Batting out of order

[ptman]

An interesting question here is whether the official scoring of the game will be changed to reflect that Zaun actually made two outs in a 1-2-3 inning. I wonder if that is a first in MLB. I know it is not a first in organized sports.

This past season, my daughter struck out in a softball game. As she was walking back to the bench, her teammates told her it was only two strikes, not three. She returned to the plate and the next pitch was a strike. She turned again to go to the bench and the umpire asked where she was going. When she explained, the umpires conferred and called her out for batting out of order. Their rationale: her first at bat resulted in a strike out. When she returned for one more pitch, she was batting out of order and therefore was out again. The umpires did not know that the incorrect batter could be replaced by the correct batter before the end of the at bat. (I wasn't there, fortunately, so I couldn't embarass my daughter by "helping" the umpires with the rules.)

Believe it or not, this mistake occurs repeatedly at these lower levels. For the situations we have been talking about in this post, the rules in MLB and Federation (baseball and softball) are the same. There are some minor differences regarding when an appeal is too late. But under all these rules, the proper batter can always be inserted before the end of the at-bat, and the proper batter is always the one put out when a timely appeal is made. We need to do a better job educating the brethren on this.

In my association, the interpreter always makes a dramatic presentation on the BOO rule. Each year he says that we all should get down on our knees and pray before each game that BOO does not occur. He claims it is a most confusing rule. I am convinced that he has successfully persuaded 75% or more of our members that they cannot understand the rule. That perception has thus become reality. I am clueless why he does this.

The BOO rule is about as simple as it can be. Call the "proper batter" out when a timely appeal is made, and get the next batter who follows the proper batter to the plate.