[PeteBooth]

[QUOTE=Dave Hensley]In leagues that use any flavor of a DH rule, coaches routinely butcher it by trying to alter the batting order when subbing for the DH.

Dave, I haven't umpired LL in some time other than help out with All Stars. This year my summer assignor received the contract for some 50 BIG League Games.

IMO, LL Rule 7.14 the Sp Pinch Runner rule has not only given coaches fits but us FED umpires as well. In fact, during our summer meetings, we went over this rule "with a fine tooth comb" because this rule comes up every single game.

In my area, the local BIG League Programs originally used their local Umpires, however games were getting out of control and the over-all quality of umpiring was poor. In fact, BIG League was a non-factor in my area until last year. A new president was appointed and he decided to use our associations umpires. Last year we did about 20 games or so and this year we have 50 regular season games not counting play-offs.

Last year was our associations first year of umpiring BIG LEAGUE, and a game was held up some 20 minutes or so trying to get a clarification about rule 7.14.

Therefore, I would rank LL Rule 7.14 "right up there" as one of the most mis-understood rules ever written.

People talk about Fedlandia, but IMO LL has the most convuluted rules ever written in trying to get more kids playing time. Excluding BIG League in regular season the Batting Order is not "locked" into the same position because one can re-enter in ANY position in the order until you get to tournament time. We can go on and on.

Pete Booth