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Illegal Pitch?
I'm with all the other guys on this subject. While the rules state no foreign substance will be applied, resin is a legal substance on the field, to be overseen by the umpire. The intent of the resin is to dry the hand. Apparently the governing bodies in all the associations decided the resin can't affect the performance of the pitch. The only time I would demand the hand be wiped is if I saw a pitcher use the old Charlie Hough trick, where he applied so much resin on the ball, it came out of a cloud of resin, preventing the batter from picking up the ball as quickly. I'd call an illegal pitch then and talk to the coach about it and then discuss it with the pitcher. I think the meeting by these girls was just a ritual that they had and any effect on the ball was minimum. I also agree that if both blues called it on the same pitch, someone alerted them to it and they reacted to that more than the pitch itself. Smart coach, snookered blues, part of the game. I would bet you a coke though, that call was discussed the rest of the day at the tournament by the blues in between games.
I was at the PONY Nationals 2 weeks ago, calling the Palomino group ( 18-U ). A pitcher was using the resin bag and then going striaght to the ball. My partner, the BU, talked to her and the catcher. When the catcher came back, I asked her what that was all about. She told me. My partner and I discussed this in between the next several 1/2 innings, like you do on calls and rules. No arguiing, just pros and cons of the interpretation of the rule. He came from San Antonio, where a lot of the blues do call this an IP. After the game, he talked to some other blues, as did I, and he finally decided it MIGHT NOT be an IP. I think you have to look at the intent of the rule ie. no vaseline, spit etc. I don't believe the rule was meant to outlaw a substance on the ball that is actually declared legal to use in the 3 organizations I call for, PONY, ASA and NFHS
Rick
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Rick
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