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I thought I had made my last shot at this issue, but it keeps coming back. I looked in BRD last night. Let's see if I've got this right. If the defense does not initiate a time out and the coach completes his talk with the pitcher without delaying the game further, then
1) LL - no charged trip
2) FED - no charged trip
3) NCAA - charged trip
4) PRO - charged trip
What three of you seem to be advocating is that in youth league games above LL but below NCAA (I assume this includes HS Varsity games) that the LL, FED rule/interpretation should be used even if the league is using PRO.
In my opinion, you only get into trouble by departing from the rules of your league, unless you have gotten agreement of the coaches and have explained and written up the change. Let me give you an example:
Last year, the president of our board declared that we would allow change of direction (NCAA) in our high school leagues which play PRO rules. (The previous year we had also allowed change of direction, but some umpires continued to require a stop.) The feeling was that if we played the PRO rule, we'd be calling too many balks and these athletes were more likely to be preparing for college play than pro ball. Coaches were not informed directly, although some found out about it indirectly. One of our umpires called me to tell me that a HS varsity coach "went ballistic" when he didn't call a balk on a pitcher who didn't stop, but only changed direction. When he explained to the coach that we were enforcing the NCAA rule, the coach argued that we had no right to change the rules. I had the same coach the next week and he informed me that if I didn't call a balk when the pitcher didn't stop, he would protest the game. Fortunately, it didn't come up, so no protest.
As you can probably guess, I argued at our executive board before the season that we should play the PRO rule. The reason I bring this up is because I believe that if you are playing PRO rules then any changes from those have to be clear to all umpires and coaches. In our leagues, we depart from PRO rules in many ways (DH for non-pitcher, force-play slide rule, collision rule, re-entry rules, etc.), but umpires and coaches are well-informed of these. I think it is always a mistake to make interpretations on the field that are opinions of how things should be done (even when justifiable) when they go against common practice and the rule book interpretations. What can happen is that umpires at different games give different interpretations for the same situation.
Here's a suggestion: When taking a position that is not standard practice and not spelled out in the rules (see the post that began this thread), why not make it clear that it is your opinion, you think it should be done that way, that's how you'd rule on the field, BUT include that it is not standard practice at this time. (That last part would be very helpful for those who read the thread. When respected authorities write about how a situation should be handled, it may lead others to believe it is standard practice. If that's not the case, it should be made clear.)
[Edited by Alan G on Sep 29th, 2000 at 10:03 AM]
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