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Originally Posted by wadeintothem
I know this is a rules theory discussion.. so thats fine.
In practice, I got other things to do than nursemaid a bunch of girls and who may have on a long sleeve undershirt and who doesnt or whatever and whose dressed what way.
All girls softball players look alike anyway.
Girl tuck your shirt so you dont get a cheap easy base while at bat with a shirt flopping around and thats about it, have on your uniform and safety equip as required and its all gravey after that. Im not gonna go nit picking around.
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I tend to agree with this philosophy, but I will generally only attend to uniform issues when forced, err, I mean, requested, to do so (well, actually "forced" is closer than "requested"...). As for the shirt flapping around, if players have their shirt untucked, and it is hit by a pitched ball because it is blowing the the breeze or something, well, batter, you made no attempt to avoid (i.e. you did not tuck in your jersey).
But, the rest of it, as I said...
As to the rule under discussion, I don't recall any specific training or POE or such since I have been certified for HS ball addressing this rule. Lacking further education as to NFHS's intent, and merely reading the language of the rule, I would have allowed different sleeve lengths on the different players (i.e. no requirment of all team members to be the same), but not allow mixed sleeve lengths on the same player. However, I also can't imagine a player who would have one sleeve short and the other long in the first place.
I'd rather have the whole general appearance part of the uniform rules placed in the same category as player eligiblity rules... a protest issue for the admin's to handle, and not a game umpire responsiblity. And, disallow any such protest to be filed after the contest is completed.
Let the game umpires only deal with uniform issues that actually affect the game (such as distracting items on the pitcher's arm, etc.)
JMO.