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Old Thu Apr 28, 2005, 09:02am
Blue37 Blue37 is offline
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Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 381
Quote:
Originally posted by DG
Quote:
Originally posted by Blue37
Quote:
Originally posted by danreeves1973
Just finished perusing my Dixie book, again. There is no official rule anywhere in the Dixie book, which is based off of OBR, about slinging teh bat. Some leagues have it as a local option, ours does not.

"Local option" is not available in Dixie. Dixie rules specifically indicate when a league can make a "local league option". An example of this is the time limit. Since there is nothing in the rule book allowing the local league to adopt such a rule, it is prohibited.
Local leagues will dream up all kinds of local rules, whether they are playind Dixie, LL, Babe Ruth, whatever. To say they are not allowed is to not accept reality.
To say they are not allowed in Dixie is merely quoting the rule book. The Dixie book prohibits any modifications to the rules unless that option is written into the rules on the National level.

Now had I said "Since they are not allowed, no Dixie league does it", that would have been not accepting reality. I know leagues try to change the rules for their liking and most summer league umpires do not have the stones to tell them it cannot be done. Fortunately, the State Umpire-In-Chief lives in my home area, so I do not run into this often. The leagues know they cannot change the rules and they do not try.

I call in several leagues in a wide area, however, and occasionally run into "local league options" when I travel. If they conflict with the official rules, they are not used in my games. An example of this is a league that did not want to use the headfirst slide prohibition. This was a few years ago before it was taken out of the book. At the plate meeting, when the coach brought it up, I told him "Not tonight coach."

I have only had one league try to force me to let them change something in a game I was calling. They wanted to be able to withdraw a starter and reinsert him anywhere in the batting order. The league president caused a scene, but I stuck by my guns and told him he could take it up with the State Umpire-In-Chief. He said he would and I would never work for them again. I never heard whether he did or not, but they still call me a few times a year, and I worked a State for them last year.
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