Application of 9.01(c)

[His High Holiness]

Originally posted by Kaliix
In the Koufax league games that I have been doing lately (and even at the high school level) I have continually have the first batter of an inning come up to the edge of the dirt area around home plate and stand there trying to time the opposing pitchers pitches.

There is a rule about this in FED, but it is not covered in OBR. I routinely send them back to the on-deck circle. I believe it is something I am allowed to do under 9.01(c).

When a coach asks why, I give them one or all of the following reasons:

1)It gives an advantage to the offense.
2)In upper levels of baseball, it can buy you a ball up and in, if not at you.
3)Pitchers can be wild.
4)It's not allowed in High School anyways.

And honestly, I think it's considered kinda bush league.

Here is the best reason:

I don't have all of the specifics so hopefully someone else will chime in and complete the details. Several years ago, an NCAA player was doing exactly what you describe. The pitcher took offense to this and drilled him DURING WARMUPS!

The player was so seriously hurt that it ended his career. He was consiered a hot MLB prospect and the school, the pitcher, the conference, and the umpires were sued. I don't know the results of the suit but NCAA umpires now are strictly instructed to keep on deck batters in the on deck circle on their side of the field.

Peter

[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by akalsey

How about some discussion on when to invoke 9.01(c)?

The view of some umps (on this board and elsewhere) seems to be that 9.01(c) is there so that when something happens in a game that they don't like, they can impose a penalty of some sort.

My viewpoint is that 9.01(c) is there to allow the ump to provide a ruling on those one in a million occurances that are not covered by the rulebook.

First off the OBR rule-book was written SPECIFIC for Professional Athletes, not Amateurs. MLB allows us to use THEIR rules, therefore, in an Amateur Game played by OBR, the umpire might resort to using 9.01(c) because there are some things in the amateur game which are not covered in the PRO Game, ie; Safety caveats; on deck protocol;

Here's a perfect example:

R1 steals second base. F4/F6 yells FOUL ball, where R1 retreats back to first base and is subsequently tagged out. What's the ruling.

In Strict OBR, the runner would be out. In FED, we would have Verbal Obstruction on F4/F6 and R1 would be awarded second. Now we get to amateur baseball using OBR rules. The Umpire if they went by the STRICT rule would let the out stand, however, since this is amateur baseball, he/she could invoke 9.01(c) and keep R1 at first or R1 at second. He/she could NOT rule Obstruction because in an OBR based game according to the authorities there is no such animal as Verbal obstruction.

There are other examples where an umpire could invoke 9.01(c) like what happens when an umpire reverses his/her call and it adversely effects either the offense / defense. Again this is NOT Specifically covered in OBR, but is Covered in FED rules.

Therefore, to sum up as mentioned the OBR rule-book was written for a DIFFERENT game then most of us at least myself are used to calling, so trying to apply those rules to the amateur game is sometimes difficult and therefore, 9.01(c) is used more often.

Pete Booth

[Kaliix]

Peter,
While I typically don't use that as a reason when talking to the coach, I have used that story when answering specific players questions as to why I don't allow it.

A coach just the other day heard my recounting that story to his player after I sent him to the on-deck circle and he remembered the story as well. He couldn't remember the particulars either.

[tornado]

Ben Christensen hit Anthony Molina in a college game involving Wichita State and Evansville in 1999. Christensen settled a lawsuit with Molina a couple of years ago. Christensen has since hurt his arm and is out of baseball. He had had a $1,000,000 signing bonus from the Cubs. Hopefully Molina got a big chunk of it!

[Dave Hensley]

Originally posted by His High Holiness

Here is the best reason:

(snip)

Here's an even better reason:

"Because I said so, Bubba."

[GarthB]

Here's an even better reason:

"Because I said so, Bubba."

Which, if I'm not mistaken, is Texan for 9.01(c).