a 2 year old burgundy, but, just like the high schools did, they'll have to adapt.

So, in part my comment was expressing how it has been handled in the past around here, in part is was expressing frustration and sympathy for the teams financial situation, and in part is was just a bit of bravado. Would I actually allow a team to use a bat I knew to be illegal because it was a prior year's model not submitted for retest but which in no way would come close to failing the ASA test? Probably not. But we'll see.
Louisville was the main reason the 2000 certification didn't work. When they hesitated to submit the popular older models for testing (assuming people would just go out and buy new Louisvilles), ASA added the caveat which allowed older, non-certified bats to be used at the umpire's discretion and it all went downhill from there.

If the local constabulary is going to vary from the list or rule, as an umpire, I would want a notarized letter clearly stating their intent. If an ASA game, your insurance will still cover you in case of a lawsuit or injury, but you will be on your own if an award exceeds the coverage.

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The bat issue in softball is as much about liability, insurance and litigation as it is about competition, inflated egos and softball.
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