Quote:
Originally posted by Tim C
Sorry to disagree with you about rules. Not to sound line Peter Osbourne, I call the rules that I am told to call by the people that pay me.
If we went with "your" definition we could not have any ground rules.
I worked a game last year that the right field foul line turned at a 90* angle at the outfield grass, went about 20' into the field and then angled back to the foul pole. Why?
There was a light fixture that was falling and they game administrators (tourney actually) ruled it a dead ball area but wanted to finish their tourney. As umpires we complied.
I have worked a league game at the end of the season where the coaches agreed that each batter would start with a count on 2 balls and 1 strike, I have umpired a game where the rain had made the main field unplayable so we went into the outfield and played with a pitching rubber laid flat on the ground, NO MOUND. If we hadn't the game could not have been played.
I have worked a game where we allowed runners for the catcher to speed up play. The league didn't have the rules we just "made it work."
I worked a double header one day that neither game went five innings but both were reported in the paper the next day as complete games (see umpire.org, Strikes & Outs for a column about that).
I understand what your post says but that ain't the way the "real world" works. We make adjustments all the time and there is NOTHING wrong with that. Your position is obviously correct to the letter of the law but is not how we really do it.
Lighten up . . . you're missing a good game.
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I think you are making assumptions about how I umpire. I referenced a situation in which two coaches might want to have a "ground rule triple" on a ball hit let's say 400' where maybe there are stands from a soccer or football field. Actually we have had that situation and have ruled that a ball hitting the stands on a fly would be a home run but if it bounced in it was "all you can get". That was done because umpires decided the outfielders were not at risk going after bouncing balls. Now if safety was involved I could see myself telling coaches there was no such animal as a ground rule triple but we would play with it for that game.
A few years ago I umpired a softball playoff game at Shea Stadium in which sliding was prohibited (groundskeeper Pete Flynn was watching from the dugout) at two bases set up on the baseball field's infield.
If I didn't like the level of play or the departure from the rules I would simply ask my assignor not to assign me to that league. I can assure you that this would not be a problem.