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Hmmm,
I don't think I am missing a point but there appears to be the following disconnect:
1) An umpire working a game sanctioned by the NFHS has every right to tell a pitcher that his glove is illegal because it has white/grey laces, white/grey piping or "one thread" of white/grey in the logo. That all seems clear. It also seems clear that FED even endorses handing a "Sharpie" to the pitcher and tell him to color in the greatly offending white/grey areas. It also seems quite clear that the umpire can simply tell the pitcher that the glove is illegal and cannot be worn in the current condition.
2) So a pitcher can select to wear an illegal glove, change gloves to another glve that is legal, or make editorial changes to his glove to make it conform.
3) If the umpire either does not notice the das"turd"ly glove that is in violation or does not require any tailoring to the offensive "defensive weapon" then the pitcher has opened himself up to the penalty phase of the trial.
4) When a ball is fielded by a pitcher with an illegal glove "2003 Situtaion 14" clearly has esablished precedence that the play is illegal and the penalty phase is death (well three base award)and that ruling has never been challenged to the best of my memory.
5) Since Smitty did not fix the issue when he could have we now default to the 2003 ruling and after the award all he11 will break lose.
Soooo, for this discusion let's assume that McNeely is correct, an umpire should just be a traffic cop and ALWAYS check the pitcher's glove, not allow "one thread" of white, and circumvent the enitre issue.
I can't wait until tomorrow night when I get to tell 11 head coaches that we will be training our umpires from this day forward to check and deem legal (or illegal) each glove a pitcher may wear.
Stay tuned, this is gonna get to be fun.
As one of my best friend umpires just e-mailed me:
"FED has proven again that they are among the dumbest people on earth."
Can't really argue that right now.
I have sent a formal question to Eliot Hopkins.
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