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I only saw the first couple of paragraphs noted at your link. I assume the links are related to this bulletin board we are posting under, but my password here did not seem to work at that site. I was not able to sign on and read the remainder of these articles. (In the past at least one board member of officiating.com has specifically stated that he feels spamming is proper and is a benefit of this board. I limit the amount of information I provide.)
I don't know David Emerling, the author of these articles. In clicking on the author's bio page, it mentioned in part, "...he's found his true calling in baseball." Perhaps he knows some of softball, too, but I am surprised that he blatantly left out details in the parts I read, either by misunderstanding or to make his point. I got the impression he was in deep into a subject he did not fully understand.
In the first couple of paragraphs of the first article, he notes it is "a stroke of genius", by immediately substituting in the flex after the DP had reached base and then subsequently putting in a courtesy runner. He did not note that the DP would be considered to have left the game, and thus it was not the "stroke of genius" he was implying. (I found it also interesting that he assumed, as BB people do, that the Flex would always be the pitcher.)
The second article then discussed how hard it was to understand the rule. As compared to what, the DH? Does he have any idea how complicated the DH rule in BB can get? As a season ticket holder for a AA team, I can tell you that it is just as funky as the DP/FLex if not more so. OBR 6.10 states "The Designated Hitter may be used defensively, continuing to bat in the same position in the batting order, but the pitcher must then bat in the place of the substituted defensive player..." That means the pitcher was not locked in the spot in the line-up he initially started in, but has to switch to another spot in the line up in this condition. 6.10 also states, "Once the game pitcher is switched from the mound to a defensive position this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game." A defensive move that terminates the offensive strategy? How stupid is that?
The third article seems to be more of the same, expressing his desire to keep the rules "intuitive." Well, heck, let's just just rule "ties go to the runner", "the hands are part of the bat" and improper softball pitching techniques are called "balks." Then everyone would be intuitively happy.
I like baseball and I like softball. I also like Black-Jack, but they are all different games.
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Dan
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