DH batting requirements
 

This situation came up recently in an upper level men's league using OBR rules. The question is related to the DH and his requirement to bat once in the game. Under OBR 6.10b it says that the DH "... must come to bat at least one time, unless the opposing club changes pitchers".

Before the DH bats once is it legal for the pitcher to bat thereby removing the DH position and player from the line-up? There was no issue with illness or injury to the DH. The coach inserted a player's name as the DH assuming that the player he wanted to DH would arrive in time to bat not knowing that the starting DH had to bat one time.

I'm curious to see your responses.

Ed

If this were my game I'd let the managers work it out.

In strict observence of OBR, the DH must bat at least once unless the opponent changes F1. However, according to J/R, "the rules do not provide penalization for... a pinch hitter batting for the DH the first time the DH slot comes up."
The suggested approach to this is to basically follow the FED penalization of an illegal sub, with the player for whom the illegal sub batted is replaced in the lineup.

But... I agree with mbyron... let the league and managers work it out.

Learning something new
 

I know that my experience is just with Little League managers, but I don't think I'd ever in a protestable situation let the managers work it out.

How does this work at higher levels? Do you call them together and explain what you're doing? Listen in on their conversation? Do they always agree, or do you get protests with this game management technique? Does it matter if the solution they work out is actually legal?

I guess I was thinking of summer ball, with everyone pretty casual about lineups and such. Around here we have dozens of summer leagues, each with their own little rule tweaks - we usually let them police those rules.

Somebody comes late, just add him to the lineup. Some leagues bat everyone who shows up that game. I don't really care, as long as they're agreed.

Lil, the scope for these "solutions" is rather narrow, and of course I wouldn't allow it for something significant.

In this league they are supposed to play pretty much straight OBR rules with the only real deviation being the NCAA slide or avoid rule. It is definitely not a laid back league as it is pretty competitive. Sometimes "working it out" with the managers is having the umpires deciding on the outcome versus the managers agreeing.

In this example, we allowed the DH to be replaced at the plate by the starting pitcher but I was not sure if that was really correct or not. The defensive team did not like the decision but did not push the issue too hard. I was just hoping to get everyone's take on whether our ruling was correct or not.

Ed

Sure, they didn't like it, but what would they rather have? The DH in the line-up wasn't at the game, so it's pretty hard to "force" him to bat.

The rule was put in place because managers would list yesterday's pitcher as the DH and then substitute him with a different hitter depending on the situation when the DH was first supposed to bat.