[reccer]

Kicking butt against one of those 18U college exposure teams with paid for ex college players as coaches. They decided to pencil whip me in the final moments of the game claiming illegal substitution rules and that myself and (most importantly) my stud pitcher should be ejected.

I had ten players in the line-up and had properly noted a DP and a flex. The DP always batted and the flex was always on defense. The DP was indicated in the 2 hole on the line-up and was also my pitcher. The 6 hole in my batting order never played on defense, and it was everyone else's opinion that my line-up had incorrectly identified the DP (they say it should have been 6 hole) and that I and my illegal player (in position #2) should be ejected.

I of course told them any 10 of those players on my lineup could play defense. If I didn't want the 6 hole hitter to play defense that was my prerogative. The only defensive requirement was that my flex had to play.

My game was held up 45 minutes because neither the opposing coaches nor the two umps on the field nor the (approximately 6) other umps who joined in the discussion understood the dp/flex rule. I was told (by the umps) that 1) the DP and flex could not play defense at the same time and 2) the DP could never play defense. The latter point was made by an older Blue who I suspect was dredging up an old rule that has since been modified.

Anyway, the UIC was umpiring a game and was not able to straighten out the mess till his game was over. So, here is my question for you UIC's. I'm sure sometimes you are pressed into game service, but don't you have some type of mechanism in place so that you can stop your game and rule on the other game so the tourney can continue moving forward?

This morning I printed out all of Emily's cactusumpires.com lineup management sheets that discuss dp/flex. Please continue to go over flex/dp at your clinics. Umps in central Texas do not understand it.