Thrown ball hits coach's bucket

[Fritz]

Originally Posted by Ran.D

Appreciate the responses, but I'm still unclear on how to handle, or how to address in the pre-game. To me the most reasonable option would be to treat hitting the bucket the same as the ball entering the dugout. A dead ball zone (if runners have to return to last base occupied) would award the defense for an error. I like the detached equipment idea though.

Well I do agree with Oz and Just that the buckets don't belong, I think there are more important issues that take priority. So that is why I let both coaches know up front what the penalty will be. And Ran, considering them as equipment instead of a dead ball zone allows you to penalize the team that left the equipment there rather than automatically awarding bases to the offense even if it was the offense's bucket that caused the problem.

[greymule]

In a situation at least tangentially related to thrown balls hitting a coach's bucket, I once saw a thrown bucket hit a coach's, well . . .

[danreeves1973]

The bucket issue was solved for me at a game Tuesday night where the offense lined a foul down first base to the dugout that nearly took the head of their own coach who was sitting on the bucket in the prescribed dead ball area. I asked if he was okay and he moved his bucket back inside the door of his own accord. Two batters later, another one drilled the same spot with a foul.

Coach was real jumpy after that.