I'll start.

A league in this area for 12 & under allows lead-offs, but the runners cannot steal until the ball crosses the plate.

Two. 1. Not having a mercy rule & 2.Courtesy runner. Most of the time it takes longer to get the dam kid out of the dugout than to actually play. I call it the slow down rule, they call it a speed up rule????

13 - 15 year old summer league, including some freshman who played Varsity ball in the Spring.

Rule: Every team member must bat. Twelve or thirteen or fourteen offensive players. Average At Bats per Game per Player = 2.

Yuck.

My pet peeve is the "No inning shall start with less than 5 minutes on the clock" or similar rules.

If you want to freaking play 85 minutes, call it 85 minutes - don't call it 90 minutes, except for the last 5.

My other favorite (since fixed) was a rule that 8U gets 1 base on an overthrow... without defining overthrow. I can't tell you how many different ways that was called by different umpires.

Two: 10 and Under league, both involving pitchers:
1) After 4 walks in the inning by the defensive team, there shall be no more walks issued for the remainder of that half-inning.
2) If one pitcher hits two batters with a pitch during the course of the game, that pitcher must be replaced immediately.

The first rule happens fairly often and usually causes the game to only slow down rather than speed up because the team batting cannot score any runs (thus not helping for 10 run rule).

I was doing a playoff game a couple years ago and had #2 happen to the best pitcher Team A had on the first two batters--they ended up getting smoked.

I will turn this question around a little by mentioning a rule that if missing, is the dumbest thing I ever heard, and that is malicious contact. I have seen 10 year olds doing the "Pete Rose into Ray Fosse at the plate" with no rule to prohibit.

"No player may be within 15 feet of the plate at the time of the pitch."

When I mentioned that this might make it hard for the batter to actually hit the ball, it was changed to "No fielder may be within 15 feet...." Um, what about the catcher?

How about this ? (verbatim from the league rules):

"4.6. There shall be no arguments over any umpire decision. Rule interpretation questions may be discussed with the umpire between innings provided both managers agree to talk to the umpire. In the event that both
managers do not agree, the matter shall not be discussed with the umpire. Regardless of the discussion, the
original call shall stand. Under no circumstances shall there be any discussion of a judgment call. The
express purpose of this rule is to help educate the managers and umpires as to the Rules and to avoid umpire
abuse or harassment."

I also think akalsey has a very strong contender.

JM

Actually I've seen some youth leagues where this rule would be a good addition. :D

Dumb Local Rules
 

I've got three:

1. Rec league has ten run slaughter rule except that the coach of the losing team can opt out of the rule (i.e., can keep playing).

2. A kid's rec league has a five run limit each inning except the first and last inning.

3. A league with a rule similar to #2 has another rule that if a team had baserunners when the five run rule stopped play, that team starts its next inning with those same baserunners on base.

A lot of stupid, poorly thought-out rules come from league officials who (1) don't know baseball very well, or (2) are obsessed about "fairness," or (3) worry that a kid can't handle the stress of losing or (4) worry that kid might find out that someone is better at something than he is, or (5) any combination or all of the above.

They try to turn "equal opportunity" into "equal outcome."

There may not be a malicious contact rule but I can't imagine a league not having an unsportsmanlike conduct rule, which is actually better than a malicious contact rule.

If you run a player under a malicious contact rule, you must make a judgment as to his state of mind. (Think about it. You eject a player for malicious contact and you've got Sparky coming from the third base box or out of the dugout telling you what a nice kid he is, he wouldn't hurt a fly, he's only a freshman, it's the first game of the year, etc. Has that ever NOT happened?)

Run the same kid for the same thing under an unsportsmanlike conduct rule and you don't have to worry about his state of mind. You run him for his act -- taking out the catcher -- and don't worry about whether he was clumsy or trying to hurt the catcher or knock the ball loose or just didn't want to listen to his teammates call him a candya$$ for giving himself up. "Sparky, he took out the catcher and you can't do that. I don't know why he did it. You take care of that part."

Duh
 

Four fouls and you are out. Oh yeah, this is not really a rule. I observed the following conversation in in the dugout of a high school game last night.

Clueless player #1: Hey, he's out. That's four fouls.

At this point, I thought I will let this go because surely one of our smarter kids knows the rules.

Clueless player #2: That is only in softball.

I know there are a lot of rule myths out there, but I never thought this one needed to be explained.

Re: Duh
 

How about "He was half-way to third he should get home". This came from a UNIVERSITY coach on a passed ball that went out of play. Ahhh Canada eh!

ChapJim-

The only rule that you listed that has a shred of credibility is the 5 run per inning rule. This rule is in place for the 9-10 yr old league we have in our area where the kids pitch the whole game for the first time. If we didn't have that, there would be a walk merry-go-round and the game would be 4 hrs.

Although above 10 yr olds, i do not condone this rule in any way, shape, or form.

Local rules are made by fools.

Bob

Seven year-old local league, where my son plays, using
Juggs-type pitching machine. Batter gets 7 pitches to put
it into play. If batted ball strikes pitching machine, batter
re-starts his entire count! So it is punishing the defense
because the batter hit the machine. There was a movement to
ammend the rule to make it a deadball/no pitch, but it failed.
Park board reasoned that they know better than the coaches.

In the local "learning to pitch" 7-9 year old league, the strike zone is ankles to shoulders and 6 inches on either side of the plate. The width of this zone means that a baseball called for an inside strike could be almost three feet from a ball called for an outside strike. And since men are going to tend to overestimate 6 inches :) the actual called strike zone is likely to be even wider than that.

Since most pitches at this age have an exaggerated arc, having the ankles be the bottom of the zone means that pitches that land near the front edge of the plate are often technically strikes.

Correction...
 

To Bluezebra....
I would amend that to say

"Local rules are made by local fools."

FED has proven that there have been a couple of non-local rules made by non-local fools.

A long time ago I was league president in a league that used a pitching machine at the 7-8 year old group. We ruled a dead ball single when a batter hit a ball that struck the pitching machine.