Quote:
Originally Posted by NCASAUmp
Absolutely not. I think you have too much faith in the players and coaches. Giving them an abridged version of the rule book won't do anyone any kind of service, and here's why.
1 - Coaches and players love to pick and choose rules and take them out of context. At a National, I had couple of players b1tching at me because a couple of batters hit chip shots to the outfield without "breaking their wrists." I later found out that they were using Rules Supplement #10, which has to do with check swings!
2 - There are certain sections of the rule book that are pretty long because they have to be. Do you really want to try and abridge obstruction? Or interference? How about unreported subs? I don't think so.
3 - If you give players and coaches such a book, they're going to use it as THE authoritative guide on the rules of softball. They will ignore the fact that it's the abridged version. They will swear up and down "this is the rule! I read it! I read the rules!" No, you read the abridged rules, and had you bothered to read the ACTUAL rules, maybe you would understand that.
You're giving coaches and players WAY too much credit. Trust me, while your intentions may be good, I think abridging it would only serve to confuse things even more.
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dont let anyone else hear you say that, very few posters on here show me any respect, you dont want to lower your street cred.
i was more talking about the casual SP rec league player, most of whom never even sniffed a varsity baseball jock (ie "high" level of baseball) thus dont know many rules.
if/when you ump a rec league SP game, how many times do you see a 1B or C stand in the baseline w/o possession of the ball???? i see it ALL THE TIME, theres no harm, IMO, in writing something like "obstruction is any act in which a fielder interferes with a runner, being in the baseline without possession of the ball is a form of obstruction. contact is not necessary for obstruction."
no point in beating a dead horse. obviously no one knows of any concise rule book versions. but at least you, NCASAUMP, handle yourself with class and can maintain a discussion without turning petty.
EDIT: this cliffs notes version would not be geared to players who know what RS 10 is, or who would have any idea on how to argue a check swing. more to inform players of, generally speaking, what is and is not allowed. This makes sense to me in my head, im not sure if im not writing it well enough that everyone else doesnt understand what im trying to say.