Ground rules (long)

[bigwes68]

Was calling American Legion tonight at a field I have worked at several times over the last couple of years, first game this year. It was already pretty quirky with several random areas of DBT, some holes in the fence and dimensions of 354 to left, 370+ to center and 220 to right -- yes, 220 -- with a 40-foot high fence. Seriously, when I'm on the bases in A, I'm closer to the fence than I am to home plate.

But they have completely gone nuts this year. For one, they have strung about a 10-foot tall section of netting from one light pole that is in DBT to another one that is in play down the right field line. The net begins about 25 feet off the ground, leaving plenty of room to run under it. I guess the supposed purpose was to protect the parking lot from foul balls, but it didn't do a very good job of it tonight. But the net, as I said, extends into live ball territory and a ball could easily go over the net but still drop down into foul territory where a player could still catch it (didn't happen tonight, but very possible). Should we consider this a live ball if it goes over and doesn't touch the net, or should we consider the net to be DBT altogether? Obviously, if it hits the net, we've got a dead ball, but if not...?

The other interesting thing, they have attempted to put a manual scoreboard together in centerfield (which, of course, wasn't operating tonight -- or any other scoreboard, for that matter). It's almost directly in the batter's eye, and it extends about twice the height of the normal fence. The home team was arguing that since the fence all around it was the same height, if it hit on the wall above where the fence WOULD be, it should be a home run. But we argued that since there was no line drawn on the wall, it would have to clear the wall to be a home run. There were also about 40 baseball-sized holes in that wall that a ball could have gone through; home run or ground rule double?

Hopefully they'll have all that fixed the next time I go there; the home team wasn't happy with the city who runs the park because it was not quite up to playing shape yet. In fact, they had to move a game on Monday night because the city had left a tractor parked in the middle of the field and there was no way to move it.

[Macaroo]

Whatever is decided at the plate meeting will be the ground rules. If the home manager doesn't provide the criteria for DBT, ground rule doubles and home runs (or if the visiting coach argues), then the PU will decide what HE deems to be sensible. As long as they don't go against baseball rules (like my favorite attempt at a ground rule triple), just go with what everyone agrees to.

I would expect a ball that goes through a hole in the wall below the HR level wouold be a ground rule double, just like if it bounced over the fence, or rolled under the fence.