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My favorite local rule blow up:
Rules stated that teams would use CBO and free substitution at all positions other than pitcher. I informed the league beforehand of the potential issues, and was ignored.
Late in the season, the president of the league is coaching one of the teams. His big power-hitting but slow-as-molasses catcher gets a double and is the potential winning run late in a game. Without even coming out of the dugout, he sends Speedy McWheels out there to be the Courtesy Runner.
Me: Sorry coach - no can do.
Coach/Pres: But the rules say I can send in a runner for my catcher.
Me: Yes, you can - but it has to be someone not in the lineup.
Coach/Pres: That's not what I intended when I put the rule in.
Me: Sorry ... the rule as written does not mention anything about allowing players IN the lineup to be used as CR's.
Coach/Pres: But we didn't mean to eliminate CR's when we wrote that - we just wanted everyone to bat.
Me: Sorry. Get the catcher back out there and lets play.
He eventually got himself tossed. And slowpoke didn't score on the next girl's hit, which was, of course, followed by the 3rd out. They lost in extra innings.
Just another example of a local rule not thought out correctly (and a little worse, since this EXACT situation is one of the ones I pointed out when I mentioned that the local rule didn't cover everything it needed to cover.)
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"Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile." - Hall of Fame Pitcher Christy Mathewson
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