Quote:
Originally posted by TriggerMN
So they should get rid of the batter's eye in centerfield in all ballparks now, and let fans sit out there with red, blue, and green shirts? Should the pitcher be allowed to wear a long sleeve shirt with stripes? I guess I see no problem in enforcing this rule...
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As long as you are going to be ridiculous, let me be ridiculous too. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your comment.
I wasn't aware of a rule that says fans cannot sit in the outfield with red, blue, or green shirts. Which rule is that? They currently don't restrict white shirts in the outfield. You're not that LL Umpire that created the big stir and called the police because some shirtless, obnoxious fan on his bicycle beyond the outfield fence wouldn't move to some other location as directed by the PU after being requested by some 8-year old batter? (I actually don't remember the situation as discussed here a few months back but it was rather ridiculous.)
Stripes are not acceptable; there is a rule for that.
FED rule says
1-5 "A pitcher shall not wear any item on his hands, wrists or arms which may be distracting to the batter."
OBR rule says
1.11 "(a)(2) Any part of an undershirt exposed to view shall be of a uniform solid color for all players on a team. Any player other than the pitcher may have numbers, letters, insignia attached to the sleeve of the undershirt.
...(e) No part of the uniform shall include a pattern that imitates or suggests the shape of a baseball. "
What if the pitcher has a bad tan - milky white like a new baseball? What if the pitcher has a good tan like a dirty baseball? "That's distracting, Blue; have him cut his arm off." "No problem. I'll get right on that."
What if the pitcher doesn't have a way to cover his tatoos - everyone is wearing short sleeves and there are no other uniform options? If you begin to enforce this rule at a particular batter's whim, now, on a questionable distraction issue for a particular batter, you are going to have to get a new pitcher. Your enforcement now becomes rather more severe to appease a particular batter.
Before I drop off the deep end of distraction...
I just don't see that a red, blue and green tattooed arm could be confused with a baseball or that it should be visually distracting. I would say it is either a lack of focus on the part of the batter or that the batter is trying to distract the pitcher; with the latter being the more obvious reason. Distracting the pitcher is what I would consider an unsporting act. But rather than address that, I would likely try to dissuade the batter from his request (unless I also felt the pitcher was distracting - and in this case, I don't). "He does look kinda stupid with all those tattoos... but it doesn't look like a baseball and it shouldn't confuse you. Let's play some ball."
Additionally, uniform issues like this should be resolved before the pitcher starts - not after several batters have already faced him. Perhaps that is what was done - I don't know. And perhaps it is distracting - I don't think I'll ever be behind the plate for him. So I will probably never know.
I don't really want to argue the issue I just don't envision a tattooed arm as being a distraction to seeing the baseball. Rather, I see the request as the batter's attempt to distract the pitcher. Apparently the umpire working the game didn't feel that way because they had him cover his distracting arm. Go figure.
