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First, to set the stage. Rec league, girls 14U fast pitch. I have called games for this leage for quite a while, and it is a very relaxed, have fun league, with the top teams being good enough to play "B" travel and even contend for tournament championships & the bottom teams pure rec. All that to say this: quality of play ranges from pretty good, to fairly awful, but the atmosphere at the games is a lot of good times by all. So, I was blind-sided by what happened.
Regular league game (evening double header). Pitcher for the home team goes out for her warmups with what is apparently one of the "team" balls, instead of the game balls her coach has given me. I let it ride, rec league & all.
The first batter fouls the ball out of play after a couple of pitches. I throw in one of the balls out of my bag. A few pitches later, a fan tosses in her original ball to me & I just bag it without looking too close (won't make that mistake again). Pitcher requests the original ball. I, thinking maybe there was something wrong with the game ball I tossed in, accomodate her. Nothing is wrong with the ball she returns. A couple of batters later, it is fouled out of play again. I toss in a game ball. When the fouled out ball is tossed back to me, she again asked to exchange balls. I, now suspicous (I may be slow, but it does eventually sink in), refuse,saying I am not going to delay play exchanging balls - play ball.
At this inning break, I look closely at her favorite ball. It does not have hardly any markings left, but what is does say is "low compression." The league's official ball is the ASA .47 COR / 525 lbs compression ball (diamond ASA stamp). Assuming her ball used to be official ASA, it would have been the .47 COR / 375 lbs compression ball (round ASA stamp).
I tossed the ball out of the game, but said nothing to either the pitcher or her coach.
Question: should I have done something more aggressive? I am certain she knew exactly what she was doing. I was caught completely off-guard with this kind of behavior in this league.
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Tom
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