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Bad Ball
I had something come up last night in a high school game. I've never had this issue come up before. I'll admit right from the start that I made a mistake so you don't have to say it. What I want to know is what I should have done about it, if anything.
HS ball around here is played with a particular brand of baseballs. During one of my many requests for game balls (I ran out numerous times because the home team was slow to replace foul balls) the Home coach threw a ball to his F1 that I did not inspect (the mistake I was talking about). I do not know exactly when this ball was thrown in (no one else did either). The ball turned out to be a different brand of ball. The Visiting coach discovered the ball between innings. He came to me (I had the plate obviously) and showed it to me, gave me a little crap, and then asked me what I was going to do about it.
I told him that I had made a mistake not to inspect the ball prior to it being used. I told him that I didn't know when the ball first entered play (he didn't either) but since we were going to be starting a new inning I thought that each team had probably played with the 'bad' ball but I had no way of knowing for sure. I conferenced with my partner and asked him what he would have done... He had no clue either! I took it out of the game and informed the Home coach that all baseballs had to come through me from then on....
So my question is...... "How should I have handled this situation?"
PS: Visiting team won in the 8th inning.
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