[NCASAUmp]

Mike, I'll agree with you to a point. The ASA rules, as written, are without a doubt very wordy and border on "legalese." The first few times I read the book, I honestly got very little information from it with regards to the rules (granted, I was 15, but I was pretty sharp back then - don't know what happened since...). There's almost no "flow" in the reading of the rules, which is where two things happen: umpires give up and simply glace through it, and coaches, thinking they understand it, give us umpires hell.

Case and point: after I called ASA rules for 2 years for one league, another org needed my help. This new organization used USSSA rules, back when it was still only Slo-Pitch (say around... 1995). The USSSA rules had a MUCH better flow to them, and I was able to get through the book with ease and comprehension. After reading the USSSA rules, I suddenly realized just what was going on - what you could do, what you couldn't do, and what the penalties were (since at the time, they were roughly the same, but worded only slightly differently). When I went back to calling leagues with ASA rules ('96), I went through the book again, and the picture was much clearer, though the waters were still murky. Even now, 14 and a half years after I called my first strike, I'm still finding that I am occasionally wrong.

A couple years ago, ASA went through and redid the majority of Rule 1. While I'm sure the ratification of the changes was no easy matter, I think the same thing can be done with the rest of the book to better lay out the rules for ALL to read and comprehend, not just those who are fortunate enough to attend a clinic or attend a Big Ten university.

If we fail to make the bulk of the rules crystal clear, we create problems for umpires who either can't understand a wordy rulebook, or are faced with coaches with the same problem. Let's not forget where the bulk of our umpires start out: in the small leagues where the only training available to them without driving 3 hours to a clinic is the rule book. Sad, but true.