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Batting out of order
Today's Mariner-Blue Jay game: Bottom of second inning. Due up for Jays -- Hill, Overbay, Zaun. Overbay leads off instead of Hill and flies out. (One out) Hill then bats and doubles. Mariners now appeal improper batter.
According to the reports I have read, umpires called Hill out (two outs), and Zaun then came up to bat and struck out. (Three outs) The Associated Press report erroneously claims that Overbay then batted ahead of Hill for the remainder of the game. Not true. My interpretation of the "batting-out-of-order" rule (6.07): Overbay was an improper batter. When a pitch was thrown to Hill, Overbay's at bat was legalized and the next proper batter was Zaun. So now Hill is the improper batter. When the Mariners timely appealed Hill's improper at bat, the umpire should have called the "proper batter", i.e. Zaun, out. The next batter should have been McDonald, who followed Zaun in the lineup. Why is this rule so confusing to umpires? |
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Why is this rule so confusing to umpires?
I thought maybe these umps were fresh from Fed or ASA, which handle BOO differently. Except that in the case you describe, the ruling would be the same: Overbay made legal on the pitch to Hill, Zaun thus the proper batter. On the appeal, Zaun out, Hill taken off base, and McDonald the next batter. If the umps actually ruled the way you say they did, it's an inexcusable lack of knowledge of the rule.
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greymule More whiskey—and fresh horses for my men! Roll Tide! |
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Umpires make mistakes all the time - even on applications. (Remember the 1st and 3rd, fly ball, appeal play, that caused the umpires to put a run back up on the board later in the game?) Yet, major league players, batting out of order, is much more rare. David Emerling Memphis, TN |
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BTW, it was the second time in 18 years that the Blue Jays committed that mistake (BOO). It happened to me a few weeks ago for the first time im my five years of umpiring experience. |
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How can you get to the Major Leagues and not know how to handle BOO? And four guys unable to get a BOO call right?
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greymule More whiskey—and fresh horses for my men! Roll Tide! |
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There are certainly other factors. Personality ... politics ... friends in high places ... game management skills ... etc. David Emerling Memphis, TN |
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Was this an error by the umpires, or by the official scorer and the Blue Jays?
The MLB Gameday report for the bottom of the second has this reported as a ground out by Hill to the catcher. Of course, it should have been recorded as a putout of Zaun by the catcher. The next batter, as we all know, should be McDonald. Would the umpires tell Toronto who to send to the plate next, or do they remain silent to the fact that Toronto is still BOO? |
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Would the umpires tell Toronto who to send to the plate next?
If they called Hill out instead of Zaun, I'm not sure I'd trust their judgment as to the proper batter. There's a question for you. The umpires erroneously inform the offense that Abel is the proper batter, and then the defense appeals after Abel hits a home run. "Another nice mess."
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greymule More whiskey—and fresh horses for my men! Roll Tide! |
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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. |
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The BOO rule is about as simple as it can be.
Except that different codes handle it differently. Fed differs from OBR, for example. What code does your association operate under?
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greymule More whiskey—and fresh horses for my men! Roll Tide! |
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Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
ASA - Batting out of Order | David Emerling | Softball | 31 | Fri May 05, 2006 04:30pm |
batting out of order | scyguy | Baseball | 10 | Sun May 08, 2005 08:28pm |
"Another" Batting Out Of Order | rj | Softball | 6 | Thu May 05, 2005 08:01pm |
Batting Order | rwest | Softball | 25 | Fri Feb 25, 2005 04:05pm |
Batting out of order | Bdogg | Softball | 3 | Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:41pm |