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Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA
This can go on all year.
How can you enforce 6FP.1.D when there is no rule requiring any player to wear a glove? Does that mean if the pitcher isn't wearing a glove, s/he cannot simulate taking the signals unless the ball is in the pitching hand? What if the pitcher is ambeidestrous? How would you know with which hand the pitcher is going to throw the ball? 
How about 6FP.2? "The pitch starts when one hand is taken off the ball afther the hands have been placed together". Does this mean that a pitcher who does wear a glove cannot possible legally deliver the ball? After all, if they meant hands or glove, it would have been specifically mentioned in the rule book, right?
There are multitudes of assumptions made in this game by everyone, including you, that are not covered in the book, casebook or clinic. Does that mean as an umpire we ignore the obvious or do we apply a little common sense to the rules? I'm sure you have heard clinicians mention "common sense" during clinics, schools, etc. |
I see your point. I understand that the rulebook can't cover ever possible scenario. However, we do have guidelines to go by. In those scenarios where we don't have specific rule coverage we follow them. For example, if I call time and then a runner is tagged off of the base, the runner is not out. The rule book doesn't say this, but its obvious nothing can happen when time has been called by the umpire. That's common sense. However, in this scenario it doesn't make sense to call R2 out on appeal for missing a base he touched.
What makes sense to one umpire may not make sense to another. One reason for rules is so that everyone is on the same page and to ensure that everyone plays on a level playing field.
One more question... When do we decide to use "common sense" and enforce something not clearly defined by the rules and when do we say there's no rule to prevent this so its legal?