Catch off dougout or backstop ground rule?

[LilLeaguer]

Originally Posted by CoachJM

tskill,

Good job! Ain't "ground rules" fun?

FWIW, here's the relevant rule from OBR (FED & NCAA do not materially differ):

I say "Good job!" because if you had accepted the Home team coach's ridiculous "ground rule", it would have been "...in conflict with the official playing rules."

Normally, ground rules dictate what is and is not considered "dead ball territory" due to the peculiarities of the venue at which the game is being played. If you ever hear anything else being suggested as a "ground rule", I would encourage you to have your BS-detector set on "high". Ultimately, the UIC has the final say.

(MLB has the ground rules for each of the MLB parks published on their website, in case you didn't already know.)

JM

Curious ground rules, though. At Safeco Field, for example, balls that hit a roof truss in fair territory can still be caught for an out.

I think that this ground rule is permitted when a ball hits a suspended object in fair territory; I don't think that a ground rule could make such a ruling for anything in foul territory, or a "fixed" object like Fenway's Green Monster.

Does anybody know the latitude that ground rules can take in this area?