[rwest]

First of all, I was the plate umpire and I was the one who made the mistake. Also, this is a rec league. I don't know of any umpires in our association that requires all balls to come through them.

Secondly, in this situation I know that the ball handed to me was the ball that was hit out. The ball was yellow instead of white. When the pitcher received the ball, he asked me about it. I asked him did it say .44 cor and 375 compression. He said yes. So we played on. The first pitch was hit out for a home run. The defense complained and I had the ball thrown in. It did not say ASA approved. It said ISA. So, I threw the ball out and removed the run. It was a do over. I now know that's not the proper way to handle, but I felt I was to blame and it seemed reasonable.

One of the things about officiating basketball that I like is that if I place a team in jeopardy, I can rectify the situation under the correctable error provisions. It doesn't seem as black and white in Softball. So since they asked and I didn't check for the ASA Approved stamp, I felt like I put them in jeopardy. They did their part in asking. I didn't do my job.

I think its better in the rec league just to tell the pitcher to check the ball. If he doesn't complain about it before he/she pitches, then whatever happens, stands. It speeds up the game.