Pitching Arm
 

In my league the coaches always complain to the umpire that the pitcher is wearing a batting glove on his glove hand, and ask the umpire to get him to take it off. The umpire always complies and gets him to remove the glove. Is this the right call? I've looked all throughout the Official Baseball Rulebook and have found nothing regarding some batting glove rule. And what about if the pitcher is wearing an arm band? Can the coach request this to come off? Again nothing about it in the Official Rules.

What color are they?

The batting glove had some white on it, but mostly black. Heck maybe even a bit of yellow. The arm band had mostly black, probably a bit of white.

FED 1-4-2

ART. 2... For individual players, uniform sleeve lengths may vary. However, sleeves of each individual player shall be approximately the same length and shall not be ragged, frayed or slit. If the pitcher's undershirt sleeves are exposed, they shall not be white or gray. A pitcher shall not wear any item on his hands, wrists or arms which may be distracting to the batter.

It's usually up to the discretion of the umpire. Batting gloves and arm bands are not per se illegal, just a judgment call under 1-4-2 if it is distracting.

My technique for that stuff is (OBR) to let it go until the coach complains, then ask the pitcher to take it off.

By rule, unless the umpire feels it's distracting, F1 doesn't have to take it off. So i take that to mean, if the coach b*tches, i'll take care of it unless it's something totally trivial.

It's not bad preventive officiating to get him to remove it in warmups...you don't want to get into a pi$$ing contest with the coach to determine what is distracting or not. I agree with you...when I coached I told my kids to get up there and hit the ball...and we won lots and lots of games...not sure a batting glove under a glove would be much of a distraction...but you're right it comes up all the time!

Rules differ so there probably isn't a definitive answer.

Batting Gloves:

OBR: Can't wear one.

LL: Can wear if it is not white, gray, or optic yellow.

FED: Can't be distracting

NCAA: Cannot wear.

Wrist bands:

LL, OBR - cannot wear

FED, NCAA - can't be distracting

Could you point me to a rule reference for batting gloves and wrist
bands being illegal under OBR rules? I've got in my OBR book, under rule 1.11 a(2): Any part of an undershirt exposed to view shall be of a uniform solid colour for all players on a team. Any player other than the pitcher may have numbers, letters, insignia attached to the sleeve of the undershirt.

This rule states that it is illegal for the pitcher to have anything on his sleeve, but it doesn't make specific reference to arm bands or batting gloves, or any other apparel that may be worn. Maybe I'm applying the rules a bit too word for word and should just go with what the intent of the rule is, which is to keep the pitcher from distracting the batter, but my philosophy is for the most part to go with exactly what the rulebook says.

You need more than just the rule book. You need the interpretations manuals and chronicles also.

MLBUM: 2.10 PLAYERS WEARING GOLF GLOVES
A pitcher is not allowed to wear a golf glove while pitching. Other defensive players may wear a golf glove on their glove hand but they shall not rub the ball with the golf glove on their hand.

2.13 WRISTBANDS
No player is permitted to wear white wrist bands or bandages because of the difficulty in discerning the white of the baseball and the white of the wrist band. Colored bands are permitted, but a white band with a colored stripe is still considered a white band and is prohibited.

PBUC: 1.22 BATTING GLOVES
No pitcher shall be allowed to wear a batting glove while pitching. Other defensive players may wear a batting glove on their glove hand but they shall not rub the ball with the batting glove on their hand.

LL: 1.11(a)(3): A pitcher shall not wear any item on his/her hands, wrists or arms which may be distracting to the batter.

There are similar interpretations in other rules sets.

What if the color of the armband, wrist band or batting glove clashes terribly with the colors on the uniform? Should we not demand color coordination of some kind here?? To me, an off shade of fuscia when the uniform itself is a dull mauve is terribly distracting.

I get rid of wrist bands on pitchers before they pitch. If the gloves are not distracting I ignore until someone complains. I always ask "is the glove distracting you?"